1981 California Angels
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionWest
BallparkAnaheim Stadium
CityAnaheim, California
OwnersGene Autry
General managersBuzzie Bavasi
ManagersJim Fregosi, Gene Mauch
TelevisionKTLA
RadioKMPC
(Don Drysdale, Ron Fairly, Bob Starr)
← 1980 Seasons 1982 →

The 1981 California Angels season involved the Angels finishing with the fifth best overall record in the American League West with 51 wins and 59 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.

Offseason

Regular season

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. GB
Oakland Athletics 37 23 .617 —
Texas Rangers 33 22 .600 1+1⁄2
Chicago White Sox 31 22 .585 2+1⁄2
California Angels 31 29 .517 6
Kansas City Royals 20 30 .400 12
Seattle Mariners 21 36 .368 14+1⁄2
Minnesota Twins 17 39 .304 18
AL West
Second Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Kansas City Royals 30 23 .566 —
Oakland Athletics 27 22 .551 1
Texas Rangers 24 26 .480 4+1⁄2
Minnesota Twins 24 29 .453 6
Seattle Mariners 23 29 .442 6+1⁄2
Chicago White Sox 23 30 .434 7
California Angels 20 30 .400 8+1⁄2

Record vs. opponents

1981 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
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

Roster

1981 California Angels
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
C Ed Ott 75 258 56 .217 2 22
1B Rod Carew 93 364 111 .305 2 21
2B Bobby Grich 100 352 107 .304 22 61
SS Rick Burleson 109 430 126 .293 5 33
3B Butch Hobson 85 268 63 .235 4 36
LF Brian Downing 93 317 79 .249 9 41
CF Fred Lynn 76 256 56 .219 5 31
RF Dan Ford 97 375 104 .277 15 48
DH Don Baylor 103 377 90 .239 17 66

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
Juan Beníquez 58 166 30 .181 3 13
Bobby Clark 34 88 22 .250 4 19
Larry Harlow 43 82 17 .207 0 4
Bert Campaneris 55 82 21 .256 1 10
John Harris 36 77 19 .247 3 9
Daryl Sconiers 15 52 14 .269 1 7
Freddie Patek 27 47 11 .234 0 5
Tom Brunansky 11 33 5 .152 3 6
Joe Ferguson 12 30 7 .233 1 5
Steve Lubratich 7 21 3 .143 0 1
Brian Harper 4 11 3 .273 0 1
Bob Davis 1 2 0 .000 0 0

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
Geoff Zahn 25 161.1 10 11 4.41 52
Ken Forsch 20 153.0 11 7 2.88 55
Mike Witt 22 129.0 8 9 3.28 75
Steve Renko 22 102.0 8 4 3.44 50
Dave Frost 12 47.1 1 8 5.51 16
Doug Rau 3 10.1 1 2 8.71 3
Bill Travers 4 9.2 0 1 8.38 5

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
Jesse Jefferson 26 77.0 2 4 3.62 27
Bruce Kison 11 44.0 1 1 3.48 19
Ángel Moreno 8 31.1 1 3 2.87 12

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
Don Aase 39 4 4 11 2.34 38
Andy Hassler 42 4 3 5 3.21 44
Luis Sánchez 17 0 2 2 2.94 13
John D'Acquisto 6 0 0 0 10.71 8
Mickey Mahler 6 0 0 0 0.00 5
Alfredo Martínez 2 0 0 0 3.00 4

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Salt Lake City Gulls Pacific Coast League Moose Stubing
AA Holyoke Millers Eastern League Jim Saul
A Redwood Pioneers California League Chris Cannizzaro
A-Short Season Salem Senators Northwest League Rick Ingalls
Rookie Idaho Falls Angels Pioneer League Joe Maddon

Notes

  1. ^ Geoff Zahn at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Dan Whitmer at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ "Ron Romanick Stats".
  4. ^ Joe Rudi at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ a b Dave Rader at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ Dave Skaggs at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ Dick Schofield at Baseball Reference
  8. ^ Devon White at Baseball Reference

References

External links

Preceded by1980 California Angels seasons 1981 Succeeded by1982
1981 MLB season by team
Los Angeles Angels
Categories