1981 Kansas City Royals season

The 1981 Kansas City Royals season was their 13th in Major League Baseball. The 1981 season was interrupted by a players strike from June 12-July 31, and resumed on August 10. Major League Baseball officials decided to split the season, and the division winners of both halves would advance to the playoffs. The Royals were 20-30 and in fifth place in the American League West when the strike began, but won the second half with a 30-20 mark. Dick Howser replaced Jim Frey as manager on August 31. Kansas City's overall 50-53 record made the Royals the first team in MLB history to reach the postseason with a losing mark. Kansas City lost to the first half American League West winner Oakland Athletics 3-0 in the Division Series.

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 televisionWDAF-TV
(Al Wisk, Denny Trease)
Local radioWIBW (AM)
(Denny Matthews, Fred White)
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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 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. GB
Oakland Athletics3723.617—
Texas Rangers3322.600​1 1⁄2
Chicago White Sox3122.585​2 1⁄2
California Angels3129.5176
Kansas City Royals2030.40012
Seattle Mariners2136.368​14 1⁄2
Minnesota Twins1739.30418
AL West
Second Half Standings		 W L Pct. GB
Kansas City Royals3023.566—
Oakland Athletics2722.5511
Texas Rangers2426.480​4 1⁄2
Minnesota Twins2429.4536
Seattle Mariners2329.442​6 1⁄2
Chicago White Sox2330.4347
California Angels2030.400​8 1⁄2

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

  • 36 Billy Connors
  • 42 José Martínez

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
Main article: 1981 American League Division Series

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
See also: Minor League Baseball
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. "Derek Botelho Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  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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