Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - A Classic Fall Classic: 1981

Episode Date: January 10, 2021

The 1981 World Series is the subject of this one. The regular season was interrupted by a players strike, which led to a unique playoff format. And with that unique format came some oddities. After the dust settled, it was the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees who earned the right to compete for the 1981 baseball crown. These two teams had faced each other many, many times in the past, dating back to the Dodgers' days in Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, Joey Martin, and thank you to everybody out there in Podcast Land for joining us today on Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, or for short, T-L-O-P-N, or for shorter, T-Lopin, of course. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program using whichever podcasting app that you, person, care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked on Meriters podcast or any program here on Tlopin. On Friday, baseball suffered its first big loss of 2021. Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. We'll talk about him on our next episode with one of our two resident Dodgers fans, Southern California native Jason Hernandez. Today we're going to tell you about

another classic world series. This one involving Los Sorda's Dodgers 1981. This series featured those Dodgers and the New York Yankees, two teams that faced each other oh so many times when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. The Yankees had

appeared in the 1976 series following about a decade and a half of subpar play. They'd lose that series to the Big Red Machine in a four-game sweep but appear in the next two fall classics in succession, winning both of them and winning both of them against the Dodgers, no less.

The Dodgers had played pretty good baseball for the most part in the preceding decade, playing sub-500 ball in only one season since 1968. The 1981 season was stopped by a mid-season strike. However, the Players' Union and the League reached an agreement, and baseball returned in mid-August. This led to a unique playoff structure. The teams who were leading their divisions prior to the strike were declared the first, first half champions.

After play resumed, the slate was wiped clean, and new division races commenced. After the season was over, the two champions of each division would play each other in the first ever divisional series. This format also led to the team with the best overall record in baseball, the Cincinnati Reds, not making the postseason. They weren't in first place in the National League West when the strike was called, nor did they win the second half of the division. They were the only team in Major League Baseball

with a winning percentage over 600. In addition, the St. Louis Cardinals had the best overall record in the National League East, but they didn't make the playoffs either. There were some quirks in the American League also. Both teams, with its division's best overall record, did make the playoffs. The New York Yankees won the first half of the American League East

and accumulated a second half record of 25 and 26. In the American League West, the second half was won by the Kansas City Royals. In the first half, they were actually quite bad with a 20 and 30 record. In fact, the Royals' overall record for the season was below 500, 50 and 53. Very interesting. The new divisional series were best of five contests, and of the four, three of them went the full five games, and the other was a sweep. Oakland swept aside the Kansas City Royals to advance to the ALCS, where they would get utterly dominated by the Yankees, also in a three-game sweep.

New York outscored Oakland 20 to 4, thanks in large part to a 13-3 win in game two. Over in the National League, the Houston Astros took the first two games of the National League Western Division Series, but then the Dodgers took the next three to advance to the National League Championship Series, where they'd play the Montreal Expos, who beat the defending world champion Phillies in the Eastern Division playoffs. The Expos were making their first ever postseason appearance. In fact, this would be their only postseason appearance. The next time this franchise appeared in postseason play was 2012,

long after they had moved to Washington, D.C. The 1981 World Series was now set, and the first game took place at historic Yankee Stadium on October 20th. Ron Guidry got the starting assignment for the hometown nine, and he set the Dodgers down in short order in the top of the first. Dodgers starter Jerry Royce did not fare nearly as well. He allowed a one-out single to Jerry Mumfrey, a two-out ground rule double to Lou Pinella, then a three-run home run to Bob Watson.

New York had an early lead, which they'd add to in the third. With two out and Mumfrey having just stolen second base, Sweet Lou drives him in on a single, sensing trouble and not wanting the game to get any further out of hand down for nothing already, Tommy Lassorda replaced Jerry Royce with Bobby Castillo. He'd walk the next man but then induce a flyout to end the inning with minimal damage. But the very next inning, Castillo would fall apart. He'd walked the lead-off man, Rick Serone. Larry Milburn grounded into a force out, erasing Sorone.

