1981 Chicago Cubs season

1981 Chicago Cubs
Major League affiliations
National League (since 1876)
Eastern Division (since 1969)
Location
Wrigley Field (since 1916)
Chicago (since 1870)
Other information
Owner(s)	William Wrigley III, Tribune Company
General manager(s)	Bob Kennedy, Herman Franks, Dallas Green
Manager(s)	Joey Amalfitano
Local television	WGN-TV (Jack Brickhouse, Lou Boudreau, Milo Hamilton)
Local radio	WGN (Vince Lloyd, Lou Boudreau)
Stats	ESPN.com BB-reference
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The 1981 Chicago Cubs season was the 110th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 106th in the National League and the 66th at Wrigley Field. The Cubs finished the first-half in last place at 15-37, 17½ games behind the Philadelphia Phillies, and the second-half in fifth place at 23-28, six games behind the eventual NL East Champion Montreal Expos in the National League East. It was also the final season for the Cubs under the Wrigley family ownership, as the Tribune Company took over the club late in the year.

Offseason

December 9, 1980: Bruce Sutter was traded by the Cubs to the St. Louis Cardinals for Leon Durham, Ken Reitz, and a player to be named later. The Cardinals completed the deal by sending Tye Waller to the Cubs on December 22.^[1]
December 12, 1980: Jerry Martin, Jesús Figueroa and a player to be named later was traded by the Cubs to the San Francisco Giants for Joe Strain and Philip Nastu.^[2] The Cubs completed the deal by sending Mike Turgeon (minors) to the Giants on August 11, 1981.^[3]
February 26, 1981: George Riley was released by the Cubs.^[4]
March 28, 1981: Dennis Lamp was traded by the Cubs to the Chicago White Sox for Ken Kravec.^[5]

Regular season

Season standings

NL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
St. Louis Cardinals	59	43	0.578	—	32–21	27–22
Montreal Expos	60	48	0.556	2	38–18	22–30
Philadelphia Phillies	59	48	0.551	2½	36–19	23–29
Pittsburgh Pirates	46	56	0.451	13	22–28	24–28
New York Mets	41	62	0.398	18½	24–27	17–35
Chicago Cubs	38	65	0.369	21½	27–30	11–35

Record vs. opponents

1981 National League Records Sources:
Team	ATL	CHC	CIN	HOU	LAD	MON	NYM	PHI	PIT	SD	SF	STL
Atlanta	—	3–2–1	6–5	4–8	7–7	3–7	3–3	4–5	2–3	9–6	5–7	4–3
Chicago	2–3–1	—	1–5	1–6	6–4	4–7	5–8–1	2–10	4–10	3–3	5–5	5–4–1
Cincinnati	5–6	5–1	—	8–4	8–8	5–4	7–3	5–2	4–2	10–2	9–5	0–5
Houston	8–4	6–1	4–8	—	4–8	5–2	6–3	4–6	2–4	11–3	9–6	2–4
Los Angeles	7–7	4–6	8–8	8–4	—	5–2	5–1	3–3	5–1	6–5	7–5	5–5
Montreal	7–3	7–4	4–5	2–5	2–5	—	9–3	7–4	10–3	4–2	2–5	6–9
New York	3–3	8–5–1	3–7	3–6	1–5	3–9	—	7–7	3–6–1	2–5	2–4	6–5
Philadelphia	5-4	10–2	2–5	6–4	3–3	4–7	7–7	—	7–5	4–2	4–3	7–6
Pittsburgh	3–2	10–4	2–4	4–2	1–5	3–10	6–3–1	5–7	—	6–4	3–7	3–8
San Diego	6–9	3–3	2–10	3–11	5–6	2–4	5–2	2–4	4–6	—	6–7	3–7
San Francisco	7–5	5–5	5–9	6–9	5–7	5–2	4–2	3–4	7–3	7–6	—	2–3
St. Louis	3–4	4–5–1	5–0	4–2	5–5	9–6	5–6	6–7	8–3	7–3	3–2	—

