Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — The Dodgers, thanks to the new balanced schedule, will visit Camden Yards on Monday for a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles. And, lo and behold, the Orioles don’t suck! In fact, the Orioles are putting together one of the best storylines of the 2023 season. This after nearly a decade of wallowing in the cellar of the AL East. With both the Dodgers and Birds in the thick of a pennant race, it will surely bring back memories in the minds of longtime Dodger fans of October 1966 and the LA/Baltimore World Series. In many ways, this series represented the end of a glorious era of Dodger baseball.
The Dodgers had come to their new home in Los Angeles like a house on fire. After a lackluster first year in LA, the Dodgers went on to appear in four World Series in the next eight years, winning three of them. The lone blemish on that record was the 4-0 sweep at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles, soon to become the dominant team of the next decade in the American League.
The 1966 began with the Dodgers eager to go back-to-back after their thrilling seven-game victory against the Minnesota Twin in the 1965 series. And at one point in September, it looked like they would coast to the pennant, getting out to a 3.5 game lead in mid-September. However, they went only 8-8 in their last 16 games and allowed the Giants to sneak back in contention. This would turn out to be fatal for the Dodgers’ series hopes.
Instead of saving ace Sandy Koufax for Game One of the World Series, manager Walter Alston was forced to pitch him on the final day of the season to secure the pennant. Koufax won the game, beating the Phillies 6-3, but now had to be pushed back to start Game 2 of the series. The Dodgers had to go with Don Drysdale for Game One. The series got off to a bad start, and the Dodgers never recovered.
Game One
Drysdale started Game One in Los Angeles, but oddly enough the pitcher star of the day was some dude named Moe Drabowski. Dabrowski replaced Oriole starter Dave McNally in the third inning after McNally had walked the bases loaded. Dabrowski walked in a run, but was nails after that. He finished the game and struck out eleven Dodgers along the way, giving up only one hit.
Meanwhile, Drysdale wasn’t his HOF self on the mound. He gave up four runs in just two innings of work, and would be saddled with the loss, ending up on the wrong end of a 5-2 score.
Game Two
If the Dodgers would have any chance of winning the series, they would absolutely need to win Game Two at Dodger Stadium. Going back east down 0-2 was an almost certain recipe for disaster. To get the split, they would lean on their other Hall-of-Famer, Sandy Koufax. He would be matched in this one against another future Cooperstown member, righty Jim Palmer. Palmer was just a gangly 20-year old at the time, so on paper at least it looked like the Dodgers were in good shape.
But, as they say, they don’t play the games on paper. Palmer was masterful in this one, tossing a four-hit shutout. Koufax pitched okay, but not the World Series hero that Dodger fans remember from the year before. He went six innings and gave up four runs. The Birds tacked on a couple more against the pen and cruised to a 6-0 victory.
And now the Dodgers were in deep, deep trouble.
Games Three and Four
Returning to Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, the Orioles were definitely in the proverbial “catbird’s seat” as Red Barber used to say. But the next two games would both prove to be epic pitcher’s duels. Claude Osteen pitched Game Three for the Dodgers, and pitched well, only giving up one run in seven innings. But that one run, a solo home run by centerfielder Paul Blair, proved to be the difference in a 1-0 shutout win for the Orioles.
The Dodgers turned to Drysdale for Game Four, and the righty came up with one of his best postseason performances ever. He too gave up only one run, this one on a solo homer by Frank Robinson in the fifth. However, once again the Dodgers’ bats were MIA, as they only could deliver only four hits off Dave McNally. And once again, the Dodgers were shut out 1-0. That was it. