By NOAH TRISTER

The season began with Fernandomania and ended with a classic World Series matchup between the Dodgers and Yankees. Mike Schmidt slugged his way to a second consecutive MVP, and Nolan Ryan pitched another no-hitter.

But perhaps the best way to describe baseball in 1981 is by recounting Pete Rose’s pursuit of the National League’s career hits record. He tied the mark in June, then had to wait until August to break it — because a strike shut down the sport for about two months.

All Rose could do was make regular visits to the batting cage while he waited.

“I went there every freaking day,” Rose said.

If baseball is able to come back at all this year, fans should be prepared for a significantly shortened season, and that 1981 campaign may be the most relevant comparison available. The season was split in two by a labor dispute, but when the sport finally returned, its stars still had an abbreviated chance to shine.

“The chaos, the change, the uniqueness, the intensity — all of those elements absolutely factor into how memorable that entire time is,” said Steve Rogers, the right-hander whose Montreal Expos made their first postseason appearance in 1981.

The early days of the ’81 season were dominated by Fernando Valenzuela. The Mexican rookie took Los Angeles by storm, winning his first eight starts for the Dodgers and throwing shutouts in five of them.

By the time the strike began, Rose was in the spotlight. He was with the defending champion Phillies then, and on June 10, he entered Philadelphia’s last game before the strike needing one hit to tie Stan Musial’s NL mark of 3,630.

Ryan was on the mound against the Phillies, and Rose tied the record with a first-inning single off him. Then Rose struck out in his next three chances against the Houston right-hander. He finally broke the record Aug. 10 against St. Louis, in his team’s first game back.

Baseball’s first big event after the stoppage was the All-Star Game in Cleveland on Aug. 9. Schmidt homered in the eighth inning to give the NL a 5-4 win.

“That would have been my overall best year had we played a full season,” Schmidt said in an email. “I was in the midst of my prime, especially following 1980. It really had nothing to do with a unique thing I did during the strike, actually I worked for CBS as a sports anchor. I did some working out with (Phillies reliever) Tug McGraw.”

Schmidt hit .316 with 31 home runs in 102 games. Baseball-Reference.com credits him with 7.7 wins above replacement that year. In 2019 — with a full season — only two NL players reached that WAR total.

If baseball’s return went smoothly for position players like Rose and Schmidt, pitchers faced more of a challenge. And Rogers had the added responsibility of being on the union’s negotiating committee during the strike.

“My ability to stay in shape had been curtailed pretty significantly,” Rogers said. “I really did not have the capability of throwing that much.”

It would nonetheless turn into a memorable year for Rogers and the Expos. Baseball expanded its postseason, allowing the four division leaders from before the strike to qualify — and also taking the teams with the best post-strike records in each division.

That led to some unusual results. Cincinnati went 66-42 for the best overall record in the game, but the Reds finished second in both halves and missed the playoffs. Kansas City went 50-53 but won the second half in the AL West and played on.

Teams played an unequal number of games. The Expos (30-23) edged the Cardinals (29-23) atop the NL East in the second half, securing what would be their lone postseason berth in Montreal.

The Milwaukee Brewers made their first playoff appearance, as well. Houston made the postseason with the help of Ryan’s fifth no-hitter, Sept. 26 against the Dodgers.

The Expos fired manager Dick Williams late in the season, then went 16-11 under Jim Fanning to make the playoffs. Rogers threw a two-hit shutout against the Mets in his final start of the regular season — and he was just getting started.

In the first round of the playoffs, Rogers beat Steve Carlton twice, including in the winner-take-all fifth game at Philadelphia. He went the distance in that 3-0 victory and even drove in two runs.

In the NL Championship Series against Los Angeles, Rogers threw another complete game in a Game 3 win, but when he came on in relief in Game 5, Rick Monday homered in the top of the ninth to give the Dodgers the pennant. The ending was disappointing, but it had been a remarkable run for the Expos.

By the time the World Series ended — with the Dodgers winning in six games — it was fair to say the 1981 season, while far from ideal, had avoided becoming a farce.

