1981 St. Louis Cardinals season

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 Divisional Series 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.

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
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record59–43 (.578)
Divisional place2nd
Other information
Owner(s)August "Gussie" Busch
General manager(s)Whitey Herzog
Manager(s)Whitey Herzog
Local televisionKSDK
(Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Jay Randolph, Dan Kelly)
Local radioKMOX
(Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Dan Kelly)
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First baseman Keith Hernandez won a Gold Glove this year.

Offseason

Regular season

Season standings
NL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
St. Louis Cardinals 5943 0.578 — 32–21 27–22
Montreal Expos 6048 0.556 2 38–18 22–30
Philadelphia Phillies 5948 0.551 2½ 36–19 23–29
Pittsburgh Pirates 4656 0.451 13 22–28 24–28
New York Mets 4162 0.398 18½ 24–27 17–35
Chicago Cubs 3865 0.369 21½ 27–30 11–35


NL East
First Half Standings		 W L Pct. GB
Philadelphia Phillies3421.618—
St. Louis Cardinals3020.600​1 1⁄2
Montreal Expos3025.5454
Pittsburgh Pirates2523.521​5 1⁄2
New York Mets1734.33315
Chicago Cubs1537.288​17 1⁄2
NL East
Second Half Standings		 W L Pct. GB
Montreal Expos3023.566—
St. Louis Cardinals2923.558​1⁄2
Philadelphia Phillies2527.481​4 1⁄2
New York Mets2428.462​5 1⁄2
Chicago Cubs2328.4516
Pittsburgh Pirates2133.389​9 1⁄2

Record vs. opponents
1981 National League Records

Sources:
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta—3–2–16–54–87–73–73–34–52–39–65–74–3
Chicago2–3–1—1–51–66–44–75–8–12–104–103–35–55–4–1
Cincinnati5–65–1—8–48–85–47–35–24–210–29–50–5
Houston8–46–14–8—4–85–26–34–62–411–39–62–4
Los Angeles 7–74–68–88–4—5–25–13–35–16–57–55–5
Montreal7–37–44–52–52–5—9–37–410–34–22–56–9
New York3–38–5–13–73–61–53–9—7–73–6–12–52–46–5
Philadelphia5-410–22–56–43–34–77–7—7–54–24–37–6
Pittsburgh3–210–42–44–21–53–106–3–15–7—6–43–73–8
San Diego6–93–32–103–115–62–45–22–44–6—6–73–7
San Francisco7–55–55–96–95–75–24–23–47–37–6—2–3
St. Louis3–44–5–15–04–25–59–65–66–78–37–33–2—

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

Roster
1981 St. Louis Cardinals roster
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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

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 Lezcano7221457.266528
Gene Tenace5812930.233522
Steve Braun44469.19602
David Green21345.14702
Julio González20227.31813
Neil Fiala330.00000

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 Sorensen23140.1773.2752
Bob Forsch20124.11053.1841
Silvio Martínez1897253.9934
Joaquín Andújar1155.1613.7419

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 Shirley2879.1644.0836
Dave LaPoint310.2104.224

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 Sutter4835252.6257
Jim Kaat416643.408
Bob Sykes222004.5814
Joe Edelen131009.3510
Doug Bair112013.4514
Luis DeLeón100102.358

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
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