1981 National League Championship Series
| 1981 National League Championship Series | |||||||||||||
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| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 13 – 19 | ||||||||||||
| MVP | Burt Hooton (Los Angeles) | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Paul Pryor, Eric Gregg, Paul Runge, Dutch Rennert, Harry Wendelstedt, Joe West | ||||||||||||
| NLDS |
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| Broadcast | |||||||||||||
| Television |
NBC CBC |
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| TV announcers |
Dick Enberg and Tom Seaver (NBC) Dave Van Horne and Duke Snider (CBC) |
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| Radio | CBS | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Jack Buck and Jerry Coleman | ||||||||||||
| Team (Wins) | Manager | Season | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Dodgers (3) | Tommy Lasorda | 36–21, .632, GA: ½ (1st half) 27–26, .509, GB: 6 (2nd half) |
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| Montreal Expos (2) | Jim Fanning | 30–25, .545, GB: 4 (1st half) 30–23, .566, GA: ½ (2nd half) |
The 1981 National League Championship Series was a best-of-five series between the first-half West Division champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the second-half East Division champion Montreal Expos. The Dodgers won the NLCS three games to two over the Expos, thanks to a ninth-inning home run in Game 5 by Rick Monday in what has ever since been referred to as Blue Monday by Expos fans. It was the first postseason appearance for the Expos, and their only appearance during their time in Montreal (the team moved to Washington, D.C. in 2005, becoming the Washington Nationals).
Due to the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, a team had to win two postseason series in order to go to the World Series. Teams that finished first in their division in the first and second halves of the season advanced to the postseason. This was the first year the baseball postseason had three rounds, an arrangement that would permanently return beginning with the 1995 season. The Expos advanced to the NLCS after defeating the defending world champion Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series three games to two, and the Dodgers made their way to the NLCS after beating the Houston Astros three games to two in the NLDS.
This was also only the third NLCS that did not feature either the Phillies or their cross-state rival Pittsburgh Pirates, the other two being 1973 and 1969. In both of those years the Phillies rival New York Mets won the NL East and the pennant, beating the Baltimore Orioles in the '69 World Series and losing to the Oakland A's in '73.
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