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1971 Kansas City Royals season

Field	Value
name	Kansas City Royals
season	1971
league	American League
division	West
ballpark	Municipal Stadium
city	Kansas City, Missouri
record
divisional_place	2nd
owners	Ewing Kauffman
general_managers	Cedric Tallis
managers	Bob Lemon (first full season)
television	KMBC-TV
radio	KMBZ
(Buddy Blattner, Denny Matthews)

(Buddy Blattner, Denny Matthews) |}} The 1971 season was the Kansas City Royals' third in Major League Baseball. The Royals had the first winning season (85–76) in franchise history, good enough for second place in the American League West and 16 games behind the Oakland Athletics. Kansas City earning a winning record in its third season was the second fastest of any expansion club in Major League Baseball history up to that point, the 1962 Los Angeles Angels achieved a winning record in their second season. The record would stand until the 1999 Arizona Diamondbacks won the National League West title in their second season.

By comparison, none of the Royals' expansion brethren--the Milwaukee Brewers, Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres--enjoyed a winning season prior to 1978.

Offseason

February 2, 1971: Ellie Rodríguez was traded by the Royals to the Milwaukee Brewers for Carl Taylor.
Prior to 1971 season: Gary Lance was signed as an amateur free agent by the Royals.

Regular season

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

May 11, 1971: Tom Matchick was traded by the Royals to the Milwaukee Brewers for Ted Savage.
June 8, 1971: George Brett was drafted by the Royals in the 2nd round of the 1971 Major League Baseball draft.

Roster

1971 Kansas City Royals
Roster
Pitchers

Player stats

	= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	71	218	55	.252	1	24
1B	103	295	82	.278	9	47
2B	115	414	124	.300	6	59
SS	147	591	158	.267	6	36
3B	161	548	150	.274	11	63
LF	126	448	125	.279	3	51
CF	147	555	167	.301	15	79
RF	110	351	87	.248	3	30

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
128	373	91	.244	8	52
120	365	80	.219	9	46
72	161	33	.205	1	11
60	152	31	.204	2	14
49	143	31	.217	2	21
31	66	10	.152	0	2
18	63	20	.317	2	15
22	46	7	.152	0	1
20	39	7	.179	0	3
16	30	9	.300	0	1
19	29	5	.172	0	1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
35	241.1	17	11	2.98	109
32	205.2	15	8	2.71	76
22	144.1	8	9	2.68	80
25	141.1	8	6	3.44	58
7	32.1	2	3	5.01	15

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
36	127.1	7	5	4.17	53
21	78.0	3	6	3.69	56
20	54.0	2	7	5.33	31
14	44.1	1	2	3.45	32
10	24.0	1	0	4.12	20
3	21.1	3	0	2.11	12
4	9.2	0	0	9.31	2

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
63	4	6	23	2.56	55
67	9	7	17	1.73	44
53	5	5	3	2.89	103
13	0	1	0	5.29	29

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Cookie Rojas, Second Base, Reserve
Amos Otis, Outfield, Reserve

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Elmira, GCL Royals

Notes

References

1971 Kansas City Royals at Baseball Reference
1971 Kansas City Royals at Baseball Almanac

References

[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rodriel01.shtml Ellie Rodríguez] at ''Baseball Reference''
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lancega01.shtml Gary Lance] at ''Baseball Reference''
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/matchto01.shtml Tom Matchick] at ''Baseball Reference''
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/brettge01.shtml George Brett] at ''Baseball Reference''

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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