1981 Chicago Cubs
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)William Wrigley III, Tribune Company
General manager(s)Bob Kennedy, Herman Franks, Dallas Green
Manager(s)Joey Amalfitano
Local televisionWGN-TV
(Jack Brickhouse, Lou Boudreau, Milo Hamilton)
Local radioWGN
(Vince Lloyd, Lou Boudreau)
StatsESPN.com
BB-reference
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The 1981 Chicago Cubs season was the 110th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 106th in the National League and the 66th at Wrigley Field. The Cubs finished the first-half in last place at 15-37, 17½ games behind the Philadelphia Phillies, and the second-half in fifth place at 23-28, six games behind the eventual NL East Champion Montreal Expos in the National League East. It was also the final season for the Cubs under the Wrigley family ownership, as the Tribune Company took over the club late in the year.

Offseason

Regular season

Season standings

NL East 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
St. Louis Cardinals 59 43 0.578 — 32–21 27–22
Montreal Expos 60 48 0.556 2 38–18 22–30
Philadelphia Phillies 59 48 0.551 2½ 36–19 23–29
Pittsburgh Pirates 46 56 0.451 13 22–28 24–28
New York Mets 41 62 0.398 18½ 24–27 17–35
Chicago Cubs 38 65 0.369 21½ 27–30 11–35


NL East
First Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Philadelphia Phillies 34 21 .618 —
St. Louis Cardinals 30 20 .600 1+1⁄2
Montreal Expos 30 25 .545 4
Pittsburgh Pirates 25 23 .521 5+1⁄2
New York Mets 17 34 .333 15
Chicago Cubs 15 37 .288 17+1⁄2
NL East
Second Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Montreal Expos 30 23 .566 —
St. Louis Cardinals 29 23 .558 1⁄2
Philadelphia Phillies 25 27 .481 4+1⁄2
New York Mets 24 28 .462 5+1⁄2
Chicago Cubs 23 28 .451 6
Pittsburgh Pirates 21 33 .389 9+1⁄2

Record vs. opponents

1981 National League Records

Sources: [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta — 3–2–1 6–5 4–8 7–7 3–7 3–3 4–5 2–3 9–6 5–7 4–3
Chicago 2–3–1 — 1–5 1–6 6–4 4–7 5–8–1 2–10 4–10 3–3 5–5 5–4–1
Cincinnati 5–6 5–1 — 8–4 8–8 5–4 7–3 5–2 4–2 10–2 9–5 0–5
Houston 8–4 6–1 4–8 — 4–8 5–2 6–3 4–6 2–4 11–3 9–6 2–4
Los Angeles 7–7 4–6 8–8 8–4 — 5–2 5–1 3–3 5–1 6–5 7–5 5–5
Montreal 7–3 7–4 4–5 2–5 2–5 — 9–3 7–4 10–3 4–2 2–5 6–9
New York 3–3 8–5–1 3–7 3–6 1–5 3–9 — 7–7 3–6–1 2–5 2–4 6–5
Philadelphia 5-4 10–2 2–5 6–4 3–3 4–7 7–7 — 7–5 4–2 4–3 7–6
Pittsburgh 3–2 10–4 2–4 4–2 1–5 3–10 6–3–1 5–7 — 6–4 3–7 3–8
San Diego 6–9 3–3 2–10 3–11 5–6 2–4 5–2 2–4 4–6 — 6–7 3–7
San Francisco 7–5 5–5 5–9 6–9 5–7 5–2 4–2 3–4 7–3 7–6 — 2–3
St. Louis 3–4 4–5–1 5–0 4–2 5–5 9–6 5–6 6–7 8–3 7–3 3–2 —


Notable transactions

Roster

1981 Chicago Cubs
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 Jody Davis 56 180 46 .256 4 21
1B Bill Buckner 106 421 131 .311 10 75
2B Pat Tabler 35 101 19 .188 1 5
SS Iván DeJesús 106 403 78 .194 0 13
3B Ken Reitz 82 260 56 .215 2 28
LF Steve Henderson 82 287 84 .293 5 35
CF Jerry Morales 84 245 70 .286 1 25
RF Leon Durham 87 328 95 .290 10 35

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
Bobby Bonds 45 163 35 .215 6 19
Tim Blackwell 58 158 37 .234 1 11
Steve Dillard 53 119 26 .218 2 11
Scot Thompson 57 115 19 .165 0 8
Héctor Cruz 53 109 25 .229 7 15
Mike Tyson 50 92 17 .185 2 8
Joe Strain 25 74 14 .189 0 1
Tye Waller 30 71 19 .268 3 13
Jim Tracy 45 63 15 .238 0 5
Mike Lum 41 58 14 .241 2 7
Scott Fletcher 19 46 10 .217 0 1
Barry Foote 9 22 0 .000 0 1
Carlos Lezcano 7 14 1 .071 0 2
Mel Hall 10 11 1 .091 1 2
Gene Krug 7 5 2 .400 0 0
Bill Hayes 1 0 0 .--- 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Mike Krukow 25 144.1 9 9 3.68 101
Rick Reuschel 13 85.2 4 7 3.47 53
Doug Bird 12 75.1 4 5 3.58 34

Other pitchers

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Randy Martz 33 107.2 5 7 3.68 32
Ken Kravec 24 78.1 1 6 5.06 50
Bill Caudill 30 71 1 5 5.83 45
Lynn McGlothen 20 54.2 1 4 4.77 26
Mike Griffin 16 52 2 5 4.50 20
Jay Howell 10 22.1 2 0 4.84 10
Dave Geisel 11 16 2 0 0.56 7

Relief pitchers

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Dick Tidrow 51 3 10 9 5.06 39
Doug Capilla 42 1 0 0 3.18 28
Lee Smith 40 3 6 1 3.51 50
Rawly Eastwick 30 0 1 1 2.28 24
Willie Hernández 12 0 0 2 3.95 13

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Iowa Cubs American Association Randy Hundley and Roy Hartsfield
AA Midland Cubs Texas League Roy Hartsfield and George Enright
A Quad Cities Cubs Midwest League Rich Morales
A-Short Season Geneva Cubs New York–Penn League Bob Hartsfield
Rookie GCL Cubs Gulf Coast League Hugh Yancy

Notes

  1. ^ Bruce Sutter at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ "Giants trade twice on final day". The Ledger. Lakeland, Florida. Associated Press (AP). December 13, 1980. p. 3D. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  3. ^ Joe Strain at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ George Riley at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ [1] at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ Butch Benton at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ Joe Carter at Baseball Reference
  8. ^ Rick Reuschel at Baseball Reference
  9. ^ Pat Tabler at Baseball Reference

References

Categories