Mendoza line

English

Etymology

After shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose lifetime batting average is taken to define the threshold of minimally competent hitting.

Noun

Mendoza line

  1. (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.
  2. 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
  1. Sullivan, Andrew (2011 September 1 (last accessed)) “Mitt Romney is bad at politics”, in The Daily Beast‎, archived from the original on 13 January 2012
  2. C.S.Strowbridge, Even Horror Films Can't Survive the October of Terrors, The Numbers
  3. Mark Murray, Republicans abandoning Bush. MSNBC
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