Mendoza line
English
Etymology
After shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose lifetime batting average is taken to define the threshold of incompetent hitting.
Noun
Mendoza line
- (baseball) A .200 batting average, which is around the minimum batting average a player with strong defensive skills can have and still stay in the major leagues. Named for Mario Mendoza.
- His recent slump has put him perilously close to the Mendoza line; he may be headed to AAA soon.
- The line dividing acceptable mediocrity from unacceptable mediocrity
- I don’t think you could find any other figure in politics who has run this far below the Mendoza line and still managed to get taken seriously.[1]
- A sub-$2,000 per theater average... is the Mendoza Line of box office numbers.[2]
- Republican pollster Neil Newhouse... argues that these numbers have crossed below the political "Mendoza line"...[3]
References
- “Jonathon Last (via Andrew Sullivan)”, in (please provide the title of the work), accessed 1 September 2011, archived from the original on 2012-01-13
- C.S.Strowbridge, Even Horror Films Can't Survive the October of Terrors, The Numbers
- Mark Murray, Republicans abandoning Bush. MSNBC