1981 Fantasy Astrology Recap
View the 1981 FABL Lineups Here!
It’s appropriate to talk about the 1981 MLB season during the 2021-22 offseason, because both time periods are marked with labor disputes. There are a couple of key differences: the current predicament is a lockout instituted by the owners, while the 1981 work stoppage was the result of a player strike. And the most important distinction is that we haven’t yet missed any regular season games in 2022, whereas the 1981 strike caused the cancellation of almost 40% of the season. But the silver lining is that when the season was split into two parts (pre-strike and post-strike) it created the first ever Division Series round of the playoffs!
For me personally, the most frustrating part about Scorpio’s 1980s dynasty is that it’s not like they completely ran away with the Water Division every year. My home sign Cancer Crabs put up some of their most impressive seasons in that time period, but were more often than not edged out by a slightly more impressive Scorpions squad. In 1981, the Stingers were led by Fernando Valenzuela (2,175 / 87.0), one of only two players to reach 2,000 points in the strike-shortened season. Valenzuela would be the first of three Cy Young-caliber Rookie pitchers for Scorpio in the span of six years, the others being Mets starter Dwight Gooden in 1984 and Blue Jays long relief ace Mark Eichhorn in ’86.
Despite Scorpio’s excellence, I don’t know if they would be favored in a head-to-head matchup against Earth Division leader Capricorn in a playoff matchup. For one thing, the Goats have Valenzuela’s Negative Polarity Cy Young Award runner-up (or co-winner, depeneding on how generous you want to be) Steve Carlton (2,137 / 89.0), in a season in which he recorded his 3,000th strikeout. (However, Scorpio veteran Tom Seaver (1,746 / 75.9) reached the same milestone in 1981… in the same MONTH no less, the only time that’s happened in MLB history). Capricorn also sported the NP MVP Rickey Henderson (1,831 / 17.0) and the Reliable Reliever runner-up Bruce Sutter (1,491 / 31.1), so the Goats are definitely stacked as far as star power is concerned.
Sagittarius was the undisputed leader in the Fire Division, with an offense led by George Foster (1,671 / 15.5), Cecil Cooper (1,481 / 14.0), and Bill Buckner (1,422 / 13.4), the #2, #3, and #5 scoring batters in the Positive Polarity. The Archers pitching staff was strong too, with Larry Gura (1,588 / 69.0) finishing third among PP pitchers, behind Aquarius CYA winner Nolan Ryan (1,795 / 85.5) and Aries legend Don Sutton (1,622 / 70.5). Also Dave Righetti (1,222 / 81.5), at that point a starting pitcher, won the PP Rookie of the Year award, opposite Valenzuela in the NP… although if you don’t like the idea of awarding him two of the major awards, Virgo Tim Raines (1,716 / 19.5) is a very capable runner-up.
The race was much closer in the Air Division, where the fantasy points leader was either Libra or Gemini, depending on how strictly you want to follow positional eligibility rules. Granted, both contenders benefitted from my willingness to bend the rules, and not every situation is equally egregious. For example, listing third baseman Hubie Brooks (916 / 9.3) as the Libra shortstop makes sense, since he would spend four years qualifying at the position, from 1984 to ’87. But putting Rod Carew (1,022 / 11.0) at second base is much more of a stretch, considering he was a full-time first baseman since 1976. But even if we replace those two with their first alternates – Rodney Scott (878 / 9.2) at 2B and Alfredo Griffin (541 / 5.4) at SS – Libra still finishes ahead of Gemini.
What would put the Twins ahead of the Scales in a hypothetical points rebalancing is a somewhat arbitrary rule I follow with regards to the pitching staff. If a pitcher has at least 10 starts in any given season, I will allow them to qualify for their fantasy astrology team’s rotation. However, if a pitcher has more relief appearances than starts, I will replace them with the sign’s first alternate starter when recalculating for positional eligibility. In this case, Libra’s top-scoring pitcher was White Sox swingman Dennis Lamp (1,168 / 43.3), whose 1981 ratio was 27 total games to 10 games started. Replacing him with the fifth-highest scoring primary starter Paul Splittorff (554 / 26.4) puts Gemini over the top.
Looking back on this decision, it’s kind of silly, because what should a pitcher’s total games in relief matter when evaluating their ability to start? So I don’t consider Libra’s victory to be tainted, especially when they also had Positive Polairty (and real-life National League) MVP Mike Schmidt (1,991 / 19.5) leading the way offensively. On the other side of the coin, Gemini did have #3 Positive Polarity starting pitcher Bob Knepper (1,560 / 70.9) and Reliable Reliever Rick Camp (1,466 / 30.5), although neither pitcher reached the heights of Negative Polarity RR Rollie Fingers (1,898 / 40.4), who won the real-life Cy Young and MVP Awards in the American League.
By the time of my next scheduled post, the originally scheduled start of Spring Training 2022 will have come and gone. It remains to be seen what progress will have been made in the lockout by that time, but… it’s probably not good.