Hot Stove: Definitions

Posted by admin on January 20, 2009 under Uncategorized | 2 Comments to Read

I’d like to think I know everything about baseball. I played baseball growing up, been watching it since I was six years old and I’ve been to more ball games than I can count, but every once in a while, I’ve come across terms I don’t know or are a tad bit blurry.

Hot Stove. It’s a term that I’ve been hearing a lot, but wasn’t exactly sure what it meant. Turns out the answer was pretty much in front me this entire winter and I just didn’t know it. It’s just a cool way of saying the off season and all of the trades, signings and rumors because apparently back in the day men, would stand around hot stoves and discuss baseball during the colder months. I guess, it makes sense to me.

Mendoza Line. It’s the level where if the players batting average drops below it, he has a pretty good chance of getting sent to the minors because no matter how good his defense is, it’s not worth the weakness he is in the batting lineup. The average is usually around .200 and there’s a pretty good story about it involving Geroge Brett and Mario Mendoza. You can read it here at Wikipedia.

The Infield Fly Rule. This is one I think I know, but really don’t know exactly. I know if I think about it long enough, I can figure it out, but I thought it was time for a refresher course. If there are runners on base and the batter hits a high pop-up in the infield that is so obviously catch, the ump will automatically declare the batter is out without waiting for the play to finish. This prevents the fielder from dropping the ball on purpose to tag out the baserunners and then throwing to tag out the batter. Thanks to Stiletto Set Sports for the answer on that one.