1971 Major League Baseball season
| 1971 MLB season | |
|---|---|
| League | Major League Baseball |
| Sport | Baseball |
| Duration | April 5, 1971 – September 30, 1971 |
| Regular season | |
| Season MVP |
AL: Vida Blue (OAK) NL: Joe Torre (STL) |
| Postseason | |
| AL champions | Baltimore Orioles |
| AL runners-up | Oakland Athletics |
| NL champions | Pittsburgh Pirates |
| NL runners-up | San Francisco Giants |
| World Series | |
| Champions | Pittsburgh Pirates |
| Runners-up | Baltimore Orioles |
| Finals MVP | Roberto Clemente (PIT) |
The 1971 Major League Baseball season was the final season for the Senators in Washington, D.C., before the team's relocation to the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb Arlington for the following season, as the Texas Rangers, leaving the nation's capital without a baseball team of its own until 2005.
This was the final season the majority of MLB teams wore wool flannel uniforms. The Pirates and Cardinals wore double knit uniforms of nylon and rayon throughout 1971, and the Orioles gradually phased out flannels, going all-double knit in time for the ALCS. By 1973, flannel uniforms completely disappeared from the MLB scene.
Three of the four division races were anticlimactic; the only race was in the N.L. West between old rivals Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. The Giants led by 8.5 games on September 1 but the Dodgers chipped away. In mid September, the Dodgers won 8 in a row, including 5 over the Giants to narrow the gap to one game. But they could get no closer; ultimately both teams won on the final day of the season and the Giants won the division by 1 game.
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