1981 St. Louis Cardinals season

This article is about the Major League Baseball team. For the National Football League team, see 1981 St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) season.
1981 St. Louis Cardinals
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record 59–43 (.578)
Divisional place 2nd
Other information
Owner(s) August "Gussie" Busch
General manager(s) Whitey Herzog
Manager(s) Whitey Herzog
Local television KSDK
(Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Jay Randolph, Dan Kelly)
Local radio KMOX
(Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Dan Kelly)
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The St. Louis Cardinals 1981 season was the team's 100th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 90th season in the National League. 1981 was a season of two significant anomalies: A change in the playoff format, which created the first-ever Divisional Series with a qualification variant that existed only for that season, and the players' strike, which truncated the regular season. Despite finishing 59-43, good for the best overall record in the National League East, the strike set up the scenario where the Cardinals actually missed the playoffs. The regular season was split into halves to tally teams' records separately in each half of the season, and because the Cardinals finished in second place in each half, they did not qualify for the 1981 playoffs. Major League Baseball reverted to the previous playoff format the following season, and the Cardinals qualified for that postseason.

First baseman Keith Hernandez won a Gold Glove this year.

Offseason

Regular season

Season standings

NL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
St. Louis Cardinals 59 43 0.578 — 32–21 27–22
Montreal Expos 60 48 0.556 2 38–18 22–30
Philadelphia Phillies 59 48 0.551 2½ 36–19 23–29
Pittsburgh Pirates 46 56 0.451 13 22–28 24–28
New York Mets 41 62 0.398 18½ 24–27 17–35
Chicago Cubs 38 65 0.369 21½ 27–30 11–35

Record vs. opponents

1981 National League Records

Sources:
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta — 3–2–1 6–5 4–8 7–7 3–7 3–3 4–5 2–3 9–6 5–7 4–3
Chicago 2–3–1 — 1–5 1–6 6–4 4–7 5–8–1 2–10 4–10 3–3 5–5 5–4–1
Cincinnati 5–6 5–1 — 8–4 8–8 5–4 7–3 5–2 4–2 10–2 9–5 0–5
Houston 8–4 6–1 4–8 — 4–8 5–2 6–3 4–6 2–4 11–3 9–6 2–4
Los Angeles 7–7 4–6 8–8 8–4 — 5–2 5–1 3–3 5–1 6–5 7–5 5–5
Montreal 7–3 7–4 4–5 2–5 2–5 — 9–3 7–4 10–3 4–2 2–5 6–9
New York 3–3 8–5–1 3–7 3–6 1–5 3–9 — 7–7 3–6–1 2–5 2–4 6–5
Philadelphia 5-4 10–2 2–5 6–4 3–3 4–7 7–7 — 7–5 4–2 4–3 7–6
Pittsburgh 3–2 10–4 2–4 4–2 1–5 3–10 6–3–1 5–7 — 6–4 3–7 3–8
San Diego 6–9 3–3 2–10 3–11 5–6 2–4 5–2 2–4 4–6 — 6–7 3–7
San Francisco 7–5 5–5 5–9 6–9 5–7 5–2 4–2 3–4 7–3 7–6 — 2–3
St. Louis 3–4 4–5–1 5–0 4–2 5–5 9–6 5–6 6–7 8–3 7–3 3–2 —

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

Roster

1981 St. Louis Cardinals roster
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

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

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
Lezcano, SixtoSixto Lezcano 72 214 57 .266 5 28
Tenace, GeneGene Tenace 58 129 30 .233 5 22
Braun, SteveSteve Braun 44 46 9 .196 0 2
Green, DavidDavid Green 21 34 5 .147 0 2
González, JulioJulio González 20 22 7 .318 1 3
Fiala, NeilNeil Fiala 3 3 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

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
Sorensen, LaryLary Sorensen 23 140.1 7 7 3.27 52
Forsch, BobBob Forsch 20 124.1 10 5 3.18 41
Martínez, SilvioSilvio Martínez 18 97 2 5 3.99 34
Andújar, JoaquínJoaquín Andújar 11 55.1 6 1 3.74 19

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
Shirley, BobBob Shirley 28 79.1 6 4 4.08 36
LaPoint, DaveDave LaPoint 3 10.2 1 0 4.22 4

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
Sutter, BruceBruce Sutter 48 3 5 25 2.62 57
Kaat, JimJim Kaat 41 6 6 4 3.40 8
Sykes, BobBob Sykes 22 2 0 0 4.58 14
Edelen, JoeJoe Edelen 13 1 0 0 9.35 10
Bair, DougDoug Bair 11 2 0 1 3.45 14
DeLeón, LuisLuis DeLeón 10 0 1 0 2.35 8

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Springfield Redbirds American Association Tommy Thompson
AA Arkansas Travelers Texas League Gaylen Pitts
A St. Petersburg Cardinals Florida State League Nick Leyva
A Gastonia Cardinals South Atlantic League Joe Rigoli
A-Short Season Erie Cardinals New York–Penn League Sonny Ruberto
Rookie Johnson City Cardinals Appalachian League Johnny Lewis

References

  1. ↑ Bob Geren at Baseball Reference
  2. ↑ Bruce Sutter at Baseball Reference
  3. ↑ Ted Simmons at Baseball Reference
  4. ↑ Rafael Santana at Baseball Reference
  5. ↑ Julio González at Baseball Reference
  6. ↑ Bill Lyons at Baseball Reference
  7. ↑ Joaquín Andújar at Baseball Reference
  8. ↑ Tom Nieto at Baseball Reference
  9. ↑ Danny Cox at Baseball Reference
  10. ↑ Neil Fiala at Baseball Reference

External links

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