1981 Cincinnati Reds season

The 1981 Cincinnati Reds season consisted of the Reds finishing with an overall record of 66–42, giving them the best win–loss record in all of Major League Baseball. However, due to a split-season format, caused by a mid-season players' strike, they failed to make the MLB playoffs this year because they did not finish first in either half of the season; they finished in second place in both halves by scant margins. The Reds finished the first half of the season in second place with a record of 35–21, just one-half game behind the eventual World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, and one-and-a-half games behind the Houston Astros in the second half, in which the Reds were 31–21, good for second place, again. Before the final game of the season against the Atlanta Braves, the team unveiled a banner which said "Cincinnati Reds: Baseball's best record 1981". The Reds were managed by John McNamara and played their home games at Riverfront Stadium.

1981 Cincinnati Reds
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record66–42 (.611)
Divisional place1st
Other information
Owner(s)William & James Williams
General manager(s)Dick Wagner
Manager(s)John McNamara
Local televisionWLWT
(Ray Lane, Bill Brown, Dick Carlson)
Local radioWLW
(Marty Brennaman, Joe Nuxhall)
< Previous season     Next season >

Offseason

Regular season

Season standings
NL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cincinnati Reds 6642 0.611 — 32–22 34–20
Los Angeles Dodgers 6347 0.573 4 33–23 30–24
Houston Astros 6149 0.555 6 31–20 30–29
San Francisco Giants 5655 0.505 11½ 29–24 27–31
Atlanta Braves 5056 0.472 15 22–27 28–29
San Diego Padres 4169 0.373 26 20–35 21–34
NL West
First Half Standings		 W L Pct. GB
Los Angeles Dodgers3621.632—
Cincinnati Reds3521.6251⁄2
Houston Astros2829.4918
Atlanta Braves2529.4639+1⁄2
San Francisco Giants2732.45810
San Diego Padres2333.41112+1⁄2
NL West
Second Half Standings		 W L Pct. GB
Houston Astros3320.623—
Cincinnati Reds3121.5961+1⁄2
San Francisco Giants2923.5583+1⁄2
Los Angeles Dodgers2726.5096
Atlanta Braves2527.4817+1⁄2
San Diego Padres1836.33315+1⁄2

Record vs. opponents
1981 National League Records

Sources:
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta—3–2–16–54–87–73–73–34–52–39–65–74–3
Chicago2–3–1—1–51–66–44–75–8–12–104–103–35–55–4–1
Cincinnati5–65–1—8–48–85–47–35–24–210–29–50–5
Houston8–46–14–8—4–85–26–34–62–411–39–62–4
Los Angeles 7–74–68–88–4—5–25–13–35–16–57–55–5
Montreal7–37–44–52–52–5—9–37–410–34–22–56–9
New York3–38–5–13–73–61–53–9—7–73–6–12–52–46–5
Philadelphia5-410–22–56–43–34–77–7—7–54–24–37–6
Pittsburgh3–210–42–44–21–53–106–3–15–7—6–43–73–8
San Diego6–93–32–103–115–62–45–22–44–6—6–73–7
San Francisco7–55–55–96–95–75–24–23–47–37–6—2–3
St. Louis3–44–5–15–04–25–59–65–66–78–37–33–2—

Notable transactions
  • June 8, 1981: Terry McGriff was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 8th round of the 1981 amateur draft. Player signed June 12, 1981.[2]
  • June 8, 1981: Paul O'Neill was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 4th round of the 1981 amateur draft. Player signed June 11, 1981.[3]
  • September 10, 1981: Doug Bair was traded by the Reds to the St. Louis Cardinals for Joe Edelen and Neil Fiala.[4]

Roster
1981 Cincinnati Reds roster
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

