1981 Milwaukee Brewers
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionEast
BallparkMilwaukee County Stadium
CityMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Record
  • 1st half: 31–25 (.554)
  • 2nd half: 31–22 (.585)
  • Overall: 62–47 (.569)
Divisional place
  • 1st half: 3rd (3 GB)
  • 2nd half: 1st
OwnersBud Selig
General managersHarry Dalton
ManagersBuck Rodgers
TelevisionWVTV
(Kent Derdivanis, Mike Hegan, Steve Shannon)
SelecTV
(Joe Castiglione, Tom Collins)
RadioWISN (AM)
(Lorn Brown, Bob Uecker)
← 1980 Seasons 1982 →

The 1981 Milwaukee Brewers season was the franchise's 13th overall season and 12th season based in Milwaukee. The Brewers finished first in American League East during the second half of the split season (caused by the 1981 Major League Baseball strike) and compiled an overall record of 62 wins and 47 losses. The team advanced to the postseason for the first time in franchise history due to their second-half first-place finish, but lost to the New York Yankees in the ALDS. Rollie Fingers became the first relief pitcher in the history of the American League to win the MVP Award.[1]

Offseason

Regular season

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 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 Milwaukee Brewers 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 Ted Simmons 100 380 82 .216 14 61
1B Cecil Cooper 106 416 133 .320 12 60
2B Jim Gantner 107 352 94 .267 2 33
SS Robin Yount 96 377 103 .273 10 49
3B Don Money 60 185 40 .216 2 14
LF Ben Oglivie 107 400 97 .243 14 72
CF Gorman Thomas 103 363 94 .259 21 65
RF Mark Brouhard 60 186 51 .274 2 20
DH Larry Hisle 27 87 20 .230 4 11

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
Paul Molitor 64 251 67 .267 2 19
Roy Howell 76 244 58 .238 6 33
Charlie Moore 48 156 47 .301 1 9
Thad Bosley 42 105 24 .229 0 3
Ed Romero 44 91 18 .198 1 10
Sal Bando 32 65 13 .200 2 9
Marshall Edwards 40 58 14 .241 0 4
Ned Yost 18 27 6 .222 3 3

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
Pete Vuckovich 24 149.2 14 4 3.55 84
Mike Caldwell 24 144.1 11 9 3.93 41
Moose Haas 24 137.1 11 7 4.46 64
Jim Slaton 24 117.1 5 7 4.37 47
Randy Lerch 23 110.2 7 9 4.31 53

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
Rollie Fingers 47 6 3 28 1.04 61
Jamie Easterly 44 3 3 4 3.19 31
Reggie Cleveland 35 2 3 1 5.15 18
Jerry Augustine 27 2 2 2 4.26 26
Rickey Keeton 17 1 0 0 5.09 9
Dwight Bernard 6 0 0 0 3.60 1
Bob McClure 4 0 0 0 3.52 6
Chuck Porter 3 0 0 0 4.15 1
Donnie Moore 3 0 0 0 6.75 2
Frank DiPino 2 0 0 0 0.00 3
Willie Mueller 1 0 0 0 4.50 1

ALDS

Main article: 1981 American League Division Series

New York wins series, 3-2.

Game Score Date
1 New York 5, Milwaukee 3 October 7
2 New York 3, Milwaukee 0 October 8
3 Milwaukee 5, New York 3 October 9
4 Milwaukee 2, New York 1 October 10
5 New York 7, Milwaukee 3 October 11

Awards and honors

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

The Brewers' farm system consisted of five minor league affiliates in 1981.[10] The Butte Copper Kings won the Pioneer League championship.[11]

Level Team League Manager
Triple-A Vancouver Canadians Pacific Coast League Lee Sigman
Double-A El Paso Diablos Texas League Tony Muser
Class A Stockton Ports California League Duane Espy
Class A Burlington Bees Midwest League Terry Bevington
Rookie Butte Copper Kings Pioneer League Ken Richardson

Notes

  1. ^ Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 152, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0
  2. ^ Ted Simmons at Baseball-Reference
  3. ^ Ernest Riles at Baseball-Reference
  4. ^ a b Paul Hartzell at Baseball-Reference
  5. ^ Bob Galasso at Baseball-Reference
  6. ^ John Poff at Baseball-Reference
  7. ^ Bill Lyons at Baseball-Reference
  8. ^ Dan Boitano at Baseball-Reference
  9. ^ "Bryan Clutterbuck: Career Statistics". Baseball Reference. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  10. ^ "1981 Milwaukee Brewers Minor League Affiliates". Baseball-Reference. Sports Reference. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
  11. ^ "Pioneer League Champions". Pioneer League. Minor League Baseball. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2020.

References

Categories