1981 Texas Rangers season

The Texas Rangers 1981 season involved the Rangers finishing 2nd in the American League West with a record of 57 wins and 48 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.

1981 Texas Rangers
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)Eddie Chiles
General manager(s)Eddie Robinson
Manager(s)Don Zimmer
Local televisionKXAS-TV
(Eric Nadel, Mel Proctor)
Vue-Pay
(Mark Holtz, Norm Hitzges)
Local radioWBAP
(Eric Nadel, Bill Merrill, Mel Proctor)
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The Rangers playing against the Oakland Athletics during a 1981 away game at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum.

Offseason

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. 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
  • April 1, 1981: Willie Horton was released by the Rangers.[1]
  • June 8, 1981: Ron Darling was drafted by the Rangers in the 1st round (9th pick) of the 1981 Major League Baseball Draft.[3]

Roster
1981 Texas Rangers roster
Roster
Pitchers Catchers
  • 20 Larry Cox

Infielders

  • 30 Mark Wagner
 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
SSMario Mendoza8822953.231022

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
Mark Wagner508522.259114
Bobby Jones10349.26537
Larry Cox5133.23101
Nelson Norman7133.23102

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
Danny Darwin22146993.6498
Rick Honeycutt20127.21163.3140

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
John Butcher527.2121.6319

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
Steve Comer368262.5622
Bob Babcock161102.2018

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Wichita Aeros American Association Rich Donnelly
AA Tulsa Drillers Texas League Tom Burgess
A Asheville Tourists South Atlantic League Tom Robson
Rookie GCL Rangers Gulf Coast League Andy Hancock

Notes
  1. Willie Horton page at Baseball Reference
  2. Bob Jones page at Baseball Reference
  3. Ron Darling page at Baseball Reference

References
  • 1981 Texas Rangers team page at Baseball Reference
  • 1981 Texas Rangers team page at www.baseball-almanac.com
  • Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-1-932391-17-6.
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