The division winners this year were Atlanta and St. Louis. The Braves had been a pitiful team for a long time, but owner Ted Turner spent a bundle on expensive free agents to rebuild them. They won their first thirteen games- then barely hung on to win the division, and were defeated by the Cardinals in the league championship. St. Louis then defeated Milwaukee in the World Series; the Braves, meanwhile, went back to being one of the worst teams in the league for a long time.

         Steve Carlton won his fourth Cy Young Award, the first pitcher ever to do so. It was also the last big season of his career; Carlton finished the season with 285 wins, and would hang on another six years, to finish with 329. He was also drawing close to Walter Johnson's career strikeout record, which he would break in 1983, a short time before it was also passed by Nolan Ryan. Carlton and Ryan are the only two pitchers with over 4000 strikeouts in their career; Carlton also ranks second behind Ryan in career walks.
        Though he was a great pitcher and had an outstanding season, I don't think Carlton deserved the Cy Young this year. He did not pitch as well as Steve Rogers of Montreal, who had his best season. Rogers had been with the Expos for ten years; he had a brilliant rookie season in 1973, then became the staff workhorse during some dismal seasons. The team then improved, and Rogers began to win more games.
         In 1981, the Expos made the playoffs for the first time, and faced Los Angeles in a five-games series. Rogers won his only start; then, with the Game Five tied in the ninth inning, Rogers was brought into the game relief, something he did very rarely in his career. He served up a game-winning home run to Rick Monday, and Montreal's only playoff appearance was over. Rogers recovered to pitch brilliantly this year, and very well in 1983, before arm troubles ended his career.
        Fernando Valenzuela finished third in the Cy Young vote, and I will give him the same ranking. The very young Mexican screwball specialist had a fine sophomore season for the Dodgers. After Valenzuela, I'm not sure who to take. Both Niekro brothers won 17 games; Joe has a great ERA, but pitched in a great pitcher's park; Phil had a mediocre ERA, but pitched in a great hitter's park. Both Joquain Andujar and Mario Soto pitched extremely well, but did not have outstanding won-loss records.
        So I will choose a reliever, Greg Minton of the Giants. Minton won 10 games, was second in the league with 30 saves, pitched a lot of innings and had a great ERA. What more can you want from a reliever? Minton had already been a fine reliever for a few years; after this year he began to struggle a bit, and lost the closer's job in San Francisco. He was traded to California, and had some good years there as a setup man, pitching until he was almost 40.