Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — In a touching pregame ceremony before Sunday’s series finale with the Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers paid tribute to the 1981 Dodger team, which won the World Series in that weird, strike-shortened year.
In many ways, the 1981 team is a soulmate of the 2020 team. Each team had a couple of World Series failures a few years earlier, and each team finally won it all in a most unusual way, in a season that did not go the full 162. We all know the story of the Covid-plagued year that brought about the 2020 championship, but it is worth looking back at 1981 to recall how all of baseball was trying to navigate unprecedented times as well.
Strike interrupts season
The issue going into the 1981 season was compensation to teams that lost free agents, and throughout the first half of the year, it was a topic on the top of everyone’s mind. It seemed that the season might be destined for disaster as the two sides squabbled with no solution in sight.
¡Viva Fernando!
Meanwhile in Los Angeles, it was Fernandomania in full swing. The Dodgers got off to a great start thanks in great part to their Mexican rookie sensation. They won 26 of their first 35 games, and were comfortably in first place by mid-May, having a 5.5 game lead after those first 35. After that, they went 10-15, but were still in first place when the game shut down after the games of June 11.
Weird Rules, but the Dodgers make the postseason
Once the game got back on the field after fifty-one days of strike, the league decided that the season would be broken into a first half and second half and the winners of each half would meet in a first-ever division round of the play-offs. The Dodgers barely played .500 ball in the second half, but still made the playoffs even though the Cincinnati Reds had a better overall record than both the Dodgers and their first-round opponent, the Houston Astros. It was that kind of year.
Dodgers beat Houston in the first round
In the postseason, the Dodgers fell behind in every series of the year, but in each one, they were able to dig deep and come back from the dead. After losing two tight games to Houston in the divisional round, they came roaring back to take the next three, thanks to some shut-down starts from Burt Hooten and Fernando Valenzuela. And in the final game of the series, Jerry Reuss outdueled Nolan Ryan to send the Dodgers to the next round.
Monday’s homer wins the NLCS
Again, the Dodgers were behind the eight-ball in the NLCS against the Expos. After winning the first game, they dropped the next two, and had to play the final two games north of the border in Montreal. But, after an easy 7-1 victory knotted the series at two games each, the Dodgers and Expos locked in another pitcher’s duel in game 5 of the series. After a Sunday rainout, the game was played on a Monday, and indeed Monday was the key word of the day, as Dodgers outfielder Rick Monday hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to propel the Dodgers to a 2-1 victory.
Rematch with the Yanks
The Yankees were the winners in the American League, but they too seemed to be running on fumes, finishing a distant fifth in the second-half standings. However, they had history on their side, having beaten the Dodgers twice in the previous five years. And in fact, they went quickly up 2-0 with a pair of wins from aces Ron Guidry and Tommy John in the Bronx. When the series returned to LA, the Dodgers got down to business. Though he didn’t have his best stuff, Fernando gritted out a 5-4 complete game win in Game 3, putting the Dodgers back in the series. The Dodgers won an 8-7 slugfest the next night, and Jerry Reuss pitched another gem to put the Dodgers up 3-2 going back to New York.
At long last, victory!
Game seven turned out to be a blow-out as the Dodgers were all over Yankees pitching in the middle innings. Trailing the Bombers 1-0 going into the third, the Dodgers scored eight unanswered runs in the next three innings, and would cruise to a 9-2 victory to notch the Dodgers fourth World Series championship and first since the glory days of the 1960s.
The end of an era…
In a way, 1981 was the end of an era in Dodger baseball, a culmination of some great teams of the 1970s. That classic infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russell, and Cey would soon be broken up, and before long there would be new stars on the horizon to become heroes in their own right in 1988. But, it was fitting that this core of players would finally make it to the mountaintop. Even if it was in the most unlikely of ways.
