1966 World Series
The 1966 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 1966 season. The 63rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League champion Baltimore Orioles and National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Orioles swept the series in four games to capture their first championship in franchise history. It was the last World Series played before MLB introduced the Commissioner's Trophy the following year. The Dodgers suffered record low scoring, accumulating just two runs over the course of the series, the lowest number of runs ever scored by any team in a World Series.
This World Series marked the end of the Dodgers' dynasty of frequent postseason appearances stretching back to 1947. Conversely, it marked the beginning of the Orioles' dynasty of frequent postseason appearances that continued until 1983.
Background
Despite the general consensus that the Orioles were short of pitching compared to the Dodgers and their star hurlers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, Baltimore pitching allowed only two runs in the entire series and ended up with a 0.50 team earned run average, the second-lowest in World Series history. The Orioles scored more runs in the first inning of the first game than the Dodgers would score in the whole series.The Orioles got a substantial assist from long-time scout Jim Russo, who spent the first two weeks of September following the Dodgers as they won 12 of 14 games. One of the observations in his 16-page scouting report was that Dodger batters had trouble with the fastball against Gaylord Perry and Larry Dierker. Other points included Maury Wills being the lone bunt threat; left-handed pitchers forcing switch hitters to bat right-handed and Ron Fairly out of the lineup, both to the detriment of the Dodgers; and that Orioles batters should avoid swinging at Koufax's rising fastball above the strike zone. Frank Robinson also added suggestions based on his experiences in the National League when the team went over the scouting report a day prior to the start of the Series.
Boog Powell from the Orioles and Jim Barbieri from the Dodgers were the first players to play in the Little League World Series and the World Series. Each played against the other in Game 1 of the 1954 Little League World Series. Barbieri pinch-hit for Dodger relief pitcher Joe Moeller in Game 1 of the series. Barbieri struck out in what would be the final appearance of his brief career.
Route to the World Series
Orioles
After the 1965 season that saw the Orioles finish in third place, they acquired Hall of Famer Frank Robinson from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for starting pitcher Milt Pappas. Robinson won the Triple Crown and A.L. MVP honors in leading the Orioles to the A.L. pennant by nine games over the Minnesota Twins.Dodgers
The Dodgers were in a tight pennant race for the fourth time in five years. Going into a season ending double header in Philadelphia, the Dodgers led the San Francisco Giants by two games. The Giants were in Pittsburgh for a single game, and if they won that game and the Dodgers lost twice, the Giants would have headed to Cincinnati to play a make up game of an earlier rain-out; a win there would force a tie for first place.In the first game of the double header, the Dodgers made two errors in the bottom of the eighth inning to turn a 3–2 win into a 4–3 loss. Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, the Giants kept their slim hopes alive by getting a run in the ninth to tie, and four in the 11th to win, 7–3. The Dodgers needed to win the second game of the doubleheader. Sandy Koufax pitched the Dodgers to a 6–3 win to clinch the pennant.
Summary
Matchups
Game 1
In the top of the first inning, after Russ Snyder drew a one-out walk, Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson hit back-to-back home runs off of Don Drysdale to give the Orioles an early 3–0 lead. In the bottom half of the frame, Dave McNally walked Dodger leadoff man Maury Wills, who subsequently stole second. However, the Dodgers failed to score. In the second inning, Andy Etchebarren drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by McNally, and scored on a single by Snyder to widen the lead to 4–0.However, McNally soon began to struggle with his command. In the bottom of the second inning, second baseman Jim Lefebvre hit a long home run to make it 4-1. First baseman Wes Parker then hit a fair ball down the right-field foul line, but a fan reached over the wall and picked the ball out of the dirt, turning a possible triple into a fan interference double. After McNally walked Jim Gilliam, John Roseboro hit a fly ball to right center, but Snyder saved at least a run with a lunging catch, and Baltimore escaped the inning without further damage.
McNally wouldn't last much longer, though, as he was taken out with one out in the bottom of the third inning after loading the bases on walks. Moe Drabowsky entered the game and struck out Parker, but then walked Gilliam, forcing in a run and making it 4-2. Drabowsky, however, got out of the jam when Roseboro popped out to Etchebarren in foul territory. This third-inning run would be the Dodgers' last run of 1966.
