The following are the baseball events of the year 1991 throughout the world.
Champions
Major League Baseball
Other champions
Awards and honors
MLB Statistical Leaders
Major League Baseball final standings
Events
January-June
- February 4 - The 12 members of the board of directors of the Hall of Fame vote unanimously to bar Pete Rose from the ballot. He will become eligible again only if the commissioner reinstates him by December 2005.
- April 8 - Just hours before the first pitch of the baseball season, MLB averts an umpires strike by reaching agreement with the Major League Umpires' Association on a new four-year contract.
- April 23 - Nick Leyva is fired as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, the first manager fired in 1991.
July-December
- July 6 - John McNamara, winner of the 1979 N.L. West division with the Reds and 1986 American League pennant with the Red Sox is fired as manager of the Indians. He is replaced by Mike Hargrove. The firing is the sixth on the season and occurs just as the first half of the season ends.
- July 7 - Outside a restaurant in Arlington, Texas, American League umpire Steve Palermo is shot and paralyzed from the waist down after aiding a woman who was being mugged. The assailant is later sentenced to 75 years in prison.
- July 26 - Expos pitcher Mark Gardner pitches a no-hitter through nine innings but fails to complete it when his team fails to score against Dodgers starter Orel Hershiser and reliever Kip Gross. Gardner loses the no-hitter and the game in the tenth when the Dodgers get three hits and score the only run of the game. The Expos only get two hits.
- July 28 - Picking up where Gardner left off, Expos hurler Dennis Martinez throws a perfect game against the Dodgers. The Expos only get four hits, but they score two runs and give Martinez the thirteen perfect game in major league history.
- August 11 - In only his second major league start, Wilson Alvarez throws a no-hitter as the White Sox beat the Orioles, 7-0. It is the fifth no-hitter of the 1991 season, not including Mark Gardner's nine inning no-hitter that was lost in the tenth on July 26.
- August 14 - Dave Winfield hits his 400th career home run for the California Angels against the Minnesota Twins. Winfield is the 23rd player in history to accomplish the feat.
- August 26 - The sixth no-hitter of 1991 is thrown by two-time Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen. The Kansas City Royals hurler no-hits the White Sox, 7-0, for his first career no-hitter. On the same day, the seventh managerial firing of 1991 occurs as the Angels, who have gone from first to last in less than one month, fire Doug Rader and replace him with the recently deposed Buck Rodgers.
- September 4 - Removing an "asterisk" which was never universally recognized, the Statistical Accuracy Committee decides to put Roger Maris' 61 home run season of 1961 ahead of Babe Ruth's 60 mark of 1927. Regarding the expunging of the asterisk, historian later points out, "It was an easy job: the asterisk never existed. Maris' record was, from 1962 until 1991, listed separately from Ruth's and was never actually defined by 'some distinctive mark.'" The eight-man panel also re-defines a no-hit game as one which ends after nine or more innings with one team failing to get a hit, thereby removing 50 games from the list that had previously been considered hitless, including the 1959 performance of Harvey Haddix's 12 perfect innings against the Braves and Jim Maloney's 1965 1-0 loss to the Mets in 11 innings. Another casualty is Ernie Shore's 27 straight outs in 1917, a game in which he relieved Ruth with a runner on and no outs in the first inning. It is now a combined no-hitter.
- September 16 - Otis Nixon, the league's leading base stealer and catalyst on the Atlanta Braves' run from last to first, fails a drug test and is suspended for sixty days, consisting of the rest of the 1991 baseball season and the first six weeks of the 1992 season. The Braves lose the first two games without Nixon but rebound to win the pennant.
- September 22 - The Pittsburgh Pirates become the first N.L. East team since the 1976-77-78 Phillies to win consecutive N.L. Eastern Division titles when they beat the Phillies, 2-1.
- September 29 - The Minnesota Twins become the first team to ever go from last place to first over the course of one season when a Chicago White Sox loss to Seattle clinches the A.L. Western Division title. It is the Twins' first title since 1987. The New York Mets fire Bud Harrelson the same day, the eighth managerial firing of the year.
- October 2 - The Toronto Blue Jays capture their third American League East title since 1985 by beating the California Angels. The same day, the Blue Jays become the first team to ever play before more than four million fans in a single season.
- October 3 - Chicago White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk hits two home runs, including a grand slam, to lead the White Sox to a 13-12 victory over the Minnesota Twins. In doing so, just nine months shy of his 44th birthday, Fisk becomes the oldest 20th-century player to collect a two-HR game. His 7th-inning grand slam off Steve Bedrosian also makes him the oldest major leaguer ever to hit a bases-loaded homer. Cap Anson, at 45, hit two home runs on this date in 1897, and is the oldest major league player to hit a pair.
