Colonel William A. Phillips

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The Rangers playing against the Oakland Athletics during a 1981 away game at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum.

The Texas Rangers 1981 season involved the Rangers finishing second in the American League West with a record of 57 wins and 48 losses. The season was suspended for 50 days due to the infamous 1981 players strike and the league chose as its playoff teams, the division winners from the first and second halves of the season, respectively.

Offseason

Regular season

Season standings

AL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Oakland Athletics 64 45 0.587 35–21 29–24
Texas Rangers 57 48 0.543 5 32–24 25–24
Chicago White Sox 54 52 0.509 25–24 29–28
Kansas City Royals 50 53 0.485 11 19–28 31–25
California Angels 51 59 0.464 13½ 26–28 25–31
Seattle Mariners 44 65 0.404 20 20–37 24–28
Minnesota Twins 41 68 0.376 23 24–36 17–32
AL West
First Half Standings
W L Pct. GB
Oakland Athletics 37 23 .617
Texas Rangers 33 22 .600 1+12
Chicago White Sox 31 22 .585 2+12
California Angels 31 29 .517 6
Kansas City Royals 20 30 .400 12
Seattle Mariners 21 36 .368 14+12
Minnesota Twins 17 39 .304 18
AL West
Second Half Standings
W L Pct. GB
Kansas City Royals 30 23 .566
Oakland Athletics 27 22 .551 1
Texas Rangers 24 26 .480 4+12
Minnesota Twins 24 29 .453 6
Seattle Mariners 23 29 .442 6+12
Chicago White Sox 23 30 .434 7
California Angels 20 30 .400 8+12

Record vs. opponents


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 Texas Rangers 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 Jim Sundberg 102 339 94 .277 3 28
1B Pat Putnam 95 297 79 .266 8 35
2B Bump Wills 102 410 103 .251 2 41
SS Mario Mendoza 88 229 53 .231 0 22
3B Buddy Bell 97 360 106 .294 10 64
LF Billy Sample 66 230 65 .283 3 25
CF Mickey Rivers 99 399 114 .286 3 26
RF Johnny Grubb 67 199 46 .231 3 26
DH Al Oliver 102 421 130 .309 4 55

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
Leon Roberts 72 233 65 .279 4 31
Bill Stein 53 115 38 .330 2 22
Mark Wagner 50 85 22 .259 1 14
Tom Poquette 30 64 10 .156 0 7
John Ellis 23 58 8 .138 1 7
Bobby Jones 10 34 9 .265 3 7
Wayne Tolleson 14 24 4 .167 0 1
Bob Johnson 6 18 5 .278 2 4
Rick Lisi 9 16 5 .313 0 1
Dan Duran 13 16 4 .250 0 0
Larry Cox 5 13 3 .231 0 1
Nelson Norman 7 13 3 .231 0 2
Don Werner 2 8 2 .250 0 0

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
Danny Darwin 22 146.0 9 9 3.64 98
Doc Medich 20 143.1 10 6 3.08 65
Rick Honeycutt 20 127.2 11 6 3.31 40
Fergie Jenkins 19 106.0 5 8 4.50 63
Jon Matlack 17 104.1 4 7 4.14 43

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
Charlie Hough 21 82.0 4 1 2.96 69
John Butcher 5 27.2 1 2 1.63 19
Len Whitehouse 2 3.1 0 1 16.20 2

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
Steve Comer 36 8 2 6 2.56 22
John Henry Johnson 24 3 1 2 2.66 8
Jim Kern 23 1 2 6 2.70 20
Bob Babcock 16 1 1 0 2.20 18
Dave Scmiidt 14 0 1 1 3.13 13
Mark Mercer 7 0 1 2 4.70 8
Bob Lacey 1 0 0 0 9.00 0

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Wichita Aeros American Association Rich Donnelly
AA Tulsa Drillers Texas League Tom Burgess
A Asheville Tourists South Atlantic League Tom Robson
Rookie GCL Rangers Gulf Coast League Andy Hancock

Notes

References