Fernando Mania and the Strike Season...
1981 Los Angeles DodgersHome Fields: Dodger Stadium
World ChampionsHit: #5 R, #4 BA
W - 63 L - 47  (.573)  1/2GAPitch: #2 RA, #2 ERA
Manager: Tommy LasordaDef: #2 FA

It took something truly remarkable to save the 1981 Major League Baseball season from being remembered only as the year of the players? strike. It took the Los Angeles Dodgers: Fernandomania and Lasorda and Garv and Bake and the Penguin. It took three amazing October comebacks to beat the Houston Astros, the Montreal Expos and, finally, the New York Yankees, avenging Dodger World Series losses to the Yankees in 1977 and 1978.

The Dodgers nearly saved the game from it's chagrin on the left arm of a 20 year od Fernando Valenzuela's incredicble screwball.  The pudgy Mexican southpaw, unable to speak a trace of English, began his official rookie season with a shutout and then notched seven more victories (four of which were shutouts) before being dealt his first loss. Although the league managed to catch up with him, his league-leading 180 strikeouts, 13-7 record and 2.48 ERA were enough to prompt Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda to thank the heavens and not the Mexican League for his coming.

In the LCS the Dodgers came from behind to defeat the Montreal Expos behind a heroic 8th inning homer by Steve Garvey, which tied the series at two games each and on the final day when Rick Monday hit a 9th inning homer to bring the Dodgers the flag.

The World Series saw the Dodgers go down 2 games to 0 to the hated Yankees who beat them in 1977 & 78.  Fernando came to the rescue in game 3 as he outpitched fellow rookie Dave Righetti and the Dodgers rolled to 3 more consecutive wins to beat the hated Yankees 4 games to 2.



1981 LOS ANGELES DODGERS TEAM ROSTER
Pitchers
No. Name Pos Bats Throws Height Weight Born
-- Castillo, Bobby P R R 5'10" 170 4/18/1955
-- Forster, Terry P L L 6'3" 200 1/14/1952
-- Goltz, Dave P R R 6'4" 200 6/23/1949
-- Hooton, Burt P R R 6'1" 210 2/7/1950
57 Howe, Steve P L L 6'2" 198 3/10/1958
-- Niedenfuer, Tom P R R 6'5" 224 8/13/1959
32 Pena, Alejandro P R R 6'1" 200 6/25/1959
-- Power, Ted P R R 6'4" 215 1/31/1955
-- Reuss, Jerry P L L 6'5" 227 6/19/1949
35 Stewart, Dave P R R 6'2" 230 2/19/1957
-- Sutcliffe, Rick P L R 6'7" 240 6/21/1956
34 Valenzuela, Fernando P L L 5'11" 200 11/1/1960
-- Welch, Bob P R R 6'3" 198 11/3/1956
Catchers
No. Name Pos Bats Throws Height Weight Born
-- Grote, Jerry C R R 5'10" 185 10/6/1942
14 Scioscia, Mike C L R 6'2" 205 11/27/1958
-- Yeager, Steve C R R 6'0" 190 11/24/1948
Infielders
No. Name Pos Bats Throws Height Weight Born
-- Cey, Ron 3B R R 5'10" 185 2/15/1948
-- Frias, Pepe SS R R 5'10" 159 7/14/1948
-- Garvey, Steve 1B R R 5'10" 192 12/22/1948
-- Lopes, Davey 2B R R 5'9" 170 5/3/1945
-- Marshall, Mike 1B R R 6'5" 215 1/12/1960
-- Perconte, Jack 2B L R 5'10" 160 8/31/1954
-- Russell, Bill SS R R 6'0" 175 10/21/1948
6 Sax, Steve 2B R R 5'11" 189 1/29/1960
-- Smith, Reggie 1B B R 6'0" 180 4/2/1945
-- Thomas, Derrel 2B B R 6'0" 160 1/14/1951
-- Weiss, Gary SS B R 5'10" 170 12/27/1955
Outfielders
No. Name Pos Bats Throws Height Weight Born
-- Baker, Dusty -- R R 6'2" 183 6/15/1949
-- Bradley, Mark -- R R 6'1" 180 12/3/1956
-- Ferguson, Joe -- R R 6'2" 200 9/19/1946

 

