What exactly is the 'Mendoza line?'?

The Mendoza line is actually named after Minnie Mendoza, a career minor leaguer, who finally made it with the Minnesota Twins in 1970 At age 36. Mendoza hit .188 in sixteen games with the Twins that year. I remember seeing the term Mendoza Line first mentioned in The Sporting News in either 1970 or 1971. It mentioned that some hitters could not even get their averages above the Mendoza Line. It then stated that the term was named after the Twins light hitting infielder Minnie Mendoza. Mario did not come along until 1974. It burns me every time I hear an announcer Mention Mario instead of Minnie when referring to the Mendoza Line. Long live Minnie!"

Made famous by Tommie Lasorda

Minnie Mendoza

The Mendoza line came from a player named Mario Mendoza who was a great fielder and stayed in the Major Leagues for a number of years due to his excellent fielding skills, despite fighting his whole career to bat .200, thereby the Mendoza line .200

There was a player from the 1970's named Mario Mendoza who could barely bat about .200, hence the Mendoza line.

The Mendoza Line is an informal term used in baseball for a batting average of .200, considered the boundary between extremely poor and merely below-average offensive players. It is the offensive threshold below which a player's presence in the Major Leagues is difficult to justify despite their defensive abilities; baseball pitchers are not subject to this threshold because of the specialty of their skills.

The general consensus is that the term was named for former shortstop Mario Mendoza, who had a career batting average of .215 and actually hit .198 in the 1979 season. According to this version, George Brett originated it when asked about his batting average. He was shown the average in a newspaper, and made a remark along of the lines of "I knew I was off to a bad start when I saw my average listed below the Mendoza line."

Its a .200 batting average, which was basically Mendozas career avg. If your below the Mendoza line you're batting under .200.

From what I've heard through various baseball broadcasts, the mendoza line is the 200. batting average.

It was not named after Minnie Mendoza. There was no such player. There was a MINNIE MINOSA, but he hit above the Mendoza Line (.200). Named after Mario Mendoza a perennial .200 hitter.

It's commonly referred to as batting average of .200 or less, but Mario Mendoza's lifetime BA was actually .215.

some broadcaster said "...in under the Mendoza line" regarding a low average, Mendoza is one of the lightest batters in te history of the game, and that quote is use since then