1981 Texas Rangers season explained

Texas Rangers
Season:	1981
League:	American League
Division:	West
Ballpark:	Arlington Stadium
City:	Arlington, Texas
Owners:	Eddie Chiles
General Managers:	Eddie Robinson
Managers:	Don Zimmer
Television:	KXAS-TV (Eric Nadel, Mel Proctor) Vue-Pay (Mark Holtz, Norm Hitzges)
Radio:	WBAP (Eric Nadel, Bill Merrill, Mel Proctor)

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

December 12, 1980: Richie Zisk, Rick Auerbach, Ken Clay, Jerry Don Gleaton, Brian Allard, and Steve Finch (minors) were traded by the Rangers to the Seattle Mariners for Willie Horton, Larry Cox, Rick Honeycutt, Mario Mendoza, and Leon Roberts.^[1]
December 18, 1980: Bob Jones was signed as a free agent by the Rangers.^[2]

Regular season

Notable transactions

April 1, 1981: Willie Horton was released by the Rangers.^[1]
June 8, 1981: Ron Darling was drafted by the Rangers in the 1st round (9th pick) of the 1981 Major League Baseball Draft.^[3]

Roster

1981 Texas Rangers roster
Roster
Pitchers	CatchersInfielders	OutfieldersOther batters	ManagerCoaches

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	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	102	339	94	.277	3	28
1B	95	297	79	.266		8	35
2B	102	410	103	.251	2	41
SS	88	229	53	.231	0	22
3B	97	360	106	.294	10	64
LF	66	230	65	.283	3	25
CF	99	399	114	.286	3	26
RF	67	199	46	.231	3	26
DH	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

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
72	233	65	.279	4	31
53	115	38	.330	2	22
50	85	22	.259	1	14
30	64	10	.156	0	7
23	58	8	.138	1	7
10	34	9	.265	3	7
14	24	4	.167	0	1
6	18	5	.278	2	4
9	16	5	.313	0	1
13	16	4	.250	0	0
5	13	3	.231	0	1
7	13	3	.231	0	2
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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
22	146.0	9	9	3.64	98
20	143.1	10	6	3.08	65
20	127.2	11	6	3.31	40
19	106.0	5	8	4.50	63
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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
21	82.0	4	1	2.96	69
5	27.2	1	2	1.63	19
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

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
36	8	2	6	2.56	22
24	3	1	2	2.66	8
23	1	2	6	2.70	20
16	1	1	0	2.20	18
14	0	1	1	3.13	13
7	0	1	2	4.70	8
1	0	0	0	9.00	0

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

References

1981 Texas Rangers team page at Baseball Reference
1981 Texas Rangers team page at www.baseball-almanac.com
Book: Johnson. Lloyd. Wolff. Miles. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. 3rd. Durham, North Carolina. Baseball America. 2007. 978-1-932391-17-6.

Notes and References

https://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hortowi01.shtml Willie Horton page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/j/jonesbo02.shtml Bob Jones page at Baseball Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/d/darliro01.shtml Ron Darling page at Baseball Reference