1981 LOS ANGELES DODGERS TEAM BATTING STATS
Player AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K HBP SB CS GDP OBP SLG OPS
Castillo, Bobby 0.444 34 9 1 4 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.444 0.667 1.111
Stewart, Dave 0.400 32 5 2 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.5 0.8 1.3
Baker, Dusty 0.320 103 400 48 128 17 3 9 49 29 43 1 10 7 9 0.363 0.445 0.808
Monday, Rick 0.315 66 130 24 41 1 2 11 25 24 42 1 1 2 0 0.423 0.608 1.031
Guerrero, Pedro 0.300 98 347 46 104 17 2 12 48 34 57 2 5 9 12 0.365 0.464 0.829
Cey, Ron 0.288 85 312 42 90 15 2 13 50 40 55 3 0 2 7 0.372 0.474 0.846
Garvey, Steve 0.283 110 431 63 122 23 1 10 64 25 49 1 3 5 8 0.322 0.411 0.732
Sax, Steve 0.277 31 119 15 33 2 0 2 9 7 14 0 5 7 0 0.317 0.345 0.662
Scioscia, Mike 0.276 93 290 27 80 10 0 2 29 36 18 1 0 2 8 0.353 0.331 0.685
Landreaux, Ken 0.251 99 390 48 98 16 4 7 41 25 42 1 18 4 6 0.297 0.367 0.664
Frias, Pepe 0.250 25 36 6 9 1 0 0 3 1 3 1 0 0 0 0.282 0.278 0.56
Valenzuela, Fernando 0.250 25 64 3 16 0 1 0 7 1 9 0 0 0 0 0.262 0.281 0.543
Thomas, Derrel 0.248 80 218 25 54 4 0 4 24 25 23 0 7 2 2 0.322 0.321 0.644
Roenicke, Ron 0.234 22 47 6 11 0 0 0 0 6 8 0 1 1 0 0.321 0.234 0.555
Russell, Bill 0.233 82 262 20 61 9 2 0 22 19 20 1 2 1 13 0.284 0.282 0.567
Perconte, Jack 0.222 8 9 2 2 0 1 0 1 2 2 0 1 1 0 0.364 0.444 0.808
Welch, Bob 0.222 23 45 3 10 0 1 0 2 1 16 0 0 0 0 0.239 0.267 0.506
Yeager, Steve 0.209 42 86 5 18 2 0 3 7 6 14 0 0 0 2 0.261 0.337 0.598
Lopes, Davey 0.206 58 214 35 44 2 0 5 17 22 35 3 20 2 7 0.289 0.285 0.574
Johnstone, Jay 0.205 61 83 8 17 3 0 3 6 7 13 0 0 1 3 0.267 0.349 0.616
Marshall, Mike 0.200 14 25 2 5 3 0 0 1 1 4 1 0 0 1 0.259 0.32 0.579
Smith, Reggie 0.200 41 35 5 7 1 0 1 8 7 8 0 0 0 4 0.318 0.314 0.632
Reuss, Jerry 0.196 22 51 3 10 0 0 0 3 0 18 0 0 0 0 0.196 0.196 0.392
Hooton, Burt 0.190 23 42 3 8 3 0 0 3 4 13 0 0 0 0 0.261 0.262 0.523
Sutcliffe, Rick 0.182 14 11 2 2 0 0 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 0 0.308 0.182 0.49
Bradley, Mark 0.167 9 6 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.167 0.333 0.5
Ferguson, Joe 0.143 17 14 2 2 1 0 0 1 2 5 0 0 0 0 0.25 0.214 0.464
Mitchell, Bobby 0.125 10 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0.222 0.125 0.347
Weiss, Gary 0.105 14 19 2 2 0 0 0 1 1 4 0 0 0 0 0.143 0.105 0.248
Maldonado, Candy 0.083 11 12 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0.083 0.083 0.167
Goltz, Dave 0.059 26 17 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 9 1 0 0 0 0.158 0.059 0.217
Team Totals: 0.262 110 3751 450 984 133 20 82 427 331 550 17 73 46 83 0.32 0.37 0.7

 

1981 LOS ANGELES DODGERS TEAM PITCHING STATS
Player ERA W L SV G GS CG ShO  IP H R ER HR BB K RATIO BAVG
Hooton, Burt 2.28 11 6 0 23 23 5 4 142 124 42 36 3 33 74 1.1 0.24
Reuss, Jerry 2.30 10 4 0 22 22 8 2 152 138 44 39 6 27 51 1.08 0.24
Valenzuela, Fernando 2.48 13 7 0 25 25 11 8 192 140 55 53 11 61 180 1.05 0.21
Stewart, Dave 2.49 4 3 6 32 0 0 0 43.1 40 13 12 3 14 29 1.25 0.25
Howe, Steve 2.50 5 3 8 41 0 0 0 54 51 17 15 2 18 32 1.28 0.25
Pena, Alejandro 2.84 1 1 2 14 0 0 0 25.1 18 8 8 2 11 14 1.16 0.19
Power, Ted 3.14 1 3 0 5 2 0 0 14.1 16 6 5 0 7 7 1.63 0.29
Welch, Bob 3.44 9 5 0 23 23 2 1 141 141 56 54 11 41 88 1.29 0.26
Niedenfuer, Tom 3.81 3 1 2 17 0 0 0 26 25 11 11 1 6 12 1.19 0.26
Sutcliffe, Rick 4.02 2 2 0 14 6 0 0 47 41 24 21 5 20 16 1.3 0.24
Goltz, Dave 4.09 2 7 1 26 8 0 0 77 83 35 35 4 25 48 1.4 0.29
Forster, Terry 4.11 0 1 0 21 0 0 0 30.2 37 14 14 1 15 17 1.72 0.31
Castillo, Bobby 5.33 2 4 5 34 1 0 0 50.2 50 31 30 5 24 35 1.47 0.26