1981 American League

It was a strike year, and baseball nearly struck out. The players walked out in early June, about 1/3 of the way into the season, and things weren't settled until August, and after hastily-held camps and an All-Star game to kick things off, the final 1/3 of the season got underway. Of course this was bungled, as the games played were declared to be a "first half" and those remaining to be a "second half" with half winners to play each other. Therefore, there was no incentive for first half winners, who couldn't even get a bye, to play hard in the second half. Worse, a couple of teams with the best overall records didn't even make the playoffs. They should've had the full-season winners play the second-set winners for a playoff. That would have made things meaningful for everyone. New York and Oakland won the first halves, Milwaukee and Kansas City the second halves, and Milwaukee and Oakland had the best overall records. New York won the two-tiered playoffs, the first ever. Six Eastern teams played above .500 for the year, three in the West. The Blue Jays had the worst overall record. The whole thing was a mess. Carney Lansford won the batting title at .336, while Dwight Evans led in OPS. Tom Paciorek hit .326, while Kirk Gibson hit .328 but did not have enough plate appearances to qualify for the title. Evans was part of a four-way tie with Bobby Grich, Eddie Murray and Tony Armas for the home run lead at 22. Murray led in RBI with 78, Armas had 76. Rickey Henderson led in steals with 56. Henderson scored 89 runs and had 135 hits, Cecil Cooper had 35 doubles, Evans led in runs created. Wins was a four-way tie with Dennis Martinez, Jack Morris, Pete Vuckovich and Steve McCatty with 14 each. Dave Righetti led in ERA at 2.05, followed by Sammy Stewart at 2.32 and Steve McCatty at 2.33. Len Barker led in strikeouts with 127, and Rollie Fingers in saves. His 28 saves and 1.04 ERA got Fingers the MVP and Cy Young, in just 78 innings. Rick Langford had 18 complete games, Dennis Leonard 202 innings. Win Shares leaders, players; Rickey Henderson (Oakland) 27, Dwight Evans (Boston) 26, Cecil Cooper (Milwaukee) 22, Eddie Murray (Baltimore) and Bobby Grich (California) 21, Gorman Thomas and Robin Yount (Milwaukee) and Dwayne Murphy (Oakland) 20, Carney Lansford (Boston), Toby Harrah (Cleveland), Tony Armas (Oakland) and Buddy Bell (Texas) 18, Rick Burleson (California), Steve Kemp (Detroit), Tom Paciorek (Seattle) and Jim Sundberg (Texas) 17. Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Steve McCatty (Oakland) 18, Rollie Fingers (Milwaukee) 17, Jack Morris (Detroit) 16, Dave Stieb (Toronto) 15, Bert Blyleven (Cleveland) and Dennis Leonard (Kansas City) 14, Milt Wilcox (Detroit) and Larry Gura (Kansas City) 13. WARP3 scores: Evans 8.9, Henderson 8.2, Grich 7.8, Bell and Burleson (best year) 6.7, Chet Lemon (Chicago) 6.2, Yount 6.1, Alan Trammell (Detroit) 6.0, Murray 5.5, Kemp 5.4, Cooper 4.8, Tony Bernazard (Chicago) 4.7, Lou Whitaker (Detroit) 4.6, Mike Hargrove (Cleveland) 4.5, Thomas, Sundberg, Bill Almon and Greg Luzinski (both Chicago) 4.4, Paciorek 4.2 (best year), Lansford and Ken Singleton (Baltimore) 4.1. Pitchers, Fingers 8.3, Blyleven 6.9, McCatty 6.3 (career year), Stieb 5.7, John Denny (Cleveland) and Goose Gossage (New York) 4.7, Doug Corbett (Minnesota) 4.5, Gura 4.3, Dave Righetti (New York) and Sammy Stewart (Baltimore) 4.2, Leonard 4.1 (last good year), Ken Forsch (California) 4.0. WAR leaders, position players: Henderson 7.0, Evans 6.9, Bell 5.7, Grich 5.5, Paciorek 4.9, Yount 4.8, Murphy 4.6, Burleson 4.3, Cooper and Lemon 4.2, Armas 4.1, Trammell and Wilson 3.9, Kemp and Murray 3.8. Pitchers: Barker 4.7, Blyleven and Leonard 4.0, Eckersley 3.5, Stieb 3.3, Forsch 3.0, Gura and Martinez 2.9, Guidry 2.8, Medich 2.7, Wilcox 2.6, Burns, Fingers, McCatty, and McGregor 2.5. Actual award winners; MVP (top 15): | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+----------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Rollie Fingers MIL 15 319 392 0.81 | | 6-3 78 1.04 0.87 61 28 2 Rickey Henderson OAK 12 308 392 0.79 | 423 135 6 .319 .845 56 3 Dwight Evans BOS 0 140 392 0.36 | 412 122 22 .296 .937 3 4 Tony Armas OAK 1 139 392 0.35 | 440 115 22 .261 .774 5 5 Eddie Murray BAL 0 137 392 0.35 | 378 111 22 .294 .895 2 6 Carney Lansford BOS 0 109 392 0.28 | 399 134 4 .336 .828 15 7 Dave Winfield NYY 0 98 392 0.25 | 388 114 13 .294 .824 11 8 Cecil Cooper MIL 0 96 392 0.24 | 416 133 12 .320 .858 5 9 Rich Gossage NYY 0 62 392 0.16 | | 3-2 47 0.77 0.77 48 20 10 Tom Paciorek SEA 0 46 392 0.12 | 405 132 14 .326 .888 13 11 Dwayne Murphy OAK 0 45 392 0.11 | 390 98 15 .251 .777 10 12 Kirk Gibson DET 0 40 392 0.10 | 290 95 9 .328 .848 17 13 Steve McCatty OAK 0 22 392 0.06 | | 14-7 186 2.33 1.08 91 14 Bobby Grich CAL 0 19 392 0.05 | 352 107 22 .304 .921 2| 15 Jack Morris DET 0 17 392 0.04 | | 14-7 198 3.05 1.17 97 Fingers won by a very slim margin over Henderson. Cy Young: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Rollie Fingers MIL 22 126 140 0.90 | 6-3 78 1.04 0.87 61 28 2 Steve McCatty OAK 6 84 140 0.60 | 14-7 186 2.33 1.08 91 3 Jack Morris DET 0 21 140 0.15 | 14-7 198 3.05 1.17 97 4 Pete Vuckovich MIL 0 8 140 0.06 | 14-4 150 3.55 1.30 84 5 Rich Gossage NYY 0 3 140 0.02 | 3-2 47 0.77 0.77 48 20 5 Dennis Martinez BAL 0 3 140 0.02 | 14-5 179 3.32 1.31 88 7 Britt Burns CHW 0 2 140 0.01 | 10-6 157 2.64 1.20 108 7 Ron Guidry NYY 0 2 140 0.01 | 11-5 127 2.76 0.99 104 9 Larry Gura KCR 0 1 140 0.01 | 11-8 172 2.72 1.01 61 Fingers more solidly here. Rookie: | Season Results Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV +--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+---+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+ 1 Dave Righetti NYY 23 127 140 0.91 | | 8-4 105 2.05 1.07 89 2 Rich Gedman BOS 5 64 140 0.46 | 205 59 5 .288 .751 0 3 Bob Ojeda BOS 0 36 140 0.26 | | 6-2 66 3.12 1.13 28 4 Mike Jones KCR 0 8 140 0.06 | | 6-3 76 3.21 1.35 29 5 Shooty Babitt OAK 0 4 140 0.03 | 156 40 0 .256 .615 5 5 Dave Engle MIN 0 4 140 0.03 | 248 64 5 .258 .703 0 5 Mike Witt CAL 0 4 140 0.03 | | 8-9 129 3.28 1.32 75 8 George Bell TOR 0 2 140 0.01 | 163 38 5 .233 .606 3 9 Brad Havens MIN 0 1 140 0.01 | | 3-6 78 3.58 1.28 43 9 Gary Ward MIN 0 1 140 0.01 | 295 78 3 .264 .684 5 First year of 1st, 2nd, 3rd balloting rather than one name. And yes, somebody (apparently a couple of somebodies) voted for Shooty Babitt. Top player: Dwight Evans. Dewey was robbed in the voting, finishing 3rd just ahead of Tony Armas. What!?! Ridiculous! #1 Dwight Evans, #2 Rickey Henderson, #3 Bobby Grich, #4 Eddie Murray, #5 Robin Yount, #6 Cecil Cooper. Top pitcher: Rollie Fingers is the best choice. He was truly a dominating closer, the last time he would be that. #1 Rollie Fingers, #2 Dennis Leonard, #3 Steve McCatty, #4 Dave Stieb, #5 Bert Blyleven. Top rookie: Dave Righetti had an exceptional year. Top manager: Billy Martin managed Oakland to the best record in the league.