First half
1981 First half game log: 35–21 (Home: 17–11; Away: 18–10)
April: 11–7 (Home: 4–4; Away: 7–3)
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecordStreak
1April 8Phillies3–2Hume (1–0)Lyle (0–1)51,7161–0W1
2April 10@ Braves3–5Garber (1–0)Soto (0–1)Camp (1)34,9291–1L1
3April 11@ Braves3–2Bair (1–0)Garber (1–1)15,9732–1W1
4April 12@ Braves2–3Bradford (1–0)Hume (1–1)Mahler (1)12,2272–2L1
5April 13@ Padres7–1Seaver (1–0)Wise (0–1)36,3913–2W1
6April 14@ Padres4–0Berenyi (1–0)Curtis (0–1)12,1984–2W2
7April 15@ Padres10–1Soto (1–1)Mura (0–1)10,8015–2W3
8April 17Cardinals5–9Sorensen (2–0)LaCoss (0–1)22,9615–3L1
9April 18Cardinals4–10Shirley (1–0)Seaver (1–1)22,5295–4L2
10April 21Braves1–10Boggs (1–1)Soto (1–2)24,0225–5L3
11April 22Braves3–7Perry (1–1)LaCoss (0–2)15,7355–6L4
12April 23@ Astros5–4 (10)Price (1–0)D. Smith (0–2)Moskau (1)23,1736–6W1
13April 24@ Astros3–0Pastore (1–0)Niekro (1–3)27,0877–6W2
14April 25@ Astros2–1Berenyi (2–0)Ryan (1–1)Hume (1)19,9578–6W3
15April 26@ Astros0–1Knepper (2–0)Soto (1–3)23,4288–7L1
16April 28Padres11–2Seaver (2–1)Lollar (1–1)13,1039–7W1
17April 29Padres8–5Moskau (1–0)Littlefield (0–2)Hume (2)12,29110–7W2
18April 30Padres4–3LaCoss (1–2)Mura (0–3)Hume (3)12,79411–7W3
May: 16–13 (Home: 10–7; Away: 6–6)
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecordStreak
19May 1@ Cardinals6–7Forsch (2–1)Soto (1–4)Sutter (5)21,31511–8L1
20May 2@ Cardinals3–7Shirley (3–0)Berenyi (2–1)16,67711–9L2
21May 3@ Cardinals4–5 (11)Edelen (1–0)Hume (1–2)21,85511–10L3
—May 5PiratesPostponed (rain); Makeup: May 7
22May 6Pirates9–8Hume (2–2)Jackson (1–2)14,55112–10W1
23May 7Pirates1–3Rhoden (4–0)Soto (1–5)Romo (3)–12–11L1
24May 7Pirates1–7Solomon (2–1)LaCoss (1–3)20,30112–12L2
25May 8Astros4–0Seaver (3–1)Sutton (2–4)31,96113–12W1
26May 9Astros9–5Berenyi (3–1)Andújar (1–2)30,86014–12W2
27May 10Astros5–7Niekro (3–3)Pastore (1–1)LaCorte (2)31,90314–13L1
28May 11Astros0–5Ryan (2–1)LaCoss (1–4)11,79514–14L2
29May 12Cubs2–1Soto (2–5)Tidrow (1–4)12,01615–14W1
30May 13Cubs8–3Seaver (4–1)Krukow (1–3)12,52816–14W2
31May 14Cubs6–1Berenyi (4–1)Reuschel (1–4)11,09817–14W3
32May 15@ Pirates4–1Price (2–0)Romo (0–2)Hume (4)10,59218–14W4
33May 16@ Pirates4–0LaCoss (2–4)Scurry (1–2)11,89019–14W5
34May 17@ Pirates4–3Soto (3–5)Solomon (2–3)11,77520–14W6
35May 19@ Cubs5–0Seaver (5–1)Reuschel (1–5)Moskau (2)5,89621–14W7
36May 20@ Cubs10–7Price (3–0)Smith (1–3)Hume (5)5,91422–14W8
37May 21@ Cubs1–5Martz (2–2)Pastore (1–2)7,13222–15L1
38May 22Dodgers2–4 (12)Stewart (2–0)Bair (1–1)27,94322–16L2
39May 23Dodgers6–9 (10)Stewart (3–0)Moskau (1–1)Castillo (4)40,92822–17L3
40May 24Dodgers3–2Moskau (2–1)Welch (2–3)Price (1)–23–17W1
41May 24Dodgers3–10Castillo (1–4)Berenyi (4–2)36,11323–18L1
42May 25Giants6–3Combe (1–0)Holland (3–2)15,68424–18W1
—May 26GiantsPostponed (rain); Makeup: August 14
43May 27Giants3–2Soto (4–5)Alexander (5–3)12,22325–18W2
44May 28Giants7–4Price (4–0)Lavelle (0–3)20,07726–18W3
45May 29@ Dodgers2–5Welch (3–3)LaCoss (2–5)Howe (5)45,74926–19L1
46May 30@ Dodgers9–1Pastore (2–2)Hooton (7–1)43,58227–19W1
47May 31@ Dodgers4–16Goltz (1–0)Soto (4–6)46,41127–20L1
June: 8–1 (Home: 3–0; Away: 5–1)
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveAttendanceRecordStreak
48June 1@ Giants8–5Hume (3–2)Minton (2–3)4,62028–20W1
49June 2@ Giants7–15Whitson (2–5)LaCoss (2–6)Holland (4)19,00728–21L1
50June 3@ Giants6–2Pastore (3–2)Blue (5–4)7,11429–21W1
51June 5Expos6–3Soto (5–6)Rogers (6–4)21,29830–21W2
52June 6Expos9–3Seaver (6–1)Lea (4–3)26,01631–21W3
53June 7Expos2–0Berenyi (5–2)Burris (3–5)40,01032–21W4
54June 9@ Mets8–4Hume (4–2)Falcone (1–3)12,31333–21W5
55June 10@ Mets2–0Soto (6–6)Jones (1–7)9,73234–21W6
56June 11@ Mets5–2Seaver (7–1)Zachry (5–7)18,61235–21W7