Then Ron Guidry sacrificed Milburn to second. Willie Randolph walked. and Jerry Mumfrey followed with a four-pitch walk to load the bases. That brought up the Yankees number three hitter, Hall of Famer Dave Winfield. On a three-one count, Castillo threw ball four, forcing in Milborn and handing Winfield a gift-wrapped RBI. This also prompted LaSorda to make another pitching change.

Dave Goaltz came in from the Dodgers pen to stop the bleeding and keep the Yankees to this lone run, which he did, getting Lou Pinella to pop. pop out to end what could have been a much worse inning for L.A. As it was, though, the Yankees were up 5-0 after four innings. The Dodgers would get on the scoreboard on the top of the fifth, a two-out solo home run from Steve Yeager. From there on out, Gidrey and Dodger reliever Tom Needenfeuer

would trade zeros until the top of the eighth. With Ron Davis now on the bump for the Bronx bombers, Daryl Thomas pinch hit for Needinfueur to lead off. He drew a walk, then advanced to second, on a past ball. Davy Lopes also walked, and Yankee manager Bob Lemon brought in his ace reliever, Rich Gossage, to shut the Dodgers down. However, Jay Johnstone, pinch-hitting for shortstop Bill Russell, lined a single to right field, which scored Thomas and sent lopes to third. On the very next pitch, Dusty Baker flew out to right field, scoring Lopes for a sacrifice fly,

and cutting the Yankee lead down to two runs, five to three. Steve Garvin, stepped up to try to keep things going, but he'd line out to Greg Nettles of third. Ron Sey then grounded to Nettles, who threw on to second for the forceout, ending the inning, and preserving that slim five-to-three lead. To begin the 8th, the Dodgers brought in Dave Stewart from the bullpen. Yes, that very same Dave Stewart, who dominated for a few seasons well with the Oakland Athletics a few years later. After issuing a lead-off walk to Greg Nettles, he'd get Rick Sorone to fly out, then get Larry Milburn to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. Goose Gossage was back to work for the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th,

and he'd shut the Dodgers down 1-2-3, including two strikeouts, to end game one with a 5-3-Yankees victory. Game 2 was a very low-scoring affair, but not quite a pitchers duel. While the two teams combined for only 10 hits, Dodger pitching walked 6, So there were constantly Yankees on the base paths. New York starter Tommy John, now more known for the ligament replacement surgery, which bears his name, but in his day, an outstanding Southpaw, who pitched into his mid-40s, he fared much better.

In fact, he retired the first 12 Dodgers in succession. The Bronx bombers got to L.A. starter, Bert Houghton, in the fifth, although the run was unearned. Willie Randolph began the inning by grounding the second baseman Davy Lopes. but Lopes couldn't handle the grounder, and that error put Randolph on first base. Tommy John sacrificed him to second, and Jerry Mumfrey flew out. Larry Milburn drove in Randolph with a double, and the Yanks had a one-nothing lead. Milburn had previously been a Seattle Mariner, appearing in 408 games in the team's first four years.

That lone run was pretty much all Tommy John would need. He'd go seven innings, scatter three years. hits, walk no one, and strikeout four. Rich Gossage would pitch the final two innings giving up a hit and a walk, and the goose would strike out three. The Yankees would tack on two more runs in the eighth against Dave Stewart, an RBI single from Bob Watson, and a Willie Randolph sack fly, and win the game three-nothing. The Bronx bombers were now up in the series two games to zero, as the scene shifted to Chavez Ravine. Game three occurred on October 23rd, 56,236,236 fans packed into Dodgers Stadium to watch starting pitcher Fernando Valenzuela

try to get the Dodgers back in the series. Valenzuela was a fan favorite, hailing from nearby Mexico, and in 1981, became the first person ever to win rookie of the year and the Sy Young Award in the same season. He'd walked two in his first inning of work, but kept New York off the scoreboard, and as Dodgers would be first on the board and the bottom of the first, a three-run home run off off the bat of the penguin Ron Say. Say is a Washington native, born in Tacoma, went to high school there, and later attended both Western Washington University in Bellingham and also Washington State.

