1981 Cleveland Indians
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record
  • 1st half: 26–24 (.520)
  • 2nd half: 26–27 (.491)
  • Overall: 52–51 (.505)
Divisional place
  • 1st half: 6th (5 GB)
  • 2nd half: 5nd (tied; 5 GB)
Other information
Owner(s)Steve O'Neill
General manager(s)Phil Seghi
Manager(s)Dave Garcia
Local televisionWUAB
Local radioWWWE
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The 1981 Cleveland Indians season was the franchise's 81st season as a member of the American League. Games were suspended for 50 days due to the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, causing a split season. The Indians finished the first half of the season in sixth place in the American League East, and the second half of the season tied for fifth place. Managed by Dave Garcia, the Indians played their home games at Cleveland Stadium and had an overall record of 52 wins and 51 losses.

Offseason

Regular season

Main article: Len Barker's perfect game

Season standings

AL East 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Milwaukee Brewers 62 47 0.569 — 28–21 34–26
Baltimore Orioles 59 46 0.562 1 33–22 26–24
New York Yankees 59 48 0.551 2 32–19 27–29
Detroit Tigers 60 49 0.550 2 32–23 28–26
Boston Red Sox 59 49 0.546 2½ 30–23 29–26
Cleveland Indians 52 51 0.505 7 25–29 27–22
Toronto Blue Jays 37 69 0.349 23½ 17–36 20–33
AL East
First Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
New York Yankees 34 22 .607 —
Baltimore Orioles 31 23 .574 2
Milwaukee Brewers 31 25 .554 3
Detroit Tigers 31 26 .544 3+1⁄2
Boston Red Sox 30 26 .536 4
Cleveland Indians 26 24 .520 5
Toronto Blue Jays 16 42 .276 19
AL East
Second Half Standings 		W L Pct. GB
Milwaukee Brewers 31 22 .585 —
Boston Red Sox 29 23 .558 1+1⁄2
Detroit Tigers 29 23 .558 1+1⁄2
Baltimore Orioles 28 23 .549 2
Cleveland Indians 26 27 .491 5
New York Yankees 25 26 .490 5
Toronto Blue Jays 21 27 .438 7+1⁄2

Record vs. opponents

1981 American League Records

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 —


Opening Day Lineup

Opening Day Starters
# Name Position
27 Miguel Diloné DH
20 Rick Manning CF
21 Mike Hargrove 1B
34 Joe Charboneau LF
11 Toby Harrah 3B
6 Jorge Orta RF
16 Bo Díaz C
7 Alan Bannister 2B
15 Tom Veryzer SS
28 Bert Blyleven P

[4]

Roster

1981 Cleveland Indians roster
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG SB
Chris Bando 21 47 3 10 3 0 0 6 .213 0
Alan Bannister 68 232 36 61 11 1 1 17 .263 16
Joe Charboneau 48 138 14 29 7 1 4 18 .210 1
Bo Díaz 63 182 25 57 19 0 7 38 .313 2
Miguel Dilone 72 269 33 78 5 5 0 19 .290 29
Jerry Dybzinski 48 57 10 17 0 0 0 6 .298 7
Mike Fischlin 22 43 3 10 1 0 0 5 .233 3
Mike Hargrove 94 322 43 102 21 0 2 49 .317 5
Toby Harrah 103 361 64 105 12 4 5 44 .291 12
Ron Hassey 61 190 8 44 4 0 1 25 .232 0
Von Hayes 43 109 21 28 8 2 1 17 .257 8
Pat Kelly 48 75 8 16 4 0 1 16 .213 2
Duane Kuiper 72 206 15 53 6 0 0 14 .257 1
Larry Littleton 26 23 2 0 0 0 0 1 .000 0
Rick Manning 103 360 47 88 15 3 4 33 .244 25
Jorge Orta 88 338 50 92 14 3 5 34 .272 4
Karl Pagel 14 15 3 4 0 2 1 4 .267 0
Ron Pruitt 5 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0
Dave Rosello 43 84 11 20 4 0 1 7 .238 0
Andre Thornton 69 226 22 54 12 0 6 30 .239 3
Tom Veryzer 75 221 13 54 4 0 0 14 .244 1
Totals 103 3507 431 922 150 21 39 397 .263 119

Pitching

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player W L ERA G GS SV IP R ER BB K
Len Barker 8 7 3.91 22 22 0 154.1 72 67 46 127
Bert Blyleven 11 7 2.88 20 20 0 159.1 52 51 40 107
Tom Brennan 2 2 3.17 7 6 0 48.1 20 17 14 15
John Denny 10 6 3.15 19 19 0 145.2 62 51 66 94
Wayne Garland 3 7 5.79 12 10 0 56.0 40 36 14 15
Ed Glynn 0 0 1.17 4 0 0 7.2 1 1 4 4
Bob Lacey 0 0 7.59 14 0 0 21.1 20 18 3 11
Dennis Lewallyn 0 0 5.40 7 0 0 13.1 8 8 2 11
Sid Monge 3 5 4.34 31 0 4 58.0 31 28 21 41
Dan Spillner 4 4 3.14 32 5 7 97.1 41 34 39 59
Mike Stanton 3 3 4.36 24 0 2 43.1 21 21 18 34
Rick Waits 8 10 4.92 22 21 0 126.1 74 69 44 51
Totals 52 51 3.88 103 103 13 931.0 442 401 311 569

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Charleston Charlies International League Cal Emery and Frank Lucchesi
AA Chattanooga Lookouts Southern League Woody Smith
A Waterloo Indians Midwest League Gomer Hodge
A-Short Season Batavia Trojans New York–Penn League Dave Oliver

[5]

Notes

  1. ^ Dan Spillner at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Bert Blyleven at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Chronological list of no-hitters at Retrosheet
  4. ^ 1981 Opening Day Lineup at Baseball-Reference
  5. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007

References

Categories