1981 Kansas City Royals season

1981 Kansas City Royals
Major League affiliations
American League (since 1969)
West Division (since 1969)
Location
Royals Stadium (since 1973)
Kansas City, Missouri (since 1969)
Other information
Owner(s)	Ewing Kauffman
General manager(s)	Joe Burke
Manager(s)	Jim Frey and Dick Howser
Local television	WDAF-TV (Al Wisk, Denny Trease)
Local radio	WIBW (AM) (Denny Matthews, Fred White)
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The 1981 Kansas City Royals season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Royals finishing 4th in the American League West with a record of 50 wins and 53 losses. The season was suspended for 50 days due to the infamous 1981 players strike and the league chose as its playoff teams, the division winners from the first and second halves of the season, respectively. Because of this, despite a losing record and a 4th place overall finish, the Royals, having won the AL West in the second half of the season, qualified for the postseason, becoming the only team in MLB history to do so with a losing record.

Offseason

January 6, 1981: Derek Botelho was signed as a Free Agent with the Kansas City Royals.^[1]

Regular season

August 10, 1981: Cal Ripken, Jr. made his major league debut for the Baltimore Orioles in a game against the Royals.^[2]

Season standings

AL West	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Oakland Athletics	64	45	0.587	—	35–21	29–24
Texas Rangers	57	48	0.543	5	32–24	25–24
Chicago White Sox	54	52	0.509	8½	25–24	29–28
Kansas City Royals	50	53	0.485	11	19–28	31–25
California Angels	51	59	0.464	13½	26–28	25–31
Seattle Mariners	44	65	0.404	20	20–37	24–28
Minnesota Twins	41	68	0.376	23	24–36	17–32

AL West First Half Standings	W	L	Pct.
Oakland Athletics	37	23	.617
Texas Rangers	33	22	.600
Chicago White Sox	31	22	.585
California Angels	31	29	.517
Kansas City Royals	20	30	.400
Seattle Mariners	21	36	.368
Minnesota Twins	17	39	.304

AL West Second Half Standings	W	L	Pct.
Kansas City Royals	30	23	.566
Oakland Athletics	27	22	.551
Texas Rangers	24	26	.480
Minnesota Twins	24	29	.453
Seattle Mariners	23	29	.442
Chicago White Sox	23	30	.434
California Angels	20	30	.400

Record vs. opponents

1981 American League Records Sources:
Team	BAL	BOS	CAL	CWS	CLE	DET	KC	MIL	MIN	NYY	OAK	SEA	TEX	TOR
Baltimore	—	2–2	6–6	3–6	4–2	6–7	5–3	2–4	6–0	7–6	7–5	4–2	2–1	5–2
Boston	2–2	—	2–4	5–4	7–6	6–1	3–3	6–7	2–5	3–3	7–5	9–3	3–6	4–0
California	6–6	4–2	—	6–7	7–5	3–3	0–6	4–3	3–3	2–2	2–8	6–4	2–4	6–6
Chicago	6–3	4–5	7–6	—	2–5	3–3	2–0	4–1	2–4	5–7	7–6	3–3	2–4	7–5
Cleveland	2–4	6–7	5–7	5–2	—	1–5	4–4	3–6	2–1	7–5	3–2	8–4	2–2	4–2
Detroit	7–6	1–6	3–3	3–3	5–1	—	3–2	5–8	9–3	3–7	1–2	5–1	9–3	6–4
Kansas City	3–5	3–3	6–0	0–2	4–4	2–3	—	4–5	9–4	2–10	3–3	6–7	3–4	5–3
Milwaukee	4–2	7–6	3–4	1–4	6–3	8–5	5–4	—	9–3	3–3	4–2	2–2	4–5	6–4
Minnesota	0–6	5–2	3–3	4–2	1–2	3–9	4–9	3–9	—	3–3	2–8	3–6–1	5–8	5–1
New York	6–7	3–3	2–2	7–5	5–7	7–3	10–2	3–3	3–3	—	4–3	2–3	5–4	2–3
Oakland	5–7	5–7	8–2	6–7	2–3	2–1	3–3	2–4	8–2	3–4	—	6–1	4–2	10–2
Seattle	2–4	3–9	4–6	3–3	4–8	1–5	7–6	2–2	6–3–1	3–2	1–6	—	5–8	3–3
Texas	1–2	6–3	4–2	4–2	2–2	3–9	4–3	5–4	8–5	4–5	2–4	8–5	—	6–2
Toronto	2–5	0–4	6–6	5–7	2–4	4–6	3–5	4–6	1–5	3–2	2–10	3–3	2–6	—

Notable transactions

April 3, 1981: Bombo Rivera was signed as a free agent by the Royals.^[3]
June 8, 1981: 1981 Major League Baseball draft
- Dave Leeper was drafted by the Royals in the 1st round (23rd pick). Player signed June 10, 1981.^[4]
- David Cone was drafted by the Royals in the 3rd round. Player signed June 10, 1981.^[5]

Roster

1981 Kansas City Royals roster

Roster

Pitchers

37 Juan Berenguer

25 Ken Brett

38 Rich Gale

32 Larry Gura

33 Atlee Hammaker

40 Mike Jones

22 Dennis Leonard

27 Renie Martin

28 Bill Paschall

29 Dan Quisenberry

31 Jeff Schattinger

34 Paul Splittorff

21 Jim Wright

Catchers

15 Jerry Grote

39 Greg Keatley

9 Jamie Quirk

12 John Wathan

Infielders

24 Willie Aikens

5 George Brett

7 Dave Chalk

2 Onix Concepción

17 Tim Ireland

14 Lee May

18 Rance Mulliniks

16,52 Ken Phelps

30 U L Washington

20 Frank White

Outfielders

45 Danny Garcia

23 César Gerónimo

10 Clint Hurdle

4 Darryl Motley

26 Amos Otis

37 Pat Sheridan

6 Willie Wilson

Other batters

11 Hal McRae

Manager

41 Jim Frey

21 Dick Howser

Coaches

36 Billy Connors

43 Gordon Mackenzie

42 José Martínez

44 Jimmie Schaffer

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
SS	U L Washington	98	339	77	.227	2	29
1B	Willie Aikens	101	349	93	.266	17	53

Other batters

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
César Gerónimo	59	118	29	.246	2	13
Jamie Quirk	46	100	25	.250	0	10
Tim Ireland	4	0	0	.---	0	0
Onix Concepción	2	0	0	.---	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Mike Jones	12	75.2	6	3	3.21	29

Other pitchers

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO

Relief pitchers

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Bill Paschall	2	0	0	0	4.50	1

ALDS

Main article: 1981 American League Division Series

Oakland wins series, 3-0.

Game	Score	Date
1	Oakland 4, Kansas City 0	October 6
2	Oakland 2, Kansas City 1	October 7
3	Oakland 4, Kansas City 1	October 9

Farm system

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Omaha Royals	American Association	Joe Sparks
AA	Jacksonville Suns	Southern League	Gene Lamont
A	Fort Myers Royals	Florida State League	Brian Murphy
A	Charleston Royals	South Atlantic League	Rick Mathews
Rookie	GCL Royals Blue	Gulf Coast League	Joe Jones
Rookie	GCL Royals Gold	Gulf Coast League	Roy Tanner

Notes

↑ http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/botelde01.shtml
↑ Cal Ripken, Jr. at Baseball Reference
↑ Bombo Rivera at Baseball Reference
↑ Dave Leeper at Baseball Reference
↑ David Cone at Baseball Reference

References

Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.

External links

1981 Kansas City Royals at Baseball Reference
1981 Kansas City Royals 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

Kansas City Royals

Based in Kansas City, Missouri

Franchise

Ballparks

Municipal Stadium; Kauffman Stadium
Spring training: Terry Park; Baseball City Stadium; Surprise Stadium

Culture

Lore

Rivalries

St. Louis Cardinals

Team Hall of Fame

Minors

AAA: Omaha Storm Chasers
AA: Northwest Arkansas Naturals
A Adv.: Wilmington Blue Rocks
A: Lexington Legends
Rookie Adv.: Idaho Falls Chukars; Burlington Royals
Rookie: AZL Royals; DSL Royals

Key personnel

Owner: David Glass
General Manager: Dayton Moore
Manager: Ned Yost

World Series
championships (2)

1985
2015

American League
pennants (4)

Division titles

West: 1976; 1977; 1978; 1980; 1981 (second half); 1984; 1985
Central: 2015
Wild Card: 2014

Seasons (49)

1960s	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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