Back to the game, though. The Yanks answered in the top of the second inning. Bob Watson led off the inning with a home run, and Rick Serone would later score on a Larry Milburn single. They'd go ahead the very next inning, thanks to the first. to a two-run blast by Rick Serone. 4-3 New York was a score at this time. L.A. retook the lead in the fifth.

With two on and no-one out, Pedro Guerrero doubled home Steve Garvey to tie up the ball game. Later on, with the bases loaded and no-one out, Mike Sosha grounded into a 4-3 double play, but that allowed Ron Say to come home with a go-ahead run, and the Dodgers now had a 5-4 advantage. And while there was hardly a dearthed base runners the rest of the way, no more runs scored, and the Dodgers had indeed gotten back into the series, now down two games to one.

While Fernando Valenzuela was not sharp, he walked seven Yankees, he did toss a complete game, retiring the Bronx bombers in short order in the ninth. Yankee started Dave Rgetty was less sharp, only lasting two innings. Reliever George Frazier, however, was tagged with the loss. We'll take a moment at this time to tell you about betonline.ag. you ready for some football. College football heads into bull season, and there are some big matchups this weekend. The NFL regular season is finishing up as well, and the playoff picture is becoming clearer. And there's only one place that has you covered, and one place we

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Sign up for a free account and use promo code locked on for your sign up bonus. Hashtag bet online. If you got a question or comment, I would love to read it. So send it to Locked up. on Mariners at gmail.com, I will use it on the air in a future mailbag episode. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome and encouraged. Locked on mariners at gmail.com is a place once again to send those messages, but do keep them clean because this is a family show. Locked on Mariners will continue to recap of the 1981 World Series upon the conclusion of this word of importance from Rock Auto.

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Before we get back to the 1981 World Series, I want to invite you to join Walking Baseball Encyclopedia, Paul Francis Sullivan, every day on Locked on MLB. Please call him Sully. He's got a unique look at the majors both present and past, and it features exciting guest interviews, routine check-ins from the Locked-on MLB Network's team of local experts, including me, I was on last Monday,

and insightful analysis of the day's biggest stories. Locked-on MLB is the single best daily source for baseball talk. Subscribe today wherever you get your podcast, ladies and gentlemen. And with that, back to the 81 series. We left off after game three. The Yankees had a two games to one series advantage in this 19th, one fall classic, having won the first two games with the Dodgers taking game three at the Ravine. Game four, also in Los Angeles, took place on October 24th, and this one would be something

of a shootout. Bob Welch took the mound to begin things, and it did not go well. Willie Randolph led off with a triple against him and was immediately driven in on a Larry Milburn double, or Milborn, I guess, as I apologize. Dave Winfield walked, and Reggie Jackson and singled to load the bases. Tommy LaSorda had already seen enough. Four batters into the game. No outs recorded and won in already. Welch was headed for the showers.

In from the bullpen came Dave Goltz. Not Dave Gulls, who puppeteered both Gonzo and Boobber Fragel, but Dave Goltz, the 32-year-old former Twinsherler. He'd get Oscar Gamble and his giant Afro to fly out and keep the bases loaded. Then Bob Watson would fly out as well.

but Milbourne came in to score the game's second run. Watson got an RBI and a sack fly for his efforts. Rick Serone grounded out to end the inning, but his team had already given their starter Rick Russell a two-run lead. Big Daddy would allow a two-out single only and kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard in the first. Willie Randolph would extend the Yankee lead in the top of the second with a two-out solo home run. And they'd go farther ahead in the third with Rick Serone playing awesome. Gammble on a single. Four nothing New York now. The Dodgers would get on the board in the bottom of the third. Ken Landrow pinch hit for Golds to lead off the inning, and he'd smoke the first pitch down the right field line for a double. After taking a ball out of the zone, Davy Lopes would

plate him on a single down the right field line. He'd steal second, then advanced to third one out later, on an infield single by Steve Garvey. Ron Say then grounded out to shortstop Larry Milborn, But Lopes came into score. The Yankees' lead had been cut in half, and the score was now 4 to 2. Neither team scored in the fourth, despite both of them putting a ton of runners on base. Tom Neednifura enjoyed a 1-2-3 first half of the 5th, and as Dodgers cut their deficit to one run, thanks to a Ron Say RBI single and the bottom half of the frame.

