Baseball announcers have been mentioning the Mendoza Line for quite some time without really explaining what it means.  There was a shortstop in the majors who played from the middle seventies to the early eighties who was names Mario Mendoza.  He flat out just couldn’t hit the ball but he hung around because he had a good glove.  Mendoza played in 686 games in 9 years in his major league career and he was 287 for 1,337 (.215 avg, .507 OPS) with 106 runs scored, 4 homers, 101 RBIs and 12 stolen bases.  So an average of about .215 would be the Mendoza Line for the record.  He had a “career” year in 1980 when he played in 114 games in which he was 68 for 277 (.245 avg, .596 OPS) with 27 runs scored, 2 homers, 14 RBIs and 3 stolen bases.  Impress your friends when you hear the “Mendoza” line on a baseball broadcast now as you know exactly what the announcer is talking about.