Definition

1. Noun:
   • A statistical measure of success rate: In general usage, "batting average" refers to the proportion or percentage of times an effort or attempt is successful. It extends the baseball term to other fields to quantify performance.
   • A baseball performance statistic: In baseball, it is a specific measure of a batter's hitting performance, calculated by dividing the number of base hits by the number of official times at bat.

Usage Examples

• General/Extended Usage:
  • Her batting average for closing deals is very impressive. (This means her success rate in finalizing agreements is high.)
  • The journalist has a good batting average for accurate predictions. (This refers to the proportion of the journalist's predictions that are correct.)
• Baseball Usage:
  • A .300 batting average is considered excellent in Major League Baseball. (This means the player gets a hit 30% of their official at-bats.)
  • He worked hard to improve his batting average this season. (This refers to the player's goal of getting more hits per at-bat.)

Advanced Usage

• "Maintain a high batting average": To consistently achieve a high success rate in a particular endeavor.
  • In this competitive field, you must maintain a high batting average to be considered reliable.
• "Batting average in": Used to specify the area of performance being measured.
  • His batting average in client retention is unmatched in the company.

Variants and Related Words

• Hit rate: A synonym often used in business and analytics for success proportion.
• Success ratio: A more general term for comparing successes to attempts.
• On-base percentage (OBP): A related but more comprehensive baseball statistic that includes times a batter reaches base by any means (hit, walk, hit by pitch).

Synonyms

• Success rate: The percentage of attempts that are successful.
• Hit percentage: Often used in sports and gaming contexts.
• Performance metric: A broader term for a standard of measurement.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• "To have a batting average of 1.000": In extended use, this idiom means to have a perfect success record, referencing the baseball maximum.
  • So far on this project, her team has a batting average of 1.000—every milestone has been met on time.
• "Below the Mendoza Line": A baseball idiom referring to a very low batting average (typically below .200), sometimes used metaphorically to describe poor performance in other areas.
  • His sales numbers are below the Mendoza Line this quarter; he needs to improve quickly.

Noun

1. (an extension of the baseball term) the proportion of times some effort succeeds
   • the salesman's batting average was 7 out of 12
2. (baseball) a measure of a batter's performance; the number of base hits divided by the number of official times at bat
   • Ted Williams once had a batting average above .400