The next half inning, top of the 6th, began with a Bill Russell error, which allowed Willie Randolph to reach first base. A foul out and a flyout later, Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, was intentionally walked to get to Oscar Gamble. He'd hit one into the right center field gap, scoring Randolph and sending Jackson to third. Gamble stayed at first base with an RBI single. Bob Watson then hit a single of his own to play Jackson

and extend the Yankee lead to six to three. Rick Sorone flew out to end the end. inning, but the Yanks now enjoyed a three-run lead, but it didn't last. In the bottom of the sixth, Mike Sosha drew a one-out walk against Ron Davis. Jay Johnstone stepped to the plate pinch hitting for the pitcher's spot. He'd crank a two-run homer, bringing the score to six five. Davy Lopes then hit one down the right field line to Reggie Jackson, who couldn't find the handle. Lopes wound up at second base on Jackson's error and then promptly stole third. Bill Russell drove him in to tie the game at six all. In the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers would

load the bases with no outs against George Frazier. With the game already tied, Bob Lemon brought in starter Tommy John from the bullpen to try to stop the bleeding. The first man to face him was Steve Yeager, and he'd hit a sack fly out to right field to score Dusty Baker with a go-ahead run. Pitcher Steve Howe would sacrifice Bunt both remaining runners along, bringing up Dave Lopes with two outs and runners on second and third. He'd ground a single down the third base line, which scored Rick Monday and put his team up eight to six. Bill Russell would ground out, but the Dodgers had the lead for the first time in the game

with the Yankees running out of outs. New York would get one back in the top of the eighth, however, on a Reggie Jackson two-out solo home run, and that would be the end of the scoring for the day, with the Dodgers taking it eight, seven. Steve Howe was credited with the win, while George Fraser was saddled with the loss. With this win, the Dodgers also tied up the series at two games apiece. Game 5 was another low-scoring affair, but compared to game 2, both starters were much sharper, and the two teams combined to only walk six batters.

New York was first on the board. Reggie Jackson lit off the second with a ground rule double, then Bob Watson popped one up to Bill Russell. But the Dodgers shortstop couldn't make the play. Watson took first base and Jackson moved up to third. Lou Pinella then came to the dish and drove in Jackson with a ground ball single past Russell, won nothing Yankees.

Starters Ron Guidry and Jerry Royce would then take turns blanking the opposition until the bottom of the seventh inning. With Ron Guidry still on the mound for New York, Dusty Baker would strike out looking to start off the bottom of the inning. Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager would then hit back-to-back home runs, though, first to tie the game, then to put the Dodgers ahead, 2 to 1. And that 2 to 1 score would hold up the rest of the way, with the Dodgers winning another close one. Jerry Royce pitched all nine innings, gave up five hits, three walks, one run,

which was earned, and he struck out six. His defense did commit three errors, though. On the other side, Ron Guidry was also quite impressive. The man they called Louisiana Lightning, pitched seven innings, allowed four hits, two runs, both earned, two walks, and he struck out nine. Goose Gossage pitched the final inning for New York, and he gave up a walk. After dropping the first two games in the Bronx, the Dodgers came home and won all three games at Chavez Ravine. The teams now returned to Yankee Stadium, the Bronx bombers needing to win both games, and the Dodgers only needing one. Through the first four innings of Game Six, it was shaping up to be a non-year-old. another close, low-scoring game.

