1981 Kansas City Royals season

1981 Kansas City Royals
Major League affiliations
Location
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

Season standings

AL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Oakland Athletics 6445 0.587 — 35–21 29–24
Texas Rangers 5748 0.543 5 32–24 25–24
Chicago White Sox 5452 0.509 8½ 25–24 29–28
Kansas City Royals 5053 0.485 11 19–28 31–25
California Angels 5159 0.464 13½ 26–28 25–31
Seattle Mariners 4465 0.404 20 20–37 24–28
Minnesota Twins 4168 0.376 23 24–36 17–32


AL West
First Half Standings		 W L Pct.
Oakland Athletics3723.617
Texas Rangers3322.600
Chicago White Sox3122.585
California Angels3129.517
Kansas City Royals2030.400
Seattle Mariners2136.368
Minnesota Twins1739.304
AL West
Second Half Standings		 W L Pct.
Kansas City Royals3023.566
Oakland Athletics2722.551
Texas Rangers2426.480
Minnesota Twins2429.453
Seattle Mariners2329.442
Chicago White Sox2330.434
California Angels2030.400

Record vs. opponents

1981 American League Records

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore —2–26–63–64–26–75–32–46–07–67–54–22–15–2
Boston 2–2—2–45–47–66–13–36–72–53–37–59–33–64–0
California 6–64–2—6–77–53–30–64–33–32–22–86–42–46–6
Chicago 6–34–57–6—2–53–32–04–12–45–77–63–32–47–5
Cleveland 2–46–75–75–2—1–54–43–62–17–53–28–42–24–2
Detroit 7–61–63–33–35–1—3–25–89–33–71–25–19–36–4
Kansas City 3–53–36–00–24–42–3—4–59–42–103–36–73–45–3
Milwaukee 4–27–63–41–46–38–55–4—9–33–34–22–24–56–4
Minnesota 0–65–23–34–21–23–94–93–9—3–32–83–6–15–85–1
New York 6–73–32–27–55–77–310–23–33–3—4–32–35–42–3
Oakland 5–75–78–26–72–32–13–32–48–23–4—6–14–210–2
Seattle 2–43–94–63–34–81–57–62–26–3–13–21–6—5–83–3
Texas 1–26–34–24–22–23–94–35–48–54–52–48–5—6–2
Toronto 2–50–46–65–72–44–63–54–61–53–22–103–32–6—

Notable transactions

Roster

1981 Kansas City Royals 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
SSU L Washington9833977.227229
1B Willie Aikens 101 349 93 .266 17 53

Other batters

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
César Gerónimo5911829.246213
Jamie Quirk4610025.250010
Tim Ireland400.---00
Onix Concepción200.---00

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Mike Jones1275.2633.2129

Other pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA SO

Relief pitchers

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bill Paschall20004.501

ALDS

Oakland wins series, 3-0.

GameScoreDate
1Oakland 4, Kansas City 0October 6
2Oakland 2, Kansas City 1October 7
3Oakland 4, Kansas City 1October 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

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: GCL Royals Gold

Notes

  1. ↑ https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/botelde01.shtml
  2. ↑ Cal Ripken, Jr. at Baseball Reference
  3. ↑ Bombo Rivera at Baseball Reference
  4. ↑ Dave Leeper at Baseball Reference
  5. ↑ 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.


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