The Most Bullied Player In Baseball History

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3 ай бұрын

Mario Mendoza is best known for his name being attached to the Mendoza Line term that puts anyone hitting below .200 as under the line. The term would go on to be referenced in politics, other sports, and pop culture. All the while, Mario Mendoza became the most bullied player in baseball history for a small inside joke that leaked from the clubhouse.
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@TheEarthGerm 3 ай бұрын

I wouldn't say he's bullied, the guy made the pros, which is a very impressive accomplishment. To have a famous statistic named after him is awesome, he left his mark and is now immortalized. I would be honored in his position.

@ruffkuntry2574 3 ай бұрын

He was also a very good defensive player. Ozzie Smith hit around the Mendoza line several times in his career.

@JazzyJeff910 3 ай бұрын

@@ruffkuntry2574this!

@joshuacoleman8000 3 ай бұрын

@@ruffkuntry2574It's obvious Ozzie isn't a hall of famer for his offensive numbers.

@themotherfdude8891 3 ай бұрын

Got hot* at the right time. Don’t deserve the call up

@Kenny_G 3 ай бұрын

I wish Rusty Kuntz had some stat named after him! 😮

@kirkprospector4958 3 ай бұрын

Under the himself line lmao

@localfox1000 3 ай бұрын

He's not been bullied enough

@OccidentalonPurpose 3 ай бұрын

Bob Uecker actually had a .200 on the dot career average, so by rights it would be better called the Uecker line.

@gordons-alive4940 3 ай бұрын

Yeah, I remember reading that in Uecker's book. He kind of took pride in being a lifetime .200 hitter, on the nose. He was more Mendoza than Mendoza.

@AaronMichaelLong 3 ай бұрын

You know, that's 100% correct.

@LoopHoleLeeRoy 3 ай бұрын

Uecker lines are already a thing👃

@wvu05 2 ай бұрын

Darn right! It's not fair that someone over .200 is given the name for the line.

@jokersinurface 3 ай бұрын

We have to get the Rendon line to start trending.

@MrGus12345 3 ай бұрын

jajajajajajajaja

@HardRockMark 3 ай бұрын

Playing in under 60 games while making over $25 million can be the Rendon line

@JazzyJeff910 3 ай бұрын

@@HardRockMarkI was kinda hurt that we let him walk after the 2019 WS. Now I’m glad. 😭

@HardRockMark 3 ай бұрын

@@JazzyJeff910 Yeah y’all kinda dodged a bullet there. He fell off a cliff quick then.

@kentboersema9995 3 ай бұрын

Or the beaz line

@brianharris4445 3 ай бұрын

8:06 this guy came back as a hitting coach is amazing comeback arc

@edsonbojorquez2913 3 ай бұрын

It’s funny how some people that physically suck at something can be so good at teaching or coaching it, I got to play in the Mexican minor and professional league for a bit and the best hitting coach that I had was a former catcher that couldn’t hit a baseball to save his life 😂 but he was so knowledgeable and helped me understand so much about hitting

@gordons-alive4940 3 ай бұрын

@@edsonbojorquez2913 Kind of makes sense, in some ways. Someone who has a natural talent for something might not be fully aware of how they do it. Someone who's less talented might be doing everything they can to make the most of it.

@edsonbojorquez2913 3 ай бұрын

@@gordons-alive4940 no doubt, nailed it with this comment

@robbiearroyo2292 3 ай бұрын

@@gordons-alive4940impeccably said!

@Isthatthegrimreaper170 3 ай бұрын

@@edsonbojorquez2913you’ll notice in the NBA some of the most successful head coaches were role players, guys like Pat Riley and Steve Kerr It’s cool to hear about how coaches in other leagues come about

@user-zb2st6zi6j 3 ай бұрын

I am named Mendoza and I am proud of Mario and his Mendoza Line. Actually playing 9 seasons in the Majors is significantly above average. Mario was actually quite a good player.

@LiveFromThePorcelainPalace 3 ай бұрын

The guy was a really slick fielder. If he was able to hit around .230 he would have been a star in his time.