From there, the Orioles controlled the rest of the game. They added an insurance run in the fourth inning against Joe Moeller, when Davey Johnson scored from second on a fielder's choice by Luis Aparicio. Meanwhile, Drabowsky struck out six consecutive batters in the next two innings, tying Hod Eller's record from Game 5 of the scandal-tainted 1919 World Series. Drabowsky's total of 11 strikeouts in innings of relief are a record for a relief pitcher in a World Series game. The Orioles won 5–2, and the Dodgers would not get another runner across the plate in the series.
Game 2
Game 2 was a matchup between two future Hall of Famers, one whose career was just beginning and the other making his final appearance. The Dodgers started left-handed ace Sandy Koufax, who was pitching in his last season but had won his third Cy Young Award in four years with 27 wins, 317 strikeouts, 5 shutouts, and his career best 1.73 ERA. The Orioles countered with 20-year-old Jim Palmer, who won 15 games with a 3.46 ERA in his first season in the starting rotation.Despite the difference in experience, Palmer and Koufax traded zeroes on the scoreboard for four innings. Palmer got into trouble in the second inning when a double by Lou Johnson put runners on second and third with one out, but he got out of the jam by getting Roseboro to pop out to shortstop Aparicio, and then intentionally walking Parker to face Koufax, who popped out to second base. Surprisingly, Baltimore drew first blood against Koufax, although they were assisted by disastrous defense by Los Angeles center fielder Willie Davis.
Boog Powell led off with a single to left. Paul Blair then hit a routine fly ball to center, but Davis lost the ball in the sun and dropped it for an error, putting two runners on with one out. Etchebarren then hit another fly to center, but Davis, again battling the sun, bobbled the ball and then dropped it for another error. Powell scored on the misplay, while Blair attempted to advance to third base; Davis subsequently released a high, rushed throw over the head of third baseman Gilliam. The throwing error - Davis' third of the inning, a World Series record that still stands - allowed Blair to score and Etchebarren to advance to third. Aparicio then cracked a stand-up double to drive in Etchebarren. All three runs were unearned.
The O's then earned one from Koufax in the sixth as Frank Robinson hit a triple on a fly ball that could have been caught but fell in between Davis and Ron Fairly. Powell drove him in with a single to right-center. Johnson followed with a single to right, and the runners advanced on an error by Fairly. Koufax escaped the inning after walking Blair intentionally to load the bases and getting Etchebarren to ground into a double play. Etchebarren would be the final batter that Koufax ever faced in his career.
Koufax was replaced in the seventh by Ron Perranoski, who set the Orioles down in order. They would get two from him in the eighth, however, on a walk to Frank Robinson, a single by Brooks Robinson, a sacrifice bunt from Powell and a Johnson single off of Perranoski's glove. Perranoski threw the ball away in an attempt for an out at first, and Brooks scored on the error.
Meanwhile, Palmer was brilliant after escaping the second inning, allowing only one runner to reach second base in the final seven frames. He completed the shutout when Roseboro popped out to Aparicio, the Orioles' shortstop; Palmer, just nine days shy of his 21st birthday, became the youngest pitcher in World Series and MLB postseason history to throw a shutout, a record that still stands. Baltimore won 6–0 to take a 2–0 Series lead.
The Dodgers became the third team to make six errors in one game. The Chicago White Sox, both in Game 5 of the 1906 World Series and in Game 5 of the 1917 World Series were the others, although oddly, the White Sox won both of those games.
Game 3
With the Orioles ahead in the series 2-0, the scene shifted to Baltimore's Memorial Stadium for Game 3, the first postseason game the city has hosted in the modern era of baseball. Wally Bunker of the Orioles faced Claude Osteen of the Dodgers.Bunker, plagued with injuries in the regular season, pitched the game of his life, scattering six hits in a complete game gem. Although Osteen allowed only three hits in seven strong innings, one of those hits was a solo home run from Paul Blair in the fifth, which turned out to be the game's only run. The Dodgers' defense woke up after Game 2's six-error embarrassment, and they turned several excellent plays, most notably first baseman Wes Parker's spectacular jump to snare Curt Blefary's sixth inning line drive and rob him of a base hit. Nonetheless, Bunker, without a shutout in the regular season, completed the Orioles' second consecutive shutout in this World Series by retiring Lou Johnson on a grounder to Aparicio. The 1–0 win gave the Orioles a commanding 3–0 series lead, putting them on the cusp of their first title.