That’s the challenge the sport faces this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has put the entire season in jeopardy. If baseball does resume, it may be in front of empty stadiums, and if the start is delayed well into the summer, the season could be so short the results seem tarnished.

“Is it really going to be a true champion?” Rose wondered. “The commissioner — boy, he’s got his work cut out for him. … You can’t make everybody happy.”

Ultimately, though, the format of baseball’s return may be a secondary concern. If the sport can be played safely, that would be a victory in itself. Whether that’s really possible is still very much in doubt.

“How would you contact trace if a player got the virus and was in a clubhouse? Point being, I think the number of games is a moot point,” Schmidt said. “If you need a number, and there was no problem playing the games, you probably could crown a world champion following a 60-game regular season. And a shortened postseason. It’s all about money and what everyone is willing to gamble to stop losing it.”

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By STEVEN WINE

MIAMI (AP) — Don Shula, who won the most games of any NFL coach and led the Miami Dolphins to the only perfect season in league history, died Monday at his home, the team said. He was 90.

Shula surpassed George Halas’ league-record 324 victories in 1993. He retired following the 1995 season with 347 wins, 173 losses and six ties, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

“Don Shula was the patriarch of the Miami Dolphins for 50 years,” the Dolphins said in a statement. “He brought the winning edge to our franchise and put the Dolphins and the city of Miami in the national sports scene.”

Shula became the only coach to guide an NFL team through a perfect season when the 1972 Dolphins went 17-0. They won the Super Bowl again the following season, finishing 15-2.

The 2007 Patriots came close to matching the achievement by the ’72 Dolphins, winning their first 18 games before losing in the Super Bowl to the New York Giants.

Shula appeared in six Super Bowls and reached the playoffs in four decades. He coached three Hall of Fame quarterbacks: Johnny Unitas, Bob Griese and Dan Marino.

During his 26 seasons in Miami, Shula became an institution and looked the part, with a jutting jaw and glare that intimidated 150-pound sports writers and 300-pound linemen alike. His name adorns an expressway, an athletic club and a steakhouse chain.

Shula’s only losing seasons came in 1976 and 1988, but he drew increasing criticism from fans and the media in his final years and retired in January 1996, with Jimmy Johnson replacing him.

Shula’s active retirement included plenty of travel and social events, but in 2000 he admitted he missed coaching.

“When you do something for 26 years with an organization and have all the memories — some not so great, but mostly great memories — that’s when you miss it,” he said.

Before his 1970s triumphs with Miami, Shula had a reputation as a coach who thrived during the regular season but couldn’t win the big games.

Shula became the youngest head coach in NFL history when the Baltimore Colts hired him in 1963 at age 33. The Colts finished 12-2 the following season and were widely seen as the league’s dominant team.

But they lost 27-0 to Cleveland in the title game, and for the next few years they continued to come up short.

The humiliation was greatest in the Super Bowl to end the 1968 season. The Colts steamrolled through the NFL, finishing 13-1 and outscoring opponents by a nearly 3-1 margin. After crushing the Browns 34-0 in the title game, they were overwhelming favorites to defeat the Jets of the upstart American Football League, which had lost the first two Super Bowls.

But the Colts lost 16-7, blowing numerous scoring opportunities and allowing Jets quarterback Joe Namath to control the game. The result is still regarded by many as the biggest upset in pro football history, and it contributed to Shula’s departure from Baltimore after the 1969 season.

In 1970, following the NFL-AFL merger, Shula joined the Dolphins, a fourth-year AFL expansion team that had gone 3-10-1 the previous year.

Miami improved to 10-4 in his first season and made the playoffs for the first time, and the 1971 Dolphins reached the Super Bowl before losing to Dallas. The following season, when Miami took a 16-0 record into the Super Bowl against Washington, Shula considered his legacy on the line.

“If we had won 16 games in a row and lost the Super Bowl, it would have been a disaster, especially for me,” he said in a 2007 interview. “That would have been my third Super Bowl loss. I was 0-2 in Super Bowls and people always seemed to bring that up: ‘You can’t win the big one.’”

The Dolphins beat the Redskins 14-7, then repeated as champions the following year by beating Minnesota in the title game.

