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
LeagueNational League
DivisionEast
BallparkBusch Memorial Stadium
CitySt. Louis, Missouri
Record59–43 (.578)
Divisional place2nd
OwnersAugust "Gussie" Busch
General managersWhitey Herzog
ManagersWhitey Herzog
TelevisionKSDK
(Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Jay Randolph, Dan Kelly)
RadioKMOX
(Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Dan Kelly)
← 1980 Seasons 1982 →

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 NLDS 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
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
St. Louis Cardinals 59 43 .578 — 32‍–‍21 27‍–‍22
Montreal Expos 60 48 .556 2 38‍–‍18 22‍–‍30
Philadelphia Phillies 59 48 .551 2½ 36‍–‍19 23‍–‍29
Pittsburgh Pirates 46 56 .451 13 22‍–‍28 24‍–‍28
New York Mets 41 62 .398 18½ 24‍–‍27 17‍–‍35
Chicago Cubs 38 65 .369 21½ 27‍–‍30 11‍–‍35
NL East
First Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Philadelphia Phillies 34 21 .618 —
St. Louis Cardinals 30 20 .600 1+1⁄2
Montreal Expos 30 25 .545 4
Pittsburgh Pirates 25 23 .521 5+1⁄2
New York Mets 17 34 .333 15
Chicago Cubs 15 37 .288 17+1⁄2
NL East
Second Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Montreal Expos 30 23 .566 —
St. Louis Cardinals 29 23 .558 1⁄2
Philadelphia Phillies 25 27 .481 4+1⁄2
New York Mets 24 28 .462 5+1⁄2
Chicago Cubs 23 28 .451 6
Pittsburgh Pirates 21 33 .389 9+1⁄2

Record vs. opponents

1981 National League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
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
C Darrell Porter 61 174 39 .224 6 31
1B Keith Hernandez 103 376 115 .306 8 48
2B Tom Herr 103 411 110 .268 0 46
SS Garry Templeton 80 333 96 .288 1 33
3B Ken Oberkfell 102 376 110 .293 2 45
LF Dane Iorg 75 217 71 .327 2 39
CF Tony Scott 45 176 40 .227 2 17
RF George Hendrick 101 394 112 .284 18 61

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
Sixto Lezcano 72 214 57 .266 5 28
Gene Tenace 58 129 30 .233 5 22
Mike Ramsey 47 124 32 .258 0 9
Tito Landrum 81 119 31 .261 0 10
Gene Roof 23 60 18 .300 0 3
Orlando Sánchez 27 49 14 .286 0 6
Steve Braun 44 46 9 .196 0 2
David Green 21 34 5 .147 0 2
Glenn Brummer 21 30 6 .200 0 2
Julio González 20 22 7 .318 1 3
Neil 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
Lary Sorensen 23 140.1 7 7 3.27 52
Bob Forsch 20 124.1 10 5 3.18 41
John Martin 17 102.2 8 5 3.42 36
Silvio Martínez 18 97.0 2 5 3.99 34
Joaquín Andújar 11 55.1 6 1 3.74 19
Andy Rincon 5 35.2 3 1 1.77 13

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
Bob Shirley 28 79.1 6 4 4.08 36
Dave 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
Bruce Sutter 48 3 5 25 2.62 57
Jim Kaat 41 6 6 4 3.40 8
Mark Littell 28 1 3 2 4.39 22
Jim Otten 24 1 0 0 5.30 20
Bob Sykes 22 2 0 0 4.58 14
Joe Edelen 13 1 0 0 9.35 10
Doug Bair 11 2 0 1 3.45 14
Luis DeLeón 10 0 1 0 2.35 8

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
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. ^ "Bobby Beacham: Career Statistics". Baseball Reference. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  9. ^ Tom Nieto at Baseball Reference
  10. ^ Danny Cox at Baseball Reference
  11. ^ Neil Fiala at Baseball Reference