Okay, so, I’ve been digging into the 1981 MLB season lately. You know, the one with that crazy strike right in the middle? It messed up everything! So I started by trying to get a feel for the general standings. I went down a rabbit hole of websites, checking out a few. You know, just trying to piece together what happened that year, especially after the games started again.
Finding the Data
I needed some solid numbers, so I spent a good chunk of my afternoon collecting data from these websites. It was a bit of a pain, to be honest. Every site had a slightly different way of presenting the info, some were incomplete, and I had to hop from page to page just to get a full picture of each team’s wins, losses, and all that. There were so many numbers that my head was spinning a bit. I pulled up the team stats, player stats, whatever I could find. It was a mess! And there was a lot of stuff about like the trades and awards, and all this extra fluff I didn’t really need right then.
Organizing the Chaos
Once I had all this data, the real fun began. I started organizing it in a way that made sense to me. I copied and pasted stuff into a spreadsheet, trying to keep track of each team’s performance specifically for the second half of the season, after the strike. I mainly focused on their records after play resumed.
What I Found
- Man, that strike really shook things up. Some teams that were doing great before just kinda fell apart afterward, and vice-versa.
- The Dodgers and Yankees ended up in the World Series. It was their third time meeting in five years! Can you believe that?
- There was also some cool trivia I stumbled upon. Did you know that there are only two guys who’ve won Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season? Wild, right?
My Thoughts
This whole process was a bit of a headache, but it was also pretty cool to see how much that strike affected the season. It’s like two completely different seasons were squished into one. It really shows you how much momentum and consistency matter in baseball. I might do a deeper dive into individual player stats later, but for now, I’ve got a pretty good handle on the overall standings. It’s been a fun little project, even if it did take up most of my day!
