Since this blog is named after Mario Mendoza and dedicated to the Rockies (more or less), I figured I'd connect the 2.
Here we go:
-Mario Mendoza, above, hit .215 for his career and often hovered in the lower .200's, typically making him be at the bottom of major league batting average lists published in newspapers;
-For awhile, it was thought that George Brett coined 'Mendoza Line' (although it appears a sportwriter started it before Brett) after checking these newspapers to make sure his own batting average wasn't below Mendoza's.
-George Brett was a teammate of Rockies Manager, Clint Hurdle, on the Royals from '77-81 and apparently the 2 were 'drinking buddies' (and are good friends still, hence why George Brett was in the dugout with Hurdle at the end of Monday night's NLCS Game 4).
The alternative goes likes this:
-Brett was thought to have coined 'Mendoza Line'.
-Brett was famously involved in the 'Pine Tar Incident' whereby Home Umpire, Tim McClelland ruled that a Brett homerun was an out due to too much pine tar on the bat.
-McClelland was the home ump in the Rockies-Padres Wild-Card where baseball wackos say Holliday missed home plate and yet was called safe by McClelland; those same wackos however don't raise an equal amount of fuss over Atkins' obvious homer ruled as a double which would have given the Rockies the lead and never made the game go to extra-innings where Holliday's slide at home occurred.
Mendoza's 5280 (degress of separation)
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