Mendoza Line
.200 batting average
Example
He is getting real close to the Mendoza line
Yeah, he just might get benched!
Related Slang
| Baltimore Chop | Baseball hit that takes a large hop over an infielder |
| Meatball | Easy pitch to hit |
| Texas Leaguer | Weak fly ball hit to the outfield |
| Tater trot | Home run trot |
| Ace | Best starting pitcher |
| Southpaw | Left-handed pitcher |
| Can of corn | An easy catch by a fielder |
| avg | Batting average |
| SS | Shortstop |
Are you financially literate?
A baseball phrase that refers to SS Mario Mendoza whose batting average became the standard for competent hitting.
Through a clubhouse joke directed at his hitting woes, the phrase became popular with ESPN's Chris Berman and other analysts in the 1980s when describing how a player was hitting. If a player is hitting below the Mendoza line, he's not worth keeping in the lineup, no matter how great he is at defense. Although it's set at .200, Mendoza actually hit .215 over his career.