1971 Oakland Athletics season explained

Oakland Athletics
Season:	1971
Misc:	American League West Champions
League:	American League
Division:	West
Ballpark:	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
City:	Oakland, California
Record:	101–60 (.627)
Owners:	Charles O. Finley
Managers:	Dick Williams
Television:	KBHK-TV
Radio:	KEST (Monte Moore, Bob Elson, Red Rush)

The 1971 Oakland Athletics season involved the A's finishing first in the American League West with a record of 101 wins and 60 losses (their best record in the Swingin' A's era). In their first postseason appearance of any kind since 1931, the A's were swept in three games by the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series.

Offseason

January 13, 1971: 1971 Major League Baseball draft (January draft) notable picks:^[1]

Round 5: Rich Dauer (did not sign)

Secondary Phase^[2]

Round 1: Phil Garner

Round 3: Steve Staggs (did not sign)

Regular season

Vida Blue became the first black player in the history of the American League to win the American League Cy Young Award.^[3] He was also the youngest AL player in the 20th century to win the MVP Award.^[4] During the year, Vida Blue was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time magazine.^[5]

Opening day starters

1B Don Mincher
2B Dick Green
3B Sal Bando
SS Bert Campaneris
LF Felipe Alou
CF Rick Monday
RF Reggie Jackson
C Dave Duncan
P Vida Blue

Notable transactions

May 8, 1971: Frank Fernández, Don Mincher, Paul Lindblad, and cash were traded by the Athletics to the Washington Senators for Darold Knowles and Mike Epstein.^[6]
May 26, 1971: Rob Gardner was traded by the Athletics to the New York Yankees for Curt Blefary.^[7]
June 12, 1971: Champ Summers was signed by the Athletics as an amateur free agent.^[8]

Roster

1971 Oakland Athletics
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		OutfieldersOther batters		ManagerCoaches

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

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	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	103	363	92	.253	15	40
1B	104	329	77	.234	18	51
2B	144	475	116	.244	12	49
3B	153	538	146	.271	24	74
SS	134	569	143	.251	5	47
LF	127	513	137	.267	10	52
CF	116	355	87	.245	18	56
RF	150	567	157	.277	32	80

^[9]

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
94	287	82	.286	4	30
79	219	71	.324	3	42
70	189	37	.196	1	9
65	179	49	.274	7	25
42	114	27	.237	0	8
50	101	22	.218	5	12
28	98	22	.239	2	8
65	55	13	.236	0	3
16	37	10	.270	0	3
24	27	3	.111	0	3
14	21	3	.143	1	2
4	9	1	.111	0	1
2	8	2	.250	0	0
23	8	0	.000	0	0
7	5	0	.000	0	0
2	2	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
39	312.0	24	8	1.82	301
37	273.2	21	11	2.96	181
30	189.0	15	5	3.81	100
26	146.1	10	8	3.14	81
25	140.2	10	12	4.29	69

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
48	4	6	17	2.99	98
47	7	2	6	2.86	46
43	5	2	7	3.59	40
31	1	3	1	3.18	30
26	2	2	2	3.38	25
15	1	0	3	1.98	13
8	1	0	0	3.94	4
4	0	0	0	7.94	2
4	0	1	0	11.12	4
1	0	0	0	54.00	0

Awards and honors

Vida Blue, P, American League Cy Young Award^[10] ^[11]
Vida Blue, P, American League Most Valuable Player Award.^[12] ^[13] Sal Bando, second in American League MVP voting^[13]
Dick Williams, Associated Press AL Manager of the Year^[14]

All-Stars

1971 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

Vida Blue, pitcher, starter^[15]
Dave Duncan, reserve^[15]
Reggie Jackson, reserve^[15]

1971 American League Championship Series

See main article: article and 1971 American League Championship Series.

Game 1

Sunday, October 3, 1971, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland

Game 2

Monday, October 4, 1971, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland

Game 3

Tuesday, October 5, 1971, at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California

Farm system

External links

Notes and References

https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?query_type=franch_year&team_ID=OAK&year_ID=1971&draft_type=Janreg& 1971 Oakland Athletics Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft
https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?query_type=franch_year&team_ID=OAK&year_ID=1971&draft_type=Jansec& 1971 Oakland Athletics Picks in the MLB January Amateur Draft (secondary phase)
Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 199, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York,
Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 152
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.148, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010,
https://www.baseball-reference.com/k/knowlda01.shtml Darold Knowles page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/blefacu01.shtml Curt Blefary page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/summech01.shtml Champ Summers page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/1971.shtml 1971 Oakland Athletics at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/mvp_cya.shtml American League Cy Young Award winners at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1971.shtml#ALcya 1971 Cy Young Award voting results at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/mvp_cya.shtml American League Most Valuable Player Award winners at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1971.shtml#ALmvp 1971 Most Valuable Player award voting results at Baseball Reference
http://www.rauzulusstreet.com/baseball/mlbawards/apmanageryr.htm www.rauzulusstreet.com
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ALS/ALS197107130.shtml 1971 All-Star game at Baseball Reference