The post-Shula era in Miami has only magnified his achievements. More than two decades after he retired, the Dolphins haven’t been back to an AFC championship game, much less a Super Bowl.

Five times under Shula, the Dolphins had a winning streak of at least seven games. They haven’t had one since.

Shula was about more than winning. He supported many charities, and the Don Shula Foundation, formed primarily to assist breast cancer research, was established as a tribute to his late wife, Dorothy.

They were married for 32 years and raised five children before she died in 1991. Shula married Mary Anne Stephens during a bye week in 1993.

His oldest son, David, coached the Cincinnati Bengals from 1992-96. When Cincinnati played Miami in 1994, it marked the first time in professional sports that a father and son faced each other as head coaches.

Don won, 23-7.

Another son, Mike, is a longtime NFL assistant coach and was head coach at Alabama in 2003-06.

Shula spent more than 20 years on the powerful NFL Competition Committee, which evaluates playing rules as well as regulations designed to improve safety.

“If I’m remembered for anything, I hope it’s for playing within the rules,” Shula once said. “I also hope it will be said that my teams showed class and dignity in victory or defeat.”

Born Jan. 4, 1930, in Grand River, Ohio, Shula was raised in Painesville, Ohio. He played running back at John Carroll University in Cleveland and cornerback in the pros for seven seasons with Cleveland, Baltimore and Washington.

He entered coaching as an assistant at Virginia in 1958.

Near the end of his career, Shula’s biography in the Dolphins’ media guide began with a quote from former NFL coach Bum Phillips: “Don Shula can take his’n and beat you’n, and he could take you’n and beat his’n.”

Shula is survived by his second wife, two sons and three daughters.

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By STEPHEN HAWKINS

With the sports calendar still mostly on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, The Associated Press takes a look at some of the live sporting events that would have taken place the week of May 4-10:

MLB: The 162-game regular season would have been about one-fourth complete after the Boston Red Sox played this coming weekend in the Bronx against the Yankees. It would have been the first series this season between the AL East rivals after New York won 14 of 19 games last year, including both games played in London.

New Atlanta Braves pitcher Cole Hamels (shoulder) might not have been ready to pitch in Philadelphia. Hamels began his MLB career with the Phillies from 2006-15, and was the 2008 World Series MVP. In his only start in Philly as a visitor, the lefty allowed eight runs in two-plus innings, an 11-1 loss by the Chicago Cubs last August.

TRIVIA BREAK: When the NBA season was suspended after March 11 games, the Lakers were the only Western Conference team that had clinched a playoff berth. Los Angeles had gone a franchise-worst six consecutive seasons without making the playoffs. What are the only two Western Conference teams with longer active postseason droughts? (Answer at bottom).

NBA: The playoffs would have been in the middle of the second round, with eight teams still in contention for the NBA title.

NHL: The quest for the Stanley Cup would have been down to four teams, with the Eastern and Western Conference finals getting underway.

TENNIS: The clay-court Madrid Open was supposed to be this week, one of the key tuneups for the French Open, which normally begins in late May but this year has been postponed until September. Known as the “King of Clay,” Rafael Nadal has won the title in Madrid five times, but surprisingly lost in the 2019 semifinals there to Stefanos Tsitsipas. Novak Djokovic wound up with the trophy.

PGA TOUR: The Byron Nelson tournament was to be played for the final time at Trinity Forest Golf Club. Plans had already been announced for the tournament to move after only three years on the links-style course built on a former landfill south of downtown Dallas. The Nelson moves next year to TPC Craig Ranch north of Dallas.

NASCAR: A week before the return of actual live Cup Series racing in South Carolina, NASCAR is missing what would have been its latest spring race at Martinsville, Virginia, in a half-century. The paperclip-shaped half-mile track is the shortest on the circuit, and hasn’t hosted a spring race past April since 1970.

TRIVIA ANSWER: The Sacramento Kings have missed the playoffs the past 13 seasons and the Phoenix Suns have gone nine seasons in a row without making the postseason. That doesn’t include this season that is still on hold with both teams in the bottom-third of the Western Conference standings.

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