History of the World Series – 1981
This postseason rivalry dated to 1941, the year of Dodgers catcher Mickey Owen’s third-strike muff. The teams last had met in 1978, when the Yankees dropped the first two games of the Series and then beat the Dodgers four consecutive times. In the 10 Series meetings between the clubs, New York had prevailed as champions on eight occasions (the Yanks were 6-1 against the Brooklyn Dodgers and 2-1 against the Los Angeles Dodgers).
When the 1981 World Series finally got under way on October 20 — a lengthy, two-tiered playoff system was formulated after a players strike interrupted the regular season — the Yankees’ dominance over the Dodgers didn’t seem in jeopardy. Fresh from a divisional-playoff triumph over the Milwaukee Brewers (three games to two) and a Championship Series sweep of the Oakland A’s, the Yanks struck in a hurry against Los Angeles lefthander Jerry Reuss as Bob Watson cracked a three-run homer in the first inning of Game 1.
Collecting single runs in the third and fourth innings, New York carried a 5-1 lead into the eighth. Yankees Manager Bob Lemon replaced starter Ron Guidry with Ron Davis, who walked the only two batters he faced.
Goose Gossage followed Davis to the mound and yielded a run-scoring single to pinch-hitter Jay Johnstone and a sacrifice fly to Dusty Baker, but the intimidating reliever got out of the inning when third baseman Graig Nettles, flashing his ’78 Series form afield, made a diving grab of Steve Garvey’s line smash that appeared headed for the left-field corner and Ron Cey grounded into a forceout. New York won, 5-3, at Yankee Stadium.
Former Dodger Tommy John, a free-agent signee of the Yankees after the 1978 season, teamed with Gossage to blank Los Angeles on four hits in Game 2. New York shortstop Larry Milbourne garnered the game’s only extra-base hit, a fifth-inning double that drove in the first run. Watson had two hits and an RBI as the Yanks won, 3-0, and extended their Series winning streak against the Dodgers to six games.
Tommy Lasorda’s National League titleists needed to regroup. Having played 10 postseason games before the World Series ever started (five against the Houston Astros in the divisional playoffs and five more against the Montreal Expos in the Championship Series), Los Angeles eagerly awaited the off day that would precede resumption of the Series on the West Coast. The Dodgers also looked ahead to using rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela for the first time in the Series.
Lefthander Valenzuela, who had pitched shutouts in five of his first seven games and wound up with eight in a 13-7 season, permitted nine hits — including homers by Watson and Rick Cerone — and seven walks in Game 3. But the 20-year-old pitcher came out a 5-4 winner at Dodger Stadium, thanks to Cey’s three-run homer in the first inning and a two-run Dodger uprising in the fifth that featured Pedro Guerrero’s RBI double and Mike Scioscia’s run-producing double-play grounder.
Dodgers starter Bob Welch failed to retire a single batter in Game 4, a contest in which Los Angeles fell behind, 6-3. But Lasorda’s club tied the game in the sixth when Johnstone belted a two-run pinch homer and Davey Lopes, who reached second when right fielder Reggie Jackson dropped his fly ball and then stole third, scored on Bill Russell’s single. Los Angeles then went ahead, 8-6, in the seventh on Steve Yeager’s sacrifice fly and Lopes’ run-scoring infield hit.
Jackson, his Mr. October status tarnished just a bit because of his sixth-inning misplay, polished his image in the eighth when he homered to right-center. It was the third hit of the game for Jackson, who had missed the first three games of the Series because of a leg injury. Jackson’s wallop, though, ended the scoring. Los Angeles, an 8-7 winner, had tied the Series, 2-2.
Guidry and Reuss engaged in a tremendous duel in Game 5, and Reuss came out on top, 2-1, when Guerrero and Yeager slugged back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning. Reuss tossed a complete-game five-hitter, one of the hits a fifth-inning single by Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield. The hit was the first and last of the Series for former San Diego standout Winfield, who had signed a free-agent contract with the Yankees after the 1980 season for a reported $21 million over 10 years.
Game 6 at Yankee Stadium was a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fourth when Lemon elected to use a pinch-hitter for starting pitcher John. New York failed to score in the inning, and the Dodgers then roughed up reliever George Frazier for three runs in the fifth. Cey, coming back from a scary beaning in Game 5 (a Gossage fastball had crashed into the left side of his helmet), snapped the tie with a single and Guerrero contributed a two-run triple.
Guerrero later stroked a two-run single and a bases-empty home run, and his five RBIs highlighted the Dodgers’ Series-clinching 9-2 runaway. Losing pitcher Frazier had suffered his third defeat, equaling the Series record established by Claude Williams of the 1919 Black Sox.
The Dodgers had come from a 2-0 deficit in games to defeat New York in four straight. Turnabout (from 1978) was fair play and, coming against a longtime Series adversary and nemesis, it was particularly gratifying as well.
