Series Wrapup

Story

The “split-season” format major league baseball devised in 1981 as a result of the players’ strike created several inequities in both leagues, particularly in the senior circuit, where the two clubs with the best overall records failed to advance to the postseason tournament.  The Cincinnati Reds compiled a major-league best 66-42 record over the course of the campaign, while the St. Louis Cardinals posted a mark of 59-43 that represented the second-best figure in the National League.  Yet, neither team ended up making the playoffs.  Instead, the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos shared first-place honors in the N.L. East, while the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros battled it out for supremacy in the West.  

Philadelphia posted the best record in the National League’s Eastern Division prior to the player walkout, finishing 1 ½ games ahead of St. Louis and four games in front of Montreal.  Although the Phillies slumped during the season’s second half, compiling a mark of only 25-27 after the players returned to their jobs, they received another MVP performance from Mike Schmidt.  In addition to batting a career-high .316, Schmidt led the league with 31 home runs, 91 runs batted in, 78 runs scored, a .439 on-base percentage, and a .644 slugging average.  Pete Rose, Gary Matthews, and Steve Carlton also had outstanding seasons for Philadelphia.  Rose scored 73 runs and placed second in the league with a .325 batting average.  Matthews batted .301 and knocked in 67 runs.  Carlton finished 13-4, with a 2.42 ERA, 179 strikeouts, and 190 innings pitched.  

After narrowly missing the playoffs each of the previous two years, Montreal advanced to the postseason for the first time by edging out St. Louis for the division’s best record by just ½ game during the season’s second half.  The young Expos received significant contributions from outfielders Tim Raines and Andre Dawson.  Called up from the minors early in the year, Raines appeared in 88 games for Montreal, batting .304, scoring 61 runs, and leading the league with 71 stolen bases.  Dawson earned a second-place finish in the MVP balloting by hitting 24 home runs, driving in 64 runs, scoring 71 others, batting .302, and stealing 26 bases.  

After losing a one-game playoff for the Western Division title to the Houston Astros one year earlier, the Dodgers earned an opportunity to gain a measure of revenge by finishing the season’s first half with a record of 36-21 that left them a mere ½ game ahead of the runner-up Cincinnati Reds.  Meanwhile, Houston earned a return trip to the postseason tournament by compiling a second-half mark of 33-20 that allowed them to edge out the Reds by 1 ½ games.

The Astros again relied heavily on their outstanding pitching to make the playoffs.  Every member of Houston’s starting rotation compiled an ERA well below 3.00, enabling the Astros to post a league-leading 2.66 team ERA.  Don Sutton and Nolan Ryan tied for the club lead with 11 victories apiece, and Ryan led all N.L. hurlers with a 1.69 ERA.  Bob Knepper chipped in with nine wins and an outstanding 2.18 ERA.
 
The Dodger staff, which finished second in the senior circuit with a team ERA of 3.01, also included an exceptional pitcher in rookie phenom Fernando Valenzuela.  The 20-year-old left-hander finished 13-7, with a 2.48 ERA and a league-leading 180 strikeouts, eight shutouts, 11 complete games, and 192 innings pitched, en route to earning N.L. Cy Young and Rookie of the Year honors.  In addition, the Dodgers’ starting rotation featured Burt Hooton, who finished 11-6 with a 2.28 ERA, and Jerry Reuss, who went 10-4 with an ERA of 2.30.

Meanwhile, Steve Garvey and Dusty Baker paced the Dodgers on offense.  Garvey batted .283 and placed among the league leaders with 64 runs batted in.  Baker finished third in the league with a .320 batting average

The Astros won the first two games of their first round playoff matchup with the Dodgers, but Los Angeles stormed back to claim the Western Division title by taking the final three contests.  Jerry Reuss led the Dodgers to victory in the series clincher, going the distance in a 4-0 Los Angeles win.   

The Phillies similarly fell behind two-games-to-none in their Eastern Division matchup with the Expos, before coming back to even the Series at two-games-apiece.  However, Montreal thwarted the Philadelphia comeback by winning Game Five 3-0 behind Steve Rogers.

The Expos subsequently jumped out to a 2-0 lead against the Dodgers in the NLCS.  Los Angeles rallied once again, though, to even the Series at 2-2.  Rick Monday capped the Dodger comeback by hitting a home run against Rogers in the top of the ninth inning in Game Five that broke a 1-1 tie and put Los Angeles in the World Series for the first time in three years.

Los Angeles went down 2-0 for the third straight time by losing the first two World Series games at Yankee Stadium.  But the Dodgers swept New York in the next four contests, gaining a measure of revenge against a team that defeated them in both the 1977 and 1978 World Series.  The Dodgers took Game Six in convincing fashion, beating the Yankees by a score of 9-2.  Pedro Guerrero, Ron Cey, and Steve Yeager shared Series MVP honors.

Other outstanding performers, notable events, and points of interest from around the league follow:

• April 18 – Cincinnati’s Tom Seaver recorded his 3,000th career strikeout.

• April 29 – Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton recorded his 3,000th career strikeout.

• June 5 - Nolan Ryan issued the 1,777th walk of his career, breaking the record previously held by Early Wynn.

• June 10 - Pete Rose tied Stan Musial’s National League record for career hits by collecting the 3,630th safety of his career.  He broke Musial’s all-time mark more than two months later, after play resumed following the players’ strike.

• June 16 - In the midst of the players' strike, William Wrigley III announced the sale of the Chicago Cubs to the Tribune Company for $20 million, thereby ending the decades-long association between the Wrigley family and the Cubs.

• Cincinnati’s Tom Seaver finished 14-2 with a 2.55 ERA.

• The National League won its 10th straight All-Star Game, 5-4 in Cleveland.

• Nolan Ryan established a new major league record by throwing his fifth career no-hitter on September 26 against the Dodgers.

• Charlie Lea of Montreal tossed a no-hitter against San Francisco on May 10.

• Pittsburgh’s Bill Madlock led the league with a .341 batting average.

• Cincinnati traded Ray Knight to Houston for Cesar Cedeno.

• St. Louis dealt Garry Templeton to San Diego for Ozzie Smith.

• The Carpenter family sold the Phillies.

• San Francisco’s Vida Blue became the first pitcher to win the All-Star Game as a member of each league’s squad.

• San Francisco’s Frank Robinson became the first black manager in National League history.

• Cincinnati’s George Foster batted .295 and placed among the league leaders with 22 home runs and 90 runs batted in.

Seasons of the National League

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