1981 in baseball

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Events

• January 15 - In his first year of eligibility, former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson is the only person elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Players falling short of the 301 votes needed for election include Don Drysdale (243), Gil Hodges (241), Harmon Killebrew (239), Hoyt Wilhelm (238) and Juan Marichal (233).
• March 11 - Johnny Mize and Rube Foster are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee. Mize hit .312 with 359 home runs in 15 ML seasons for the Cardinals and Giants, while Foster was a star pitcher, manager and founder of the Negro League during the first quarter of the 20th century.
• May 25 - Carl Yastrzemski plays in his 3,000th ML game, scoring the winning run in Boston's 8?7 triumph over Cleveland. Yaz joins Ty Cobb, Stan Musial and Hank Aaron as the only major leaguers to appear in 3,000 games.
• August 9 - At Cleveland Stadium, the National League win its tenth consecutive All-Star Game over the American League, 5-4. Gary Carter hit two home runs and is selected the MVP. The 1981 Midsummer Classic was actually the second All-Star Game played during the month of August. The first took place on August 3, 1959.
• September 4 - In the conclusion of the longest game in Fenway Park history, the Seattle Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox, 8?7, in 20 innings. The game began on September 3rd, but was suspended after 19 innings with the score tied 7-7.
• September 6:
• Despite having won the first-half American League pennant, the New York Yankees manager Gene Michael is replaced by Bob Lemon, who managed the club in 1978-79. The Yankees are under .500 in the second half of the season.
• Dodgers Fernando Valenzuela beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-0, to tie a National League record of seven shutouts by a rookie pitcher.
• October 28 - Pedro Guerrero drives in five runs and pitcher Burt Hooton and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 9?2 to win the 1981 World Series in six games. In a remarkable post season, the Dodgers came from behind to win three series (down 2?0 to Houston and 2?1 to Montreal in the best-of-5 series). Guerrero, Ron Cey and Steve Yeager are named co-MVPs