1981 Cleveland Indians season

The 1981 Major League Baseball regular season started Saturday, April 11, and ended Monday, October 5. Managed by Dave Garcia, the Indians had 52 wins and 51 losses, giving them a winning percentage of .505. The Indians finished sixth in the American League East. Home games were played at Cleveland Stadium.

1981 Cleveland Indians
Major League affiliations
American League (since 1901)
Eastern Division (since 1969)
Location
Cleveland Municipal Stadium (since 1932)
Cleveland, Ohio (since 1901)
Other information
Owner(s)	Steve O'Neill
General manager(s)	Phil Seghi
Manager(s)	Dave Garcia
Local television	WUAB
Local radio	WWWE
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Offseason

• December 8, 1980: Dan Spillner was signed as a free agent by the Indians.^[1]
• December 9, 1980: Gary Alexander, Víctor Cruz, Rafael Vásquez, and Bob Owchinko were traded by the Indians to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Bert Blyleven and Manny Sanguillén.^[2]

Regular season

• May 15, 1981: Len Barker pitched a perfect game against the Toronto Blue Jays. It was the tenth perfect game ever pitched, is one of only seventeen in the history of the major leagues, and remains the last no-hitter thrown by an Indian.^[3] In that season he also was selected an All-Star.

Season standings

AL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Milwaukee Brewers	62	47	0.569	—	28–21	34–26
Baltimore Orioles	59	46	0.562	1	33–22	26–24
New York Yankees	59	48	0.551	2	32–19	27–29
Detroit Tigers	60	49	0.550	2	32–23	28–26
Boston Red Sox	59	49	0.546	2½	30–23	29–26
Cleveland Indians	52	51	0.505	7	25–29	27–22
Toronto Blue Jays	37	69	0.349	23½	17–36	20–33

AL East First Half Standings	W	L	Pct.
New York Yankees	34	22	.607
Baltimore Orioles	31	23	.574
Milwaukee Brewers	31	25	.554
Detroit Tigers	31	26	.544
Boston Red Sox	30	26	.536
Cleveland Indians	26	24	.520
Toronto Blue Jays	16	42	.276

AL East Second Half Standings	W	L	Pct.
Milwaukee Brewers	31	22	.585
Boston Red Sox	29	23	.558
Detroit Tigers	29	23	.558
Baltimore Orioles	28	23	.549
Cleveland Indians	26	27	.491
New York Yankees	25	26	.490
Toronto Blue Jays	21	27	.438

Record vs. opponents

1981 American League Records Sources:
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	—

Roster

1981 Cleveland Indians roster
Roster
Pitchers 39 Len Barker 28 Bert Blyleven 45 Tom Brennan 40 John Denny 17 Wayne Garland 44 Ed Glynn 35 Bob Lacey 41 Dennis Lewallyn 43 Sid Monge 37 Dan Spillner 46 Mike Stanton 36 Rick Waits		Catchers 23 Chris Bando 16 Bo Díaz  9 Ron Hassey Infielders 10 Jerry Dybzinski 22 Mike Fischlin 21 Mike Hargrove 11 Toby Harrah 18 Duane Kuiper 30 Karl Pagel 12 Dave Rosello 15 Tom Veryzer		Outfielders  7 Alan Bannister 34 Joe Charboneau 27 Miguel Diloné 32 Larry Littleton 20 Rick Manning  6 Jorge Orta 13 Ron Pruitt Other batters  8 Von Hayes 25 Pat Kelly 29 Andre Thornton		Manager  1 Dave Garcia Coaches  4 Dave Duncan 14 Tommy McCraw 24 Joe Nossek  2 Dennis Sommers

Player stats

Batting

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	SB
Bando, ChrisChris Bando	21	47	3	10	3	0	0	6	.213	0
Bannister, AlanAlan Bannister	68	232	36	61	11	1	1	17	.263	16
Charboneau, JoeJoe Charboneau	48	138	14	29	7	1	4	18	.210	1
Díaz, BoBo Díaz	63	182	25	57	19	0	7	38	.313	2
Dilone, MiguelMiguel Dilone	72	269	33	78	5	5	0	19	.290	29
Dybzinski, JerryJerry Dybzinski	48	57	10	17	0	0	0	6	.298	7
Fischlin, MikeMike Fischlin	22	43	3	10	1	0	0	5	.233	3
Hargrove, MikeMike Hargrove	94	322	43	102	21	0	2	49	.317	5
Harrah, TobyToby Harrah	103	361	64	105	12	4	5	44	.291	12
Hassey, RonRon Hassey	61	190	8	44	4	0	1	25	.232	0
Hayes, VonVon Hayes	43	109	21	28	8	2	1	17	.257	8
Kelly, PatPat Kelly	48	75	8	16	4	0	1	16	.213	2
Kuiper, DuaneDuane Kuiper	72	206	15	53	6	0	0	14	.257	1
Littleton, LarryLarry Littleton	26	23	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000	0
Manning, RickRick Manning	103	360	47	88	15	3	4	33	.244	25
Orta, JorgeJorge Orta	88	338	50	92	14	3	5	34	.272	4
Pagel, KarlKarl Pagel	14	15	3	4	0	2	1	4	.267	0
Pruitt, RonRon Pruitt	5	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0
Rosello, DaveDave Rosello	43	84	11	20	4	0	1	7	.238	0
Thornton, AndreAndre Thornton	69	226	22	54	12	0	6	30	.239	3
Veryzer, TomTom Veryzer	75	221	13	54	4	0	0	14	.244	1
Totals	103	3507	431	922	150	21	39	397	.263	119

Pitching

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	R	ER	BB	K
Barker, LenLen Barker	8	7	3.91	22	22	0	154.1	72	67	46	127
Blyleven, BertBert Blyleven	11	7	2.88	20	20	0	159.1	52	51	40	107
Brennan, TomTom Brennan	2	2	3.17	7	6	0	48.1	20	17	14	15
Denny, JohnJohn Denny	10	6	3.15	19	19	0	145.2	62	51	66	94
Garland, WayneWayne Garland	3	7	5.79	12	10	0	56.0	40	36	14	15
Glynn, EdEd Glynn	0	0	1.17	4	0	0	7.2	1	1	4	4
Lacey, BobBob Lacey	0	0	7.59	14	0	0	21.1	20	18	3	11
Lewallyn, DennisDennis Lewallyn	0	0	5.40	7	0	0	13.1	8	8	2	11
Monge, SidSid Monge	3	5	4.34	31	0	4	58.0	31	28	21	41
Spillner, DanDan Spillner	4	4	3.14	32	5	7	97.1	41	34	39	59
Stanton, MikeMike Stanton	3	3	4.36	24	0	2	43.1	21	21	18	34
Waits, RickRick Waits	8	10	4.92	22	21	0	126.1	74	69	44	51
Totals	52	51	3.88	103	103	13	931.0	442	401	311	569

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

• Len Barker, reserve

Farm system

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Charleston Charlies	International League	Cal Emery and Frank Lucchesi
AA	Chattanooga Lookouts	Southern League	Woody Smith
A	Waterloo Indians	Midwest League	Gomer Hodge
A-Short Season	Batavia Trojans	New York–Penn League	Dave Oliver

^[4]

Notes

1. Dan Spillner at Baseball Reference
2. Bert Blyleven at Baseball Reference
3. Chronological list of no-hitters at Retrosheet
4. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007

References

• 1981 Cleveland Indians at Baseball Reference
• 1981 Cleveland Indians at Baseball Almanac