@ILoveMisty1985 3 ай бұрын

My favorite part of the Mario Mendoza story was that after the Mendoza Line went widespread in early 1980, he hit a combined .239 in 1980 and 1981. Kudos to him for that! Anyways, hoping to see a video about Lenn Sakata, another player that became somewhat of a folk hero!

@HardRockMark 3 ай бұрын

A Lenn Sakata video would be great. I actually met him when I was a kid. He happened to live in Merced, Ca. where I grew up. He was a folk hero there. I had his baseball card and saw he lived in Merced. My mom looked up his phone number, called and asked him to meet me and my brother and sign autographs. He met us at a McDonald’s. Later on he ran a baseball clinic which I attended. Met him again there. Nice guy very humble.

@GulsCult 3 ай бұрын

Lenn Sakata! Wow! I just got flashbacks! Poor guy went 0 for 60-something againstthe white Sox. A nightmare.

@Dominos-el7qr 3 ай бұрын

I thought it was Tom Paciorek who started it It didn't mean .200, just wherever his name was in the Sunday listings.

@LordBarros 3 ай бұрын

The fact he became a hitting coach is hilarious!

@captaincarl8230 3 ай бұрын

Why? A hitting instructor doesn't need to have batted over .300 to be a good hitting coach.

@skalty9868 3 ай бұрын

To be fair a .200 MLB average makes you one of the best hitters in the world

@anthropoid539 3 ай бұрын

@@captaincarl8230 Cmon man....

@GulsCult 3 ай бұрын

Baseball is so f*cking strange that Mario Mendoza became a HITTING COACH.

@captaincarl8230 3 ай бұрын

Charlie Lau was also a hitting coach. He batted .255 for his career but taught George Brett how to bat .300.

@GulsCult 3 ай бұрын

@@captaincarl8230 That's nuts. Baseball is damn near paranormal at times.

@captaincarl8230 3 ай бұрын

@@GulsCult He also wrote a book titled "How to Bat .300". He was the top hitting instructor of his time back in the '80s and into the '90s.

@GulsCult 3 ай бұрын

@@captaincarl8230I've never been to med school, but I'm going to write a book on how to perform appendectomies at home for fun or profit.

@garygood6804 3 ай бұрын

But baseball is strange. You can have a .000 batting avg but have 100 rbi.

@j.s.friedman9649 3 ай бұрын

Well, that's because playing shortstop really isn't easy, being strong up the middle is more important than hitting --- you need a good fielder at that position-- and that's not easy to find.

@Denozo88 3 ай бұрын

Guys like Seager are gems you hold onto at all costs.

@jiminut 3 ай бұрын

The thumbnail is Napolean Dynamite x Pedro

@JWex-jy7sk 3 ай бұрын

In 2011 back in 8th grade I had a teacher who’s husband Patrick Cassaday played in the Pirates minor league system in the early 1970’s He would come in and talk baseball with me and he told me all about Mario Mendoza. He met the guy in Pirates Spring camp one year and became good friends with him

@donwhiteley3293 3 ай бұрын

While the "Mendoza Line" has come to mean .200, that's not what it meant when Mendoza was an active player. The way Paciorek, Botche, and Brett meant it was literally whatever Mendoza was hitting at the time. For a long time in the pre-internet days the Sunday sports papers had a column where they listed the current season stats of every MLB hitter that was getting regular playing time. This column was arranged in order of batting average, so the player with the highest average was at the top and the lowest average was at the bottom. The "Mendoza Line" was literally where Mario Mendoza was in that column. It's the sportswriters and (mainly) ESPN personalities in the decade after Mendoza retired that popularized the Menoza Line being .200.

@davesoverthere 3 ай бұрын

Ozzie Smith was a career .262 hitter, he walked almost twice as much as he struck out, and he compiled 48.8 oWAR. He was not the stereotypical poor-hitting shortstop of the 1980's.

@Chris-cn2lo 3 ай бұрын

True, but he also had a Career OPS+ under 90 (finishing over 100 just 4 times in his 19 year career, which is the same amount of times he finished below 85 in full seasons) so he was a pretty weak hitter even with his walk rate for the time.

