The back-story behind what used to be an inside-baseball saying … that has crept into popular culture and now, even politics … after the jump ...
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Most sports fans know that the baseball position of shortstop is probably the most critical of that sport’s defensive positions: and thus, teams have historically been willing to tolerate a shortstop who is a poor hitter … if their defensive skills were notably above average. In my mis-spent youth, two examples were the NY Mets’ Bud Harrelson and the Baltimore Orioles’ Mark Belanger. (In more recent years that has changed, as teams need adequate hitting all around …. but that is a story for another day). Someone who fit that role was Mario Mendoza— a journeyman shortstop who played for all or part of nine seasons (from 1974-1982) with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. He was a lousy hitter, with a .215 lifetime batting average (successful in only 21.5% of his at-bats, a very poor average). In 1979 for Seattle: he played 148 out of a possible 162 games and batted only .198 — at the time, only the fourth Major League baseball player ever to play in that many games and bat less than .200 for the year. To be sure, he was a fine defensive shortstop — he would never have stayed around as long as he did, otherwise — but he was still a major liability offensively. Mendoza in the mid-70’sHe was certainly not as good defensively as the Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith— who was also a poor hitter early in his career (in his second year for San Diego he batted only .211) but improved steadily over the years, finishing with a .262 lifetime batting average to complement his truly unique defensive capabilities.
================================================================== But Mario Mendoza would simply be a forgotten figure … were it not for a twist-of-fate regarding his teammates, a celebrated batter for a different team, and finally ESPN. In 1980, two of Mario Mendoza’s teammates were Tom Paciorek and Bruce Bochte, who used to good-naturedly tease Mendoza about his poor hitting. And one of them coined the phrase that ensured Mario Mendoza’s immortality. ================================================================== This may not be so true anymore, but decades ago: big city newspapers had expanded baseball statistics in its Sunday sports section. So, instead of simply listing “Batting Leaders” — with, say, the top ten hitters in each league, listed from 1-10 (from top to bottom) as theyw ould in their daily newspaper — the Sunday paper would have a very large column with “Batting Averages”, listing every player in each league in a column (who had a minimum number of at-bats). Mario Mendoza was sure to be towards the bottom of the list — and one of his teammates coined the phrase The Mendoza Line— to see which players were below his name, where you sure did not want to be. Mario’s batting average over the years .. with the red ‘Mendoza Line’ today Still, that might have stayed as a team-only joke …. except for a second twist-of-fate. Early in the season, a celebrated batter for an opposing team was off to an (unusually) slow start, and Paciorek and Bochte started giving that player a hard time over it. This was future Hall of Famer George Brett— who won a World Series with the Kansas City Royals five years later in 1985 and (as general manager of the team) won the World Series just last year in 2015. What they said to him when Seattle played at Kansas City in 1980: “Hey man, you’re going to sink below the Mendoza Line if you’re not careful”. It might have stayed an inside joke: except George Brett — who dramatically turned around his season to finish with a .390 average, the best since 1941 (and still is, to this day) told reporters: “The first thing I look for in the Sunday papers … is who is below the Mendoza Line? And when George Brett told this to Chris Berman: the flamboyant ESPN host popularized the term by referring to it quite often — thus, a phrase entered baseball folklore forever (Brett added that Mendoza’s fielding had robbed him of several would-be hits). George Brett — early 90’sMario Mendoza left Major League baseball after the 1982 season, and had far more success returning to his native Mexico— where he had a career .291 batting average and was inducted into the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. He went on to manage several teams in both the US and Mexico before his retirement (he is now aged 65).
Later on, as a manager After the retirement of Mario Mendoza in the early 80’s the baseball world — no longer able to see his name in the batting statistics — now has redefined The Mendoza Line to be that of a .200 batting average …. which even experienced players (who get off to a slow start some seasons) can be below for two months. ================================================================== You can also hear it referenced on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, where reporter Jessica Mendoza has a behind-the-scenes report referred to as the Mendoza Line — quite a difference involving an in-the-booth female analyst. Now on Sunday Night Baseball Yet, yours truly would not have written this solely as a baseball story. The Mendoza Line has spread to the world of TV sitcoms, business … and presidential politics. Examples: =================================================================== * A Rolling Stone article (ranking all of the cast members of Saturday Night Live, both past and present) … saw the author amending the phrase to be the Joe Piscopo Line— the one that you don’t want to see your name below. * On the TV show “How I Met Your Mother” — a character explains the Vicky Mendoza Diagonal — which determines how attractive a girl must be in order for him to date her …... balanced-off against how "crazy" she is. * And in a recent profile of the late TV executive Garry Marshall— we learned that he always kept Mario Mendoza’s baseball card in his wallet. When asked why this very highly successful man of TV and film did so, he replied: "When I'm shooting a movie, I take the card out of my wallet and tell everybody, including myself ... that we gotta make sure not to drop below the Mendoza Line today." * Moving beyond popular culture: a 2011 business article in Barron’s noted: "The U.S. 10-year note yield declined below 2%... before moving back above the Mendoza Line (baseball lingo for a batting average of .200), to 2.09% by early afternoon." And now ……….. even politics: * Though I cannot locate it again: at least one pundit asked what minimum % of the popular vote will the Trumpster win, regardless of what he does …. calling it his own “Mendoza Line” * In discussing Bobby Jindal's chances of winning the 2016 Republican nomination for president, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight wrote: "If you can’t out-debate [George] Pataki, [Rick] Santorum and Lindsey Graham, that’s sort of the politics version of hitting below the Mendoza Line." * Finally, an analyst with the Christian Science Monitor three months ago wrote: The fundamentals indicate the GOP should win or come close in 2016. If it doesn’t, it will be because Trump has proved to be less like Babe Ruth or Ted Williams than like Mario Mendoza, a former Pittsburgh Pirate so far below replacement level that a modern player would have to bat less than a .200 average to be beneath the “Mendoza Line.” Let’s close with the song Lethal Temptress by a now-defunct indie rock band — from Athens, Georgia (the home of the B-52’s, R.E.M and Widespread Panic) — who took their name from tonight’s subject. x YouTube Video Now, on to Top Comments: -------------------------------------From this just in:
In the diary by subir about the GOP nominee’s history with inciting lynch mobs— anastasia p nails the essential contradiction of rightwingers.From Dragon 5616:
In the diary by TomP about a letter signed by 70 noted Republicans urging the RNC to shift its resources downballot— the best metaphor I've seen about the demise of the GOP is this one from bluinsc:And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by Walter Einenkel about the resignation of yet another scientist in the North Carolina government, due to meddling by Gov. McCrory’s administration — mojo11 uses a different word to describe whom McCrory really answers to.
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
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