New York was first on the scoreboard with a third-inning solo home run off the bat of Willie Randolph. In the top of the fourth, Los Angeles would tie it up. Steve Yeager played it Dusty Baker on a single. In the top of the fifth, the Dodgers began to pull away. Yankees starter Tommy John had been pitch hit for the previous inning, and on the mound for New York was George Frazier. Davy Lopes led off with a single and was advanced to second base on a Bill Russell.

sack bunt. Steve Garvey flew out, and it looked like the Yankees may keep the daughters off the scoreboard once again. But in the words of Lee Corso, not so fast, my friend. Ron Sey stepped up and had a ground ball single up the middle, scoring lopes from second. Dusty Baker also singled up the middle, sending Say to third. Pedro Guerrero then cleared the bases with a triple, and the Dodgers had a four-one lead. In the bottom of the inning, Bert Houten allowed a lead-off single to Willie Randolph, but then set the Yankees down without allowing anything else. Already up 4 to 1 at that point, the Dodgers would extend their lead on the top of the 5th. Ron Davis was now pitching for the Bronx Bombers, and he'd strike out Steve Yeager to get things going.

Back-to-back walks to Bert Hought, and Davy Lopes followed. Then Bill Russell drove in Houton with a single, 5-1 Dodgers. Davis was pulled in favor of Big Daddy, Rick Rushel. The first man he'd face was Steve Garvey. On the second pitch of that at bat, the Dodgers pulled off a double steel, leaving first base open. So the Yanks decided to intentionally walk Garvey to load the bases for pitch hitter Daryl Thomas. Thomas grounded to third baseman Greg Nettles, who stepped on the bag to force Russell, but Lopes came into scores. Now it's six to one.

Two away now with runners at first and second for Dusty Baker. He'd also ground to Nettles, but the ordinarily sure-handed third baseman muffed the play, allowing Baker to reach first base to reload the bases. That brought up the dangerous Pedro Guerrero. He laced a single to center field, scoring both Garvey and Thomas. And the Dodgers now had an 8 to 1 lead, thanks to those two unearned runs. It looked bad for New York, but they did manage to answer back the very next half-inning. Lou Pinella singled home pinch runner Aurelio Rodriguez to bring the score to 8 to 2.

but they still had a lot of work to do to get back in the ballgame, and they had a mere three innings to get the job done. Pedro Guerrero would make that job tougher when he had an eighth inning solo home run to extend the Dodger lead to 9-2. The Yankees would not score in the bottom of the 8th against Steve Howe, and the Dodgers were blanked in the top of the 9th, so that 9-2 scores what stood going into the bottom of the 9th inning. Steve Howe was still pitching for Los Angeles.

he'd issue a lead-off walk to Willie Randolph. He would then fan Jerry Mumfrey, however, for the first valuable out of the inning. Dave Winfield then flew out to right field, and the Dodgers were one out away from taking the 1981 World Series crown. Reggie Jackson stepped up to the plate to try to keep the Yankees hopes alive. He hit a ground ball to second baseman Davy Lopes, but Lopes booted it. Jackson was safe at first. Randolph took second.

The Yankees were given new life, and due up next was Bob Watson, who had already driven in seven runs in the series, more than any other player. But he did not get the job done, flying out to left center field, caught by Dusty Baker for the third out and the Los Angeles Dodgers were champions of baseball in 1981. World Series co-MvPs were Ron Say, Pedro Guerrero, and Steve Yeager. Yes, three co-MvPs. Both the Yankees and Dodgers would be pretty inconsistent throughout the remainder of the decade, but the Dodgers made it back to the Fall Classic in 1988,

where they defeated the mighty Oakland Athletics. The Yankees, meanwhile, were in steep decline as the 1990s commenced. The 1990 and 91 Yankees are considered some of the worst Yankee teams ever. Buck Shoalter was hired to manage the team prior to the 92 seasons, and their fortunes changed dramatic. They had the best record in the American League in 1994 when the season was cut short due to that strike, second in all of baseball behind the Montreal Expos. They appeared in the postseason the next year, 1995, losing to the Mariners in the American League Division Series. Yes, the series that Edgar Martinez ended with the double.

We'll end on that happy thought. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to Lockdown Mariners. Look for us on any podcast. app that may happen to spring to mind. Next time we'll be talking with Jason Hernandez about Tommy LaSorda. Jason has met Mr. Lassorda on more than one occasion, and I'm

very much looking forward to that conversation. I hope you are too, gang. Please join us then. This is Joey Martin for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.