@procana11 3 ай бұрын

Bro Im Dead, The Rendon Line 😂😂😂😂

@MrConverse 3 ай бұрын

9:49, a small correction. He’s called the Pirate Parrot, not the Pittsburgh Parrot. Hope it helps. Nice video.

@RandoPando007 3 ай бұрын

The Gallo line is even lower

@tweezerjam 3 ай бұрын

I had to check, i had no idea his career avg is .196. And his ops stinks too. Makes me wonder why he’s in the majors…

@JoshuaKimbrough 3 ай бұрын

@@tweezerjamFeast or Famine..he can hit homeruns

@arkhaminmate3727 3 ай бұрын

Austin Barnes can relate. His defense and Clayton Kershaw have kept him in the majors for years

@PaulThompson-mg1eg 3 ай бұрын

In Wisconsin we call it the Uecker line: career average .200.

@MikeCheckProductions 3 ай бұрын

Man, this was so well done! I’ve been loving your baseball content

@AnsonBeeker 3 ай бұрын

"Mendoza Line" is back in my circles. Never going away.

@captaincarl8230 3 ай бұрын

I don't know why they put the "Mendoza Line" at .200. He had a career average of .215.

@charlesclark3840 3 ай бұрын

As noted in the video, in his first full season *starting* he hit .198. The term was coined then, not after his career was over.

@captaincarl8230 3 ай бұрын

@@charlesclark3840 Thank you for the clarification.

@smartluck100 3 ай бұрын

Hell, I’d be happy to hit .200 in the bigs! At least I made it to the show!

@MyBrainHurts2 3 ай бұрын

Yeah, but he hit over the Himself line. More accurately, he hit over the Uecker line. Bob finished his career at .200, Mendoza finished at .215.

@bmac4 3 ай бұрын

7:33 "President Ben Franklin" Am I being trolled

@MrDan708 3 ай бұрын

It's a bit over the top to suggest that the term Mendoza Line is "bullying". He was simply the classic case of a guy whose glove kept him in the majors with a bat that was stuck at minor-league level. As I recall, he split time with another light-hitting SS (Frank Taveras) while he was in Pittsburgh. Taveras was a faster runner if I'm not mistaken.

@charliep123 3 ай бұрын

Your videos are great! You deserve a lot more recognition.

@prisonersforprofit 3 ай бұрын

the great bob uecker's lifetime average is .200. it's part of his routine.

@Emancipatriot 3 ай бұрын

I never really knew much about him beyond the phrase. I can't help but think they stole his look for Napoleon dynamite

@bossfan49 3 ай бұрын

If you took Napoleon's glasses and put them on Pedro, you might have something. Otherwise, I'm not really seeing it.

@Dac54 3 ай бұрын

He also played one of the two most important positions on the field defensively, which are shortstop and catcher. The Pittsburgh Pirates were a good hitting team that could afford to carry a light-hitting Mendoza because his defense at shortstop was as good or better than numerous other shortstops in the league, including his teammate Frank Taveras, sometimes replacing him for defensive purposes late in games and getting the occasional start. Wherever he played, he was known to be an exemplary teammate.

@mikedavis7925 Ай бұрын

Hey the guy played nine years in the majors that is quite accomplishment in itself.

@BaronLector 23 күн бұрын

At a 5-year run of .181, .199, .160, .177 and .164, just below the Mendoza Line is the Gallo Line.

@deiradinn 3 ай бұрын

I.... didn't know this at all, thank you.

@stevenkramer3431 3 ай бұрын

Fond memories of Manos de Seda! Sure, his hitting was light, but he could patrol all the territory between second and third and very little ever got by him. He made the game exciting!

@DA-sv2iw 3 ай бұрын

Um, Ben Franklin was never president. Cool video otherwise.

@GaigeGrosskreutzGunClub 3 ай бұрын

Woosh

@deeam8534 3 ай бұрын

thought i was experiencing the mandela effect

@brianj7858 3 ай бұрын

The Mendoza effect

@fernandoacosta7423 3 ай бұрын

The moment when this guy is the best player to come from your hometown 😭😔

@ruffkuntry2574 3 ай бұрын

In defense of Mario, Ozzie Smith hit around the Mendoza line several times in his career.

