Dodgers legends celebrate '81 Series title

LOS ANGELES -- When center fielder Ken Landreaux caught Bob Watson’s fly ball for the final out of the 1981 World Series, Yankee Stadium was silent.

Years of heartbreak came to an end. The Dodgers finally had beaten the New York Yankees on the World Series stage, and it was time to pop champagne.

Forty years later, former reliever Tom Niedenfuer remembers the silence that filled the stadium in the Bronx as Game 6 concluded. He remembers celebrating in the clubhouse with his teammates. He doesn’t remember when the night turned to morning, however, but the champagne on the plane to Los Angeles remains a fond memory. But that’s to be expected when your team wins its first World Series title in 16 years.

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Niedenfuer and his former teammates heard the roar of the crowd in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, when the Dodgers honored the 1981 team for the 40th anniversary of the organization’s fifth World Series title.

Players of the 1981 team stood along the third-base line at Dodger Stadium as the club celebrated them and honored members of the team who have died, including legendary manager Tommy Lasorda.

“With Tommy, you had to believe with him. You thought you'd win every day,” Niedenfuer said. “But it was a lot different for me because it was my first year. The older guys, they lost to the Yankees in ’77 and ’78. I was just a new kid on the block, but those guys had something to prove.”

And proved something they did. The comeback kids overcame three series deficits during the 1981 postseason, fighting off elimination with veteran presence and rookie power. Their resilience was on full display as they prevailed after being down 2-0 to Houston in a best-of-five series, 2-1 to Montreal in the best-of-five National League Championship Series and 2-0 to New York in the best-of-seven World Series.

“I call it the championship of destiny,” former first baseman Steve Garvey said.

Facing the Yankees was familiar for Los Angeles’ long-tenured infield. As a group, they had played against the Yankees in the ’77 and ’78 Fall Classics, each time watching the Bronx Bombers hoist the World Series trophy after Game 6.

Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey knew that their time as teammates was in its final days. The Longest Running Infield -- starters together since 1973 -- missed out on eight weeks of playing together because of the 1981 players’ strike. They wanted to win it all in their final season together, and it had to be against the Yankees.

"It was our last year. We tried together, and it was against the Yankees. Finally, we beat the Yankees,” Russell said. “Even in Brooklyn, when we came out here to L.A., they had trouble beating the Yankees.”

When New York took a 2-0 series lead, Los Angeles was potentially two games away from losing to the Yankees for the third time in five seasons.

The energy in the clubhouse was tangible, as Niedenfuer described. The team knew what it was capable of, and Game 3 was in the hands of rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela with Fernandomania in full force.

"Watching Fernando's success earlier in the year before I got here [helped me], because if a guy that young could do it, it makes you feel, 'Why can't you come up?’" Niedenfuer said. “… He made us a lot more comfortable that the step isn't that huge from the Minor Leagues to the big leagues,”

After Valenzuela pitched a complete game to win Game 3, the Dodgers’ offense led the way in an 8-7 comeback win in Game 4. Jay Johnstone’s two-run home run in the sixth inning sparked the comeback.

That’s when the Dodgers knew they were going to be the 1981 World Series champions.

“Just the name, the 'Yankees,' -- knowing that tradition there and the many times they've been in the postseason and the World Series,” Russell said. “I think everybody wants to beat the team that's on top.”

The Dodgers won all three games in L.A. to take a 3-2 series lead back to New York for Game 6. Pedro Guerrero drove in five runs in the clincher as the Dodgers rolled to a 9-2 victory.

Forty years later, the World Series feat comes to mind every once in a while. Some of the 1981 players thought about their Fall Classic when the Dodgers made it to the World Series stage in 2020. Just like 39 years prior, the Dodgers won in six games after years of heartbreak.

“[The Dodgers] are real charmers, to get all the fellas back together again,” Garvey said. “Obviously, when you retire, whatever age, you go through all walks of life and then you get a chance to get together and reminisce and to renew those bonds that arguably made the greatest single collaborative moment in our history.”