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
National League (since 1892)
Eastern Division (since 1969)
Location
Busch Memorial Stadium (since 1966)
St. Louis, Missouri (since 1882)
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

December 8, 1980: Terry Kennedy, Steve Swisher, Mike Phillips, John Littlefield, John Urrea, Kim Seaman, and Al Olmsted were traded by the Cardinals to the San Diego Padres for Rollie Fingers, Bob Shirley, Gene Tenace and a player to be named later. The Padres completed the deal by sending Bob Geren to the Cardinals on December 10.^[1]
December 9, 1980: Leon Durham, Ken Reitz and a player to be named later were traded by the Cardinals to the Chicago Cubs for Bruce Sutter. The Cardinals completed the trade by sending Tye Waller to the Cubs on December 22.^[2]
December 12, 1980: Ted Simmons, Rollie Fingers and Pete Vuckovich were traded by the Cardinals to the Milwaukee Brewers for Sixto Lezcano, David Green, Lary Sorensen and Dave LaPoint.^[3]
February 16, 1981: The Cardinals traded a player to be named later to the New York Yankees for Rafael Santana. The Cardinals completed the deal by sending George Frazier to the Yankees on June 7.^[4]

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

April 3, 1981: Julio González was signed as a free agent by the Cardinals.^[5]
April 29, 1981: Bill Lyons was signed as a free agent by the Cardinals.^[6]
June 7, 1981: Tony Scott was traded by the Cardinals to the Houston Astros for Joaquín Andújar.^[7]
June 8, 1981: 1981 Major League Baseball draft
- Tom Nieto was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 3rd round.^[8]
- Danny Cox was drafted by the Cardinals in the 13th round.^[9]
September 10, 1981: Joe Edelen and Neil Fiala were traded by the Cardinals to the Cincinnati Reds for Doug Bair.^[10]

Roster

1981 St. Louis Cardinals roster

Roster

Pitchers

49 Joaquín Andújar

43 Doug Bair

49 Luis DeLeón

44 Joe Edelen

31 Bob Forsch

36 Jim Kaat

47 Dave LaPoint

32 Mark Littell

33 John Martin

35 Silvio Martínez

40 Jim Otten

46 Andy Rincon

32 Bob Shirley

39 Lary Sorensen

42 Bruce Sutter

38 Bob Sykes

Catchers

11 Glenn Brummer

15 Darrell Porter

23 Orlando Sánchez

18 Gene Tenace

Infielders

14 Julio González

37 Keith Hernandez

28 Tom Herr

10 Ken Oberkfell

5 Mike Ramsey

1 Garry Templeton

Outfielders

26 Steve Braun

27 David Green

25 George Hendrick

19 Dane Iorg

21 Tito Landrum

16 Sixto Lezcano

29 Gene Roof

30 Tony Scott

Other batters

51 Neil Fiala

Manager

24 Whitey Herzog

Coaches

4 Chuck Hiller

9 Hub Kittle

8 Hal Lanier

3 Dave Ricketts

2 Red Schoendienst

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

↑ Bob Geren at Baseball Reference
↑ Bruce Sutter at Baseball Reference
↑ Ted Simmons at Baseball Reference
↑ Rafael Santana at Baseball Reference
↑ Julio González at Baseball Reference
↑ Bill Lyons at Baseball Reference
↑ Joaquín Andújar at Baseball Reference
↑ Tom Nieto at Baseball Reference
↑ Danny Cox at Baseball Reference
↑ Neil Fiala at Baseball Reference

External links

1981 St. Louis Cardinals
1981 St. Louis Cardinals at Baseball Almanac

1981 MLB season by team

AL East	Baltimore Boston Cleveland Detroit Milwaukee New York Toronto

AL West	California Chicago Kansas City Minnesota Oakland Seattle Texas

NL East	Chicago Montréal New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis

NL West	Atlanta Cincinnati Houston Los Angeles San Diego San Francisco

1981 MLB draft 1981 All-Star Game 1981 strike 1981 World Series

St. Louis Cardinals

Based in St. Louis, Missouri

Franchise

History

Ballparks

Robison Field Sportsman's Park Busch Memorial Stadium Busch Stadium

Spring training	Whittington Park Herald Park West End Park McKechnie Field City Island Ball Park Al Lang Stadium Roger Dean Stadium

Culture

Lore

Rivalries

Key personnel

Owner: Bill DeWitt, Jr.
General Manager: John Mozeliak
Manager: Mike Matheny

Minors

AAA: Memphis Redbirds
AA: Springfield Cardinals
A Adv.: Palm Beach Cardinals
A: Peoria Chiefs
Short A: State College Spikes
Rookie Adv.: Johnson City Cardinals
Rookie: Gulf Coast League Cardinals; Dominican Summer League Cardinals

World Series
Championships

pre-MLB	1885 1886

MLB	1926 1931 1934 1942 1944 1946 1964 1967 1982 2006 2011

League pennants

American Association	1885 1886 1887 1888

National League	1926 1928 1930 1931 1934 1942 1943 1944 1946 1964 1967 1968 1982 1985 1987 2004 2006 2011 2013

Division titles

National League East: 1982; 1985; 1987
National League Central: 1996; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2004; 2005; 2006; 2009; 2013; 2014; 2015

Wild card titles

All Star Games hosted

Seasons (136)

1880s	1880 · 1881 · 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889

1890s	1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

1900s	1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909

1910s	1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

1920s	1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929

1930s	1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

1940s	1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

1950s	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959

1960s	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

1970s	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979

1980s	1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

1990s	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

2000s	2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2010s	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

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