1981 Cincinnati Reds
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record66–42 (.611)
Divisional place1st
Other information
Owner(s)William & James Williams
General manager(s)Dick Wagner
Manager(s)John McNamara
Local televisionWLWT
(Ray Lane, Bill Brown, Dick Carlson)
Local radioWLW
(Marty Brennaman, Joe Nuxhall)
< Previous season     Next season >

The 1981 Cincinnati Reds season consisted of the Reds finishing with an overall record of 66–42, giving them the best win–loss record in all of Major League Baseball. However, due to a split-season format, caused by a mid-season players' strike, they failed to make the MLB playoffs this year because they did not finish first in either half of the season. The Reds finished the first half of the season in second place with a record of 35–21, just one-half game behind the eventual World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, and one-and-a-half games behind the Houston Astros in the second half, in which the Reds were 31–21, good for second place, again. The Reds were managed by John McNamara and played their home games at Riverfront Stadium.

Offseason

Regular season

Season standings

NL West 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cincinnati Reds 66 42 0.611 — 32–22 34–20
Los Angeles Dodgers 63 47 0.573 4 33–23 30–24
Houston Astros 61 49 0.555 6 31–20 30–29
San Francisco Giants 56 55 0.505 11½ 29–24 27–31
Atlanta Braves 50 56 0.472 15 22–27 28–29
San Diego Padres 41 69 0.373 26 20–35 21–34
NL West
First Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Los Angeles Dodgers 36 21 .632 —
Cincinnati Reds 35 21 .625 1⁄2
Houston Astros 28 29 .491 8
Atlanta Braves 25 29 .463 9+1⁄2
San Francisco Giants 27 32 .458 10
San Diego Padres 23 33 .411 12+1⁄2
NL West
Second Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Houston Astros 33 20 .623 —
Cincinnati Reds 31 21 .596 1+1⁄2
San Francisco Giants 29 23 .558 3+1⁄2
Los Angeles Dodgers 27 26 .509 6
Atlanta Braves 25 27 .481 7+1⁄2
San Diego Padres 18 36 .333 15+1⁄2

Record vs. opponents

1981 National League Records

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
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 Cincinnati Reds roster
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 Joe Nolan 81 236 73 .309 1 26
1B Dan Driessen 82 233 55 .236 7 33
2B Ron Oester 105 354 96 .271 5 42
SS Dave Concepción 106 421 129 .306 5 67
3B Ray Knight 106 386 100 .259 6 34
LF George Foster 108 414 122 .295 22 90
CF Ken Griffey 101 396 123 .311 2 34
RF Dave Collins 95 360 98 .272 3 23

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
Johnny Bench 52 178 55 .309 8 25
Mike O'Berry 55 111 20 .180 1 5
Paul Householder 23 69 19 .275 2 9
Larry Biittner 42 61 13 .213 0 8
Sam Mejías 66 49 14 .286 0 7
Junior Kennedy 27 44 11 .250 0 5
Mike Vail 31 31 5 .161 0 3
Harry Spilman 23 24 4 .167 0 3
Rafael Landestoy 12 11 2 .182 0 1
Germán Barranca 9 6 2 .333 0 1
Eddie Milner 8 5 1 .200 0 1
Neil Fiala 2 2 1 .500 0 1

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
Mario Soto 25 175.0 12 9 3.29 151
Tom Seaver 23 166.1 14 2 2.54 87
Frank Pastore 22 132.0 4 9 4.02 81
Bruce Berenyi 21 126.0 9 6 3.50 106

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
Mike LaCoss 20 78.0 4 7 6.12 22
Charlie Liebrandt 7 30.0 1 1 3.60 9

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
Tom Hume 51 9 4 13 3.46 27
Joe Price 41 6 1 4 2.52 41
Paul Moskau 27 2 1 2 .494 32
Doug Bair 24 2 2 0 5.77 16
Geoff Combe 14 1 0 0 7.64 9
Scott Brown 10 1 0 0 2.77 7
Joe Edelen 5 1 0 0 0.71 5

Awards and honors

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Indianapolis Indians American Association Jim Beauchamp
AA Waterbury Reds Eastern League George Scherger
A Tampa Tarpons Florida State League Jim Lett
A Cedar Rapids Reds Midwest League Randy Davidson
A-Short Season Eugene Emeralds Northwest League Greg Riddoch
Rookie Billings Mustangs Pioneer League Jim Hoff

Notes

  1. ^ Joe Kerrigan page at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ "Terry McGriff Stats".
  3. ^ "Paul O'Neill Stats | Baseball-Reference.com".
  4. ^ Neil Fiala page at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ "Hutch Award | Baseball Almanac".

References


Categories