1981 American League Division Series

1981 American League Division Series
Teams
Team (Wins) Manager Season
Oakland Athletics (3) Billy Martin 37–23, .617, GA: 1½ (1st half)
27–22, .551, GB: 1 (2nd half)
Kansas City Royals (0) Dick Howser 20–30, .400, GB: 12 (1st half)
30–23, .566, GA: 1 (2nd half)
DatesOctober 6 – 9
TelevisionABC
KPIX-TV (OAK)
WDAF-TV (KC)
TV announcersABC: Al Michaels and Jim Palmer
KPIX: Bill King and Harmon Killebrew
WDAF: Al Wisk and Denny Trease
RadioCBS
KSFO (OAK)
WIBW (KC)
Radio announcersCBS: Ned Martin and Bill White
KSFO: Bill King, Lon Simmons and Wayne Hagin
WIBW: Denny Matthews and Fred White
UmpiresGeorge Maloney, Joe Brinkman, Steve Palermo, Don Denkinger, Jim Evans, Jim McKean
Teams
Team (Wins) Manager Season
New York Yankees (3) Bob Lemon 34–22, .607, GA: 2 (1st half)
25–26, .490, GB: 5 (2nd half)
Milwaukee Brewers (2) Buck Rodgers 31–25, .554, GB: 3 (1st half)
31–22, .585, GA: 1½ (2nd half)
DatesOctober 7 – 11
TelevisionABC
WPIX (NYY)
WVTV (MIL)
TV announcersABC: Keith Jackson, Don Drysdale and Howard Cosell (Games 1–3, 5)
Don Drysdale and Howard Cosell (Game 4)
WPIX: Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messer (Games 1–3)
Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer and Bill White (Games 4–5)
WVTV: Kent Derdivanis, Mike Hegan and Steve Shannon
RadioCBS
WABC (NYY)
WISN (MIL)
Radio announcersCBS: Ernie Harwell and Curt Gowdy
WABC: Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer, and Fran Healy (Games 1–3)
Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer, Bill White and Fran Healy (Games 4–5)
WISN: Lorn Brown and Bob Uecker
UmpiresLarry McCoy, Dale Ford, Ken Kaiser, Dave Phillips, Al Clark, Mike Reilly
ALDS

The 1981 American League Division Series (ALDS), the opening round of the 1981 American League playoffs, began on Tuesday, October 6, and ended on Sunday, October 11. The Division Series were approved by team owners on August 6 in response to the 1981 Major League Baseball strike,[1] which caused the cancellation of roughly one-third of the regular season between June 12 and August 9; by the time play was resumed, it was decided that the best approach was to have the first-half leaders automatically qualify for postseason play, and allow all the teams to begin the second half with a clean slate.

  1. ^ Litke, James (August 7, 1981). "In baseball, two halves make up the whole". The Journal News. White Plains, New York. AP. p. B1. Retrieved October 7, 2019 – via newspapers.com.