Red Caps

 Bisons

White Stockings

Blues

Wolverines

   Grays

Trojans

Worcesters

Locations of teams for the 1881National League season
National League

The1881 major league baseball season was contested from April 30 through September 30, 1881, and saw theChicago White Stockings as thepennant winner of the sixth season of theNational League. There was no postseason.

The 1881 season is most known for featuring the first major leaguegrand slam.^[a]Roger Connor of theTroy Trojans hit thewalk-off home run atRiverside Park (Greenbush) against theWorcester Worcesters on September 10, leading to an 8–7 victory.^[1]

Over the off-season, the National League dropped theCincinnati Stars due to the team refusing to sign a league pledge that banned alcohol in league parks and forbidding clubs from renting their parks out on Sundays. The team was replaced by theDetroit Wolverines.

1881 would be the final season of the first National League monopoly-era, as theAmerican Association would be established in1882.

The 1881 schedule consisted of 84 games for all eight teams of the National League. Each team was scheduled to play 12 games against the other seven teams in the league. This continued the format put in place since1879 and would be used until1883.

Opening Day took place on April 30 featuring four teams. The final day of the season was on September 30, featuring all eight teams.^[2]

The 1881 season saw the following rule changes:

• The pitching distance from the front of the pitcher's box to the center of home base from 45 feet to 50 feet.^[3]
• The number of "fair balls" thebatter could choose to take without lowering the number of "unfair balls" in abase on balls was reduced from four to three.^[3]
• Temporary substitute runners were prohibited.^[3]
• Runners were now required to return to their occupied base or risk beingputout:^[3]
  • Before the umpire called time on any play.
  • When a foul ball was not ruled an out and returned to the pitcher.
• Umpires must now use their best judgement on the legitimacy of a catch by a fielder, whereas previously, an umpire could take the testimony of bystanders nearest the player attempting the catch to make his decision.^[3]

An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at

Any team shown insmall text indicates a previous team a player was on during the season.

• 1881 Major League Baseball season schedule at Baseball Reference

• 1881 Major League Baseball season
• Major League Baseball seasons

• Use mdy dates from February 2025
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards