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All glove/no bat

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on April 26, 2008 at 12:47:

In Reply to: All glove/no bat posted by Bob on April 25, 2008 at 21:16:

: : : : What does "all glove/no bat" mean? My sense is that it means a player has only defensive capabilities, and no offensive skills. Can someone explain what it might mean more generally? I just read an article describing former-President George H. W. Bush as "an all-glove, no-bat first baseman".

: : : I assume you're talking about this article [Dead link removed - ed]

: : : GHW Bush was the captain of the baseball team in high school and at Yale. He played first base. It's a literal statement not some sort of allegorical dig.

: : I found the "huffpost" article a bit confusing, and did not find the actual quote. However, my take is that the person quoted was doing a riff on the well-known cliché, "all hat and no cattle," although its consanguinity to "all glove and no bat" is hard to see. Everyone on the team bats, after all; I'm sure GWB was not excluded.
: : SS

: Not excluded, but minimally skilled. The rearest kind of baseball player, the ones the scouts drool over, is the "5-tool player" meaning they excel in 5 separate skills: run, throw, field the ball, hit for power and hit for average. the other 99% have at least two talents or they can't make it to the big leagues. GWB was apparently a good fielder, but not an offensive threat.

GHWB must have at least batted at the "Mendoza Line", or about .200 (one hit out of five at bats). The Mendoza Line is named after former big league shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose defensive capabilities kept him from being sent to the minors despite his meager batting average. If a college first baseman hit below .200 he'd probably be benched and almost certainly not be voted captain of the team, unless the team's shortstop was a power hitter whose throws were so bad that only one man could catch them.

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