Notable transactions

April 6, 1981: Butch Benton was acquired by the Cubs from the New York Mets as part of a conditional deal.^[6]
June 8, 1981: Joe Carter was drafted by the Cubs in the 1st round (2nd pick) of the 1981 Major League Baseball draft. Player signed June 12, 1981.^[7]
June 12, 1981: Rick Reuschel was traded by the Cubs to the New York Yankees for Doug Bird, a player to be named later, and $400,000. The Yankees completed the trade by sending Mike Griffin on August 5.^[8]
August 19, 1981: The Cubs traded players to be named later to the New York Yankees for Pat Tabler. The Cubs completed the trade by sending Bill Caudill to the Yankees on April 1, 1982, and Jay Howell to the Yankees on August 2, 1982.^[9]

Roster

1981 Chicago Cubs

Roster

Pitchers

47 Doug Bird

35 Doug Capilla

36 Bill Caudill

49 Rawly Eastwick

40 Dave Geisel

50 Mike Griffin

38 Willie Hernández

45 Jay Howell

37 Ken Kravec

39 Mike Krukow

34 Randy Martz

40 Lynn McGlothen

48 Rick Reuschel

46 Lee Smith

41 Dick Tidrow

Catchers

9 Tim Blackwell

7 Jody Davis

8 Barry Foote

16 Bill Hayes

Infielders

22 Bill Buckner

27 Héctor Cruz

11 Iván DeJesús

15 Steve Dillard

20 Scott Fletcher

44 Ken Reitz

20 Joe Strain

19 Pat Tabler

18 Mike Tyson

21 Tye Waller

Outfielders

25 Bobby Bonds

10 Leon Durham

32 Mel Hall

28 Steve Henderson

30 Carlos Lezcano

33 Mike Lum

24 Jerry Morales

25,29 Scot Thompson

23 Jim Tracy

Other batters

47 Gene Krug

Manager

5 Joey Amalfitano

Coaches

3 Gene Clines

4 Jack Hiatt

2 Peanuts Lowrey

6 Les Moss

1 Cookie Rojas

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
3B	Reitz, KenKen Reitz	82	260	56	.215	2	28
RF	Durham, LeonLeon Durham	87	328	95	.290	10	35

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
Waller, TyeTye Waller	30	71	19	.268	3	13

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Bird, DougDoug Bird	12	75.1	4	5	3.58	34

Other pitchers

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Geisel, DaveDave Geisel	11	16	2	0	0.56	7

Relief pitchers

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO

Farm system

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Iowa Cubs	American Association	Randy Hundley and Roy Hartsfield
AA	Midland Cubs	Texas League	Roy Hartsfield and George Enright
A	Quad Cities Cubs	Midwest League	Rich Morales
A-Short Season	Geneva Cubs	New York–Penn League	Bob Hartsfield
Rookie	GCL Cubs	Gulf Coast League	Hugh Yancy

Notes

↑ Bruce Sutter at Baseball Reference
↑ "Giants trade twice on final day". Lakeland, Florida: The Ledger. Associated Press (AP). December 13, 1980. p. 3D. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
↑ Joe Strain at Baseball Reference
↑ George Riley at Baseball Reference
↑ at Baseball Reference
↑ Butch Benton at Baseball Reference
↑ Joe Carter at Baseball Reference
↑ Rick Reuschel at Baseball Reference
↑ Pat Tabler at Baseball Reference

References

Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.
1981 Chicago Cubs season at Baseball Reference

1981 MLB season by team

AL East	Baltimore Boston Cleveland Detroit Milwaukee New York Toronto

AL West	California Chicago Kansas City Minnesota Oakland Seattle Texas

NL East	Chicago Montréal New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis

NL West	Atlanta Cincinnati Houston Los Angeles San Diego San Francisco

1981 MLB draft 1981 All-Star Game 1981 strike 1981 World Series

Chicago Cubs

Formerly the Chicago White Stockings, Chicago Colts and the Chicago Orphans
Based in Chicago, Illinois

Franchise

Ballparks

Spring training: Whittington Park
Plant Field
Rendezvous Park
Blair Field
HoHoKam Park
Sloan Park

Lore

Culture

Rivalries

Key personnel

Owner: Family of Joe Ricketts; operated by Tom Ricketts
President of Baseball Operations: Theo Epstein
General Manager: Jed Hoyer
Manager: Joe Maddon

World Series
championships (3)

National League
championships (17)

Division
championships

East	1984 1989

Central	2003 2007 2008 2016

Wild Card	1998 2015

Minor league
affiliates

Media

Seasons (146)

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1910s	1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

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1940s	1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

1950s	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959

1960s	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

1970s	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979

1980s	1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

1990s	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

2000s	2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

2010s	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

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