Player stats

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
CJoe Nolan8123673.309126
1BDan Driessen8223355.236733
2BRon Oester10535496.271542
SSDave Concepción106421129.306567
3BRay Knight106386100.259634
LFGeorge Foster108414122.2952290
CFKen Griffey101396123.311234
RFDave Collins9536098.272323

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Johnny Bench5217855.309825
Mike O'Berry5511120.18015
Paul Householder236919.27529
Larry Biittner426113.21308
Sam Mejías664914.28607
Junior Kennedy274411.25005
Mike Vail31315.16103
Harry Spilman23244.16703
Rafael Landestoy12112.18201
Germán Barranca962.33301
Eddie Milner851.20001
Neil Fiala221.50001

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Mario Soto25175.01293.29151
Tom Seaver23166.11422.5487
Frank Pastore22132.0494.0281
Bruce Berenyi21126.0963.50106

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Mike LaCoss2078.0476.1222
Charlie Liebrandt730.0113.609

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Tom Hume5194133.4627
Joe Price416142.5241
Paul Moskau27212.49432
Doug Bair242205.7716
Geoff Combe141007.649
Scott Brown101002.777
Joe Edelen51000.715

Awards and honors

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Indianapolis Indians American Association Jim Beauchamp
AA Waterbury Reds Eastern League George Scherger
A Tampa Tarpons Florida State League Jim Lett
A Cedar Rapids Reds Midwest League Randy Davidson
A-Short Season Eugene Emeralds Northwest League Greg Riddoch
Rookie Billings Mustangs Pioneer League Jim Hoff

Notes
  1. Joe Kerrigan page at Baseball Reference
  2. "Terry McGriff Stats".
  3. "Paul O'Neill Stats | Baseball-Reference.com".
  4. Neil Fiala page at Baseball Reference
  5. "Hutch Award | Baseball Almanac".

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.