Wednesday, March 10, 2010

1981 Kansas City Royals



Worst team ever in the playoffs
You could make this case, as this team is the only one in the long history of major league baseball to make the post-season with a losing record. They took care of business though in the 2nd half of the season and won the 2nd half to make it in the odd playoff format in 1981. The funny thing is, this was from the era when the Royals were considered one of the most well run teams in baseball and it was sort of an off year for them. They were losers in the World Series in 1980, but like the Phillies, they stayed with a pat hand. The only change they made was at catcher because Darrell Porter, the catcher from the 1980 team left via free agency

Best Third Basemen Ever
The last two teams I have posted probably have the best third basemen in the history of the game. George Brett was around for 21 seasons and Mike Schmidt played for 18. Mike Schmidt was probably the better of the two as he had a higher on base percentage and slugging percentage between the two, but it is hard to argue with the 3,154 hits and .305 lifetime batting average Brett put up. ARod will probably destroy both of these guys numbers, but he played half of his career as a shortstop and played during the Bud Selig era.

1981 was the season after Brett made his run at .400, finishing at .390, so if you are a George Brett collector, there are plenty of cards in all three sets of George Brett in 1981.

Starters
__ TO 157 C John Wathan KCR
__ TO 524 1B Willie Aikens KCR
__ TO 330 2B Frank White KCR
__ TO 700 3B George Brett KCR
__ TO 26 SS U L Washington KCR
__ TO 360 LF Willie Wilson KCR
__ TO 585 CF Amos Otis KCR
__

RF Darryl Motley
__ TO 295 DH Hal McRae KCR

Starting Pitchers
__ TO 185 SP Dennis Leonard KCR
__ TO 130 SP Larry Gura KCR
__

SP Mike Jones
__ TO 218 SP Paul Splittorff KCR
__ TO 544 SP Rich Gale KCR

Relief Pitchers
__ TO 493 CL Dan Quisenberry KCR
__ TO 452 RP Renie Martin KCR
__

RP Jim Wright
__ TO 47 RP Ken Brett KCR
__

SP Atlee Hammaker

Other Players
__ TT 766 RF Cesar Geronimo KCR
__ TO 507 UT Jamie Quirk KCR
__ TO 98 RF Clint Hurdle KCR
__

C Jerry Grote
__ FL 183 UT Lee May BAL
__ FL 35 IF Dave Chalk (or DO 101)
KCR
__ TO 433 IF Rance Mulliniks KCR
__

UT Ken Phelps
__

UT Danny Garcia
__

OF Pat Sheridan
__

1B Tim Ireland
__

SS Onix Concepcion
__

C Greg Keatley
__

RP Juan Berenguer
__

RP Jeff Schattinger
__

RP Bill Paschall

Minors
__ FL 547 MN Don Hood STL
__ TO 256 MN Bombo Rivera MIN

Manager/Coaches
__ DO 464 MG Jim Frey KCR
__ FL 84 MG Dick Howser NYY

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