- October 5 - The Atlanta Braves become the second team in two weeks to go from last to first when they beat the Houston Astros, 5-2. Moments later, the San Francisco Giants eliminate the Dodgers, ensuring a division title for the Braves. John Smoltz gets his fourteenth win of the season as the Braves close out with eight consecutive wins after trailing the Dodgers by two with only ten games to play.
- October 7 - Leo Durocher, who is credited with the phrase 'nice guys finish last,' dies at the age of 86. The same day, the Yankees fire Stump Merrill, the ninth manager fired in 1991.
- October 8 - Despite finishing in second, their lowest finish in his 3 1/2 years as manager, the Red Sox fire Joe Morgan and replace him with Butch Hobson. Morgan is the tenth manager fired in 1991.
- October 9 - Tom Trebelhorn becomes the eleventh managerial casualty of 1991 despite a record of 40-19 and a finish over .500 with the Brewers.
- October 18 - Jim Essian, who replaced Don Zimmer in May, is fired as manager of the Cubs, the thirteenth and last firing of a manager in 1991. The thirteen firings set a record that still stands.
- November 18 - Bobby Bonilla leaves the Pirates for the Mets and becomes the first five million dollar a year player in major league baseball history.
Movies
Deaths
January-May
- January 3 - Luke Appling, 83, Hall of Fame shortstop who played his entire career for the Chicago White Sox, setting career record for most games at his position while batting .310 lifetime and winning two AL batting titles; famous for his ability to foul off pitches, he retired with the 7th-most walks in history; his two years of World War II service deprived him of a chance to reach 3000 hits
- January 4 - Bill Byrd, 83, 7-time All-Star pitcher for the Negro Leagues' Baltimore Elite Giants, among the last to throw the spitball
- January 6 - Bobby Estalella, 79, Cuban outfielder for three AL teams who drew a three-year suspension for trying to jump to the Mexican League
- January 6 - Alan Wiggins, 32, second baseman for the Padres and Orioles who batted .341 in the 1984 postseason
- January 25 - Hoot Evers, 69, All-Star outfielder for the Tigers who led AL in triples in 1950
- January 27 - Dale Long, 64, All-Star first baseman who hit home runs in a record eight consecutive games for the 1956 Pirates
- March 1 - , 89, sportswriter who covered the New York Giants from 1925 until the team moved to San Francisco in 1958; later served as director of the Hall of Fame from 1963 to 1979
- March 7 - Cool Papa Bell, 87, Hall of Fame center fielder of the Negro Leagues, prominently with the St. Louis Stars, who was legendary for his speed on the bases
- April 11 - Walker Cooper, 76, 9-time All-Star catcher for six NL teams who batted .300 five times; MVP runnerup for 1943 Cardinals
- April 20 - Bucky Walters, 82, 6-time All-Star pitcher whose 198 victories included three 20-win seasons for the Cincinnati Reds; the NL's 1939 MVP, he led league in ERA twice and had two wins in 1940 World Series
- May 20 - Pete Runnels, 63, All-Star infielder for the Senators and Red Sox who won two AL batting titles with Boston
June-December
- June 15 - Happy Chandler, 92, Hall of Fame executive who left the U.S. Senate to serve as baseball commissioner from 1945 to 1951, and presided over the integration of the major leagues
- August 7 - Jimmy Cooney, 96, shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Braves between 1917 and 1928, who turned an unassisted triple play in 1927
- August 9 - Hank Majeski, 74, third baseman who set an AL record at his position with a .989 fielding percentage for the 1947 Athletics
- September 15 - Smoky Burgess, 64, 6-time All-Star catcher for five teams who held the record for career pinch hits (145) until 1979
- October 7 - Leo Durocher, 86, manager who led the Brooklyn Dodgers to their first pennant in 21 years in 1941, and drove the New York Giants to two pennants and an unexpected 4-0 sweep of the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series; retired with 2008 victories, second most in NL history; previously an All-Star shortstop and captain of the Cardinals' "Gashouse Gang"
- October 25 - George Brunet, 56, pitcher for nine teams who led AL in losses twice with the Angels and had over 3000 strikeouts in the minor leagues
- November 11 - Heinz Becker, 75, German-born first baseman who was a key reserve on the last Cubs team to win a pennant (1945)
- December 12 - Ken Keltner, 75, 7-time All-Star third baseman for the Cleveland Indians best known for his plays which ended Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941