@benn454 3 ай бұрын

But Ozzie still got on base and was a good baserunner and stealer.

@ruffkuntry2574 3 ай бұрын

@@benn454 That’s true. Looking up Mendoza’s stats again, he was actually a terrible on base player. Not only could he not hit well, he rarely took walks and practically had no speed. He was good defensively and that was it.

@DGoetz26 3 ай бұрын

Those White Sox uniforms….yikes.

@FerdinandCesarano 3 ай бұрын

2:15 - That's "newly-founded" (not "newly-found").

@theathletearchives 2 ай бұрын

Great video

@woden22 3 ай бұрын

You're joking about Ben Franklin right? He was never a president.

@NathanCline12-21 3 ай бұрын

Wrong

@woden22 3 ай бұрын

@@NathanCline12-21 Wrong...about Old Ben? I think it can be easily proved lol.

@NathanCline12-21 3 ай бұрын

@woden22 there were presidents before George Washington

@tweezerjam 3 ай бұрын

@@NathanCline12-21where did you go to college- trump university?

@NathanCline12-21 3 ай бұрын

Presidents before George Washington Peyton Randolph: Sep. 5 - Oct. 22, 1774 Henry Middleton: Oct. 22 - Oct. 26, 1774 Peyton Randolph: May 10 - May 24, 1775 John Hancock: May 24, 1775 - Oct. 31, 1777 Henry Laurens: Nov. 1, 1777 - Dec. 9, 1778 John Jay: Dec. 10, 1778 - Sep. 27, 1779 Samuel Huntington: Sep. 28, 1779 - Mar. 1, 1781 Samuel Huntington: Mar. 2 - July 6, 1781 Thomas McKean: July 10 - Oct. 23, 1781 John Hanson: Nov. 5, 1781 - Nov. 3, 1782 Elias Boudinot: Nov. 4, 1782-Nov. 3, 1783 Thomas Mifflin: Nov. 3, 1783 - Nov. 30, 1784 Richard Henry Lee: Nov. 30, 1784 - Nov. 4, 1785 John Hancock: Nov. 23, 1785 - June 5, 1786 Nathaniel Gorham: June 6, 1786 - Feb. 2, 1787 Arthur St. Clair: Feb. 2 - Oct. 5, 1787 Cyrus Griffin: Jan. 22, 1788 - Mar. 2, 1789

@Stealthborn Ай бұрын

Perhaps the name could be changed to the Pujols or Luis line. Luis Pujols and Luis Gonzalez: "What?!"

@l.rongardner2150 3 ай бұрын

The Chris Davis line made the Mendoza line obsolete.

@rlsfrny 3 ай бұрын

It really by all rights should be known as the Uecker Line. Bob Uecker had a career BA of exactly .200 and given his lifelong self-deprecating sense of humor and baseball grace, would be a more fitting eponym for the standard of mediocrity.

@bossfan49 3 ай бұрын

Never heard of the "Mendoza line" in my life.

@talonmiller9744 3 ай бұрын

Really? I mean, it's barely brought up anymore tbh. I guess that's the point of this vid haha

@DavidMcdonald-df8tb 3 ай бұрын

It was very famous in the 1980s

@willpomeroy7711 3 ай бұрын

Do you watch or listen to baseball? I’m in the NY market and it’s always been a sports cliche and saturated in baseball jargon and lexicon with the announcers here like Michael Kay and John Sterling using it a lot.

@bossfan49 3 ай бұрын

@@willpomeroy7711 I just watch my home team's games when I can. I don't follow the rest of the league, or watch any of the weekly wrap-up shows on ESPN, etc.

@saulspeaks2557 3 ай бұрын

It's bizarre to me when people talk about a .960 fielding percentage as GOOD. My brother in Christ, .960 is baaaaaaaad. For a defensive specialist, he sure played pretty average defense! 😂

@dale6613 3 ай бұрын

They need to change the terminology to the Hedge(s) line.

@brianwaloweek6770 2 ай бұрын

At the end of the day, he was a professional baseball player. God bless him.

@unkledoda420 3 ай бұрын

It's crazy to think that just a few decades ago there were only a few guys who ever hit below .200 in a full season, nowadays you can have one team with multiple guys that hit below .200

@charlesclark3840 3 ай бұрын

The Mendoza Line wasn't a joke about being a terrible hitter (at least when it was first used), as much as mark of the lowest avg you could have and still make the team and/or start *if* you could offset it with great fielding. If you could only hit noticably lower than Mendoza, your fielding skills would not save you.

@nonospot838 3 ай бұрын

Its the Gallo line now.

@buckodonnghaile4309 3 ай бұрын

2:01 what's up with the pony?

@carlostrevinotavispgh5840 3 ай бұрын

He was the Raphael Belliard of the 70s

@orbyfan 3 ай бұрын

Mario Mendoza is a butt of jokes, but it hardly amounts to "bullying." This is a misleading clickbait headline. Just how did he "revolutionize the shortstop position?" Mario Mendoza had a career major league batting average that was 3 points higher than that of Dave Nicholson, who had tremendous power. I can think of three infielders who had considerably worse career averages than Mendoza: Casey Wise in the 1950s (.174), Ray Oyler in the '60s (.175), and John Vukovich in the '70s (.161).

@ledelste 3 ай бұрын

Yeah, and none of those guys have been immortalized in a term that means that they suck at hitting. That’s why the title of the video is, yeah, a little hyperbolic, but still pretty fitting.

@cptsparklfingerz9210 3 ай бұрын

What’s funny is that people actually defend this “batting average don’t matter” bullshit because it clearly does. Baseball is not only at its best, but at its most popular, when people are hitting AND pitching. So yeah, batting average matters. It shows how good you are at getting base hits, regardless of what they are. It’s a valuable statistic. No one wants sub .240 hitters all over their team. Look at the Yankees and their fans. Joey Gallo is the best example of why this doesn’t work. Joey Gallo would’ve been better if he would’ve hit the ball instead of trying to launch it into orbit every single swing. Same with Giancarlo Stanton.

@228allday 3 ай бұрын

I had a classmate named Mendoza we used to rag on him 🤣🤣🤣 he was a good kid tho he eventually became successful after high school I haven't talked to him in a few years I hope all is well Alex

@DansVintageBaseballPC 3 ай бұрын

The back story is nonsense. It dates long before George Brett and Chris Berman. It derived from fans reading the listings of batting averages laid out in a full page in the Sunday sports section of their city's newspapers in the mid 70s when Mendoza was consistently at or near the bottom. ESPN didn't even exist until the Fall of 1979.

@ThatC1official 3 ай бұрын

Wish he talks about college baseball

@bronxbomerpito7286 3 ай бұрын

Wow never new

@MrPloxDa3rd 3 ай бұрын

He may be considered amongst the worst, but him being the worst of the BEST means that he can school ppl still Dude made it to the big house after all

@bigjj974 3 ай бұрын

Do you understand how good you have to be to stay in the MLB when your main real contribution is the glove. This guy and a few others like him were certainly needed as MLB teams paid them good money for their defensive skills. If you think these guys were not wanted just ask a closer who they want playing SS in the 9th. Besides it is just baseball, if you can't hack the jokes and ribbing just stay home.

@lovehistory5305 3 ай бұрын

If i remember right he was a vaccuum cleaner at short.

@coachmcguirk6297 3 ай бұрын

People cleaned the floor with him?

@GratefulInRecovery 3 ай бұрын

Mark Belanger, Orioles SS who has one of the best dWar in MLB history, but struggled to reach .200 yearly., **Strangely he hit over .300 versus Nolan Ryan** Bel-angerrr

@jaytrace1006 3 ай бұрын

He was great!

@coachmcguirk6297 3 ай бұрын

MENDOZAAAAAA

@BrianSniatkowski 3 ай бұрын

President Franklin?

@patrickols 3 ай бұрын

MENDOZAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! McBain

@jk-califkid5017 3 ай бұрын

The Mendoza Line can be retired. We can call it the K man line after Kyle Schwarber. He hit .196 with 222 Ks last year. K man line.

@tweezerjam 3 ай бұрын

You’re conveniently leaving out his 47 homers and 104 rbi. And the phillies made it to the nlds. So maybe find another example. 😂

@johnsimca7093 3 ай бұрын

Dal Maxville was a low hitting shortstop

@markross2124 3 ай бұрын

Something else, one time a good hitting pitcher, Ken Bret, Geroge Bret's brother, actually pinch hit for him in a crucial Pirates game. If I recall correctly Bret hit a pop fly to the first baseman.

@fagan4119 3 ай бұрын

Man those uniforms in the 70s were hot garbage.

@billy6464 3 ай бұрын

pretty cool to be a largely irrelevant player immortalized in the lexicon imo

@jamesrichardson381 Ай бұрын

I don't get or like the overall apparent lessening of importance of batting average in today's game. Why how often a player gets a hit wouldn't be a telling stat is beyond me. Now I do get how the win stat has lost importance. Any stat where a reliever could come into a game theoretically throw one pitch and come away with the win is going to lose value.

@OtisMoto 3 ай бұрын

What do you mean by bullied?

@FormerlyYBMT 3 ай бұрын

Well, it’s pretty easy for a President’s approval rating not to dip below .200 when they were never President. It’s like Garrett Cole never striking me out, even though I’ve never faced him, or any pitcher. 😂

@metuberob 2 ай бұрын

haha the average average haha

@Shinobi33 3 ай бұрын

Not bullied ribbed. He probably could care less

@skalty9868 3 ай бұрын

Of course he was a Mariner

@paulframe85 3 ай бұрын

Mariner

@NeverendingSaga 3 ай бұрын

Who bullied him? Misuse of that term .......Reported

@keysersoze503 3 ай бұрын

As long as you hit 20 hrs in today's watered down version of baseball you will have a job while hitting .200 and being a lousy fielder.

@braydenjames8957 3 ай бұрын

Bullied? Lmao no

@camionerosfurgoneros5915 3 ай бұрын

HOW DO THEY CALL IT TODAY THE MONEY BALL LINE

@gabrieltoldme5308 3 ай бұрын

Mario had a good glove

@thomassain3985 3 ай бұрын

Ben Franklin was never president. Down vote.

@Matt-xv2cp 3 ай бұрын

Max Muncy of the Dodgers has 3 seasons batting below .200, a career .228 hitter over 9 seasons, yet is a well respected player in the league, and would be a highly sought after free agent. Defense and power will supercede avg. In today's MLB.

@artescajeda835 3 ай бұрын

How much is his rookie?

@00ghostcobra 3 ай бұрын

They don't give a damn about batting average today...

@danholmes2369 3 ай бұрын

You used an image I treated and created for your Video cover. Please remove it. You also have three videos on your channel that are topics lifted from my baseball website. Cease doing this, or you will be reported to KZfaq.

@logalogalog 3 ай бұрын

What is your website?

@charlesclark3840 3 ай бұрын

@@logalogalog Click on his handle to see his youtube page. His website is linked from there; almost anyone who has a website will have it linked from their profile page.

@mariogilbert4260 3 ай бұрын

In 2023, The batting average was 248?!?!? I know i haven't been watching baseball as much as I use to; But I think the average for baseball would be minimum 280 -305. Right around there. Why are the batting averages SO LOW in today's baseball?!?!?🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

@brianj7858 3 ай бұрын

Hank Arron had a career 305 average. I wanna say that's around top hundred ever to play the game. Ever heard the joke...If you fail 7 out of 10 times in baseball you're a hall of famer?

@charlesclark3840 3 ай бұрын

You are mis-remembering. The '84 Tigers won 104 games and the world series in 5 games with a team batting average of .271. The best team BA that year was .283 (Red Sox). The overall MLB BA that year was .260.

@charlesclark3840 3 ай бұрын

@@brianj7858 Honestly, hitting .305 over such a long career with that many dingers is insane.