History of the World Series – 1966

The ability to get great pitching certainly was no problem for the Dodgers, who had held the powerful New York Yankees to four runs in the four-game 1963 Series and limited the hard-hitting Minnesota Twins to seven runs over the last five games of the 1965 Series. Now, though, the Dodgers proved helpless in their ability to hit great pitching.

It was the Baltimore Orioles’ pitching staff that quieted the Dodgers in what turned out to be record fashion. Oddly, though, the Orioles’ first-game starter, lefthander Dave McNally, failed to survive the third inning as the ’66 Series got under way at Dodger Stadium.

Staked to a 4-1 lead, thanks in large measure to consecutive first-inning home runs by Frank Robinson (who hit a two-run shot) and Brooks Robinson, McNally retired the first Dodgers batter in the third, then allowed three consecutive bases on balls. Orioles Manager Hank Bauer exhibited a semi-quick hook, replacing the 23-year-old McNally with Moe Drabowsky. The veteran reliever struck out Wes Parker, but then yielded the walk — to Jim Gilliam — that sent Johnson skipping across the plate. Drabowsky subsequently induced John Roseboro to foul out, and the Dodgers did not score again. Period.

Drabowsky had gotten Baltimore out of the inning in good shape, and the 31-year-old righthander was just getting warmed up. He struck out the side in the fourth and fifth innings, tying the Series record of six straight strikeouts, and finished with 11 strikeouts in 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing one hit. The Baltimore Orioles, formerly the downtrodden St. Louis Browns (the Brownies moved to Maryland after the 1953 season), were 5-2 winners in their first Series game.

Jim Palmer, who at 20 had led Baltimore pitchers with 15 victories, was given the sizable task of matching pitches with Sandy Koufax in Game 2. Koufax, arthritic elbow and all, had won 27 games and achieved a 1.73 earned-run average for the Dodgers in ’66. The game was scoreless until the fifth, when the Orioles scored three unearned runs in a nightmarish inning for the Dodgers’ Willie Davis. Center fielder Davis dropped consecutive fly balls after losing both in the sun, and he threw wildly past third base after the second misplay. The only RBI of the inning came on Luis Aparicio’s double.

After being victimized by Davis’ three-error inning, Koufax yielded an earned run in the sixth when Frank Robinson tripled and Boog Powell singled him home. Sandy wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam to end the inning, getting Andy Etchebarren to ground into a double play. Koufax was done for the day and as fate would have it, he was done for his career. Fearing permanent injury to his elbow, he would announce his retirement at age 30 in mid-November.

Palmer wound up allowing only four hits in the second game and winning, 6-0. Walter Alston’s Dodgers wound up committing six errors in the contest.

In the first Series game ever played in Baltimore, the Orioles’ 21-year-old Wally Bunker spun a six-hitter and beat Los Angeles, 1-0. Bauer’s crew managed only three hits, but one was Paul Blair’s 430-foot homer off Claude Osteen in the fifth inning.

Now McNally would get a chance to atone for his first-game shakiness and he did. The Dodgers managed only four singles in Game 4 and suffered another 1-0 setback. Los Angeles’ Don Drysdale also allowed only four hits, but like Osteen made one big mistake, and Frank Robinson whacked that fourth-inning blunder deep into the left-field stands.

Supplying the winning blow in the decisive game of the World Series was a fitting accomplishment for Frank Robinson, who won the Triple Crown (49 home runs, 122 RBIs and a .316 batting average) for the Orioles in 1966 after being acquired from the Cincinnati Reds following the 1965 season.

The Orioles didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball in this Series, managing only 10 earned runs and 24 hits, but the Dodgers hardly scuffed the baseball, setting World Series records (in the all-time-low category) with only two runs, 17 hits, a .142 batting average and 33 consecutive scoreless innings.

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