The Mendoza Line

If someone said that a baseball player who's minor league statistics for eight seasons were as follows: .239 batting batting average with 429 hits in 523 games, and is considered a living icon, one would have to find it hard to believe. Enter Mario Mendoza, he of the infamous Mendoza Line. Those minor league statistics are legit and he also had a nine year major league career to boot. Mendoza was a slick fielding infielder who, for better than half his career couldn't hit his own weight.

“'The Mendoza Line,' that's what I'm remembered for.”

Such is the case with Mexican born Mario Aizpuru Mendoza, who somehow lasted nine seasons with three different major league clubs, most notably the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1974 through 1978. He also played two years with the Mariners and two more with the Texas Rangers. His career batting average over the span of 686 games was an eye popping .215 in 1,337 times at bat. Mendoza belted four home runs and knocked in a total of 101 runs by the time he concluded his travels. During his nine professional seasons, he hit above .200 in four of them. His best offensive year was with Seattle in 1980 when he muscled out a career best .245 and, not coincidently, was the only year that his slugging percentage topped the .300 mark. It seems that he must have noticed the writing on the locker room wall when, in 1982 he had but two hits in seventeen at bats. He did manage one sacrifice bunt but also hit into a double play as well.

Born the day after Christmas, 1950 in Chihuahua, Mexico, Mendoza was a gifted athlete. He was given the nickname “Manos de Seda” or “Slick Hands” while playing for the Mexico City Reds in 1970. A scout in the Pirates organization spotted him and convinced the parent club to purchase his contract and he was sent to their Gulf Coast Rookie League. He made the Pirates opening day roster in the spring of 1974 and appeared in 91 games that season. He compiled .221 batting average in 163 at bats while playing shortstop with a .964 fielding average.

According to Bill James, one of the more respected authors on the subject of baseball, he considered Mendoza “a truly remarkable fielder.” Although he was primarily a back up infielder with the Pirates, he respond as a quality defensive replacement for Frank Taveras, a decent hitting, light fielding shortstop. With Taveras injured for game three of the 1974 NLCS, Mendoza got the start and contributed with an RBI in the win.

The one year that he was given the opportunity to play on a daily basis was in 1979, his first year with Seattle. He had 373 at bats and responded with a .198 batting average, which set a record for most games played for a sub .200 hitter. He did combine with Julio Cruz however to form a very dependable double play combo, and Total Baseball rated Mendoza as the #3 defender in major league baseball.

The Mendoza Line:

The figurative boundary in the batting averages between those batters hitting above .200 and those below.200. “When a struggling hitter pulls his average above .200, he has crossed the Mendoza Line”(Sports Illustrated, September 13, 1982.)

It was while with Seattle that he was honored with the distinction of creating a less than desirable situation with a players batting average. Teammates Tom Paciorek and Bruce Bochte are credited with coining the phrase “The Mendoza Line.”

Neither Paciorek or Bochte, assigned to the baseball hinterlands of the great northwest, would otherwise influence the nomenclature of the baseball world. It's pretty well understood that one or both of these two started using the term within the confines of the Mariner family, but it is believed that George Brett got wind of the term and started using it when describing his weekly scanning of the league batting averages in the Sunday paper to see who was below the “Mendoza Line.”

Shortly thereafter, Chris Berman of the “back back back” fame for ESPN Sports Center grabbed a hold of it and off it went like a cruise missile. Now it is as popular as “cool as the other side of the pillow.” The general public uses the “Mendoza Line” for just about everything these days. Its general translation equates to the least or most someone will take or accept as in “My Mendoza Line is 170 pounds” or "My Mendoza is 72 degrees, anything hotter than that and I'm outta here.” Unfortunately it doesn't appear that Mr. Mendoza was ever able able to capitalize on this unbecoming fame.

Mendoza did however continue his baseball career beyond the 1982 season, mostly managing. Bill Bavasi of the California Angels liked the way that Mendoza could relate to baseball players regardless of their origins, and he hired him in 1992. Mendoza knew well the trials of young Latino players and the experience of navigating in unfamiliar surroundings. Mendoza was once told by an African American teammate:

“You're not black, you're not white, you're orange.”

Mendoza managed in the U.S. For ten years with an accumulated record of 639-741. He moved on to various Mexican teams, and has managed for the past eight years, but won/lost records are sketchy and teams are loosely run. In 2000 he was voted into the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame(Salon de la Fama.) He laments: “'The Mendoza Line,' that's what I'm remembered for.”