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Now Can Someone Invent the "Bevaqua Line"

By Steve Czaban on June 23, 2005 6:46 PM |

Recently, we here in DC were discussing the batting woes of our Nats’ most expensive off-season signing Cristian Guzman ($4.2 million/year). Good news is Cristian is over .200 now, to which we glibly referred to as “The Mendoza Line.”

Since I vaguely knew myself, just how the .200 BA mark became known as the Mendoza Line, I decided to fire up the ol’ Google-mobile. Here’s what wikipedia.com has for a quick and dirty explanation…

According to one version, a long-time minor-league player named Minnie Mendoza (born Cristóbal Rigoberto Mendoza in Ceiba del Agua, San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba on November 16, 1933) finally caught on with a major-league team — specifically the Minnesota Twins — in 1970 at the age of 36. He appeared in 16 games for the Twins that year, and recorded a batting average of .188.

Another, and more popular, explanation for the Mendoza Line's origins centers around Mario Mendoza; a Mexican player who spent nine years in the major leagues (1974-82) with three different teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers, and was a career .215 hitter.

Both Minnie Mendoza and Mario Mendoza played the same position in the field — shortstop, a position long associated with weak hitting.

In the years immediately following Mario Mendoza's retirement, some journalists began referring to the .215 figure as "the Mendoza Line;" more recently, however, it has become customary to place the "line" at .200 (following George Brett's use of the term in this sense during an interview with a sportswriter), perhaps in an attempt to find a middle ground between Minnie Mendoza's lifetime batting average and that of Mario Mendoza, since it is not universally agreed upon as to which one of them the term is truly named after.

Now for extra credit, name every Mendoza to have ever played in the Major Leagues. Have fun, good luck.

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Mailbag

What Would Irv Have Said?
Hi Steve: When Bob brought up the other day the things may have been different with Brett had Irv been around, I really got to thinking. Since Holmgren, and likely Wolf departed, and his dad died, Favre has had no one to really fear. Next up, Ray Rhodes and Mike Sherman, who let him run wild. Since he didn't have accountability, he could become more of a diva with no one to bring him down to earth. By the time Thompson and McCarthy came along and weren't willing to let Brett walk all over the team, he had been unaccountable for long enough that he couldn't handle it and resented it. Hurt feelings resulted from him having to answer to someone for a change, and from fewer special "Brett rules". I am very curious how he handles Mangini, whom I have been told by a Jets fan is hated by the players. And, wait till Mike Lupica shreds him by mid-October. Read the NY press, they are building him up and up, and they will love tearing him down. See ya, donkey, Terry Rindt Read more ...

Previously in the Mailbag:
  1. RE: Dan Snyder vs. Jerry Jones
  2. Redskin Nation Shows Up Proud In Canton
  3. Hoes Up, Parents Down
  4. Brawl Memories in College Basketball
  5. Hey Stern, How's That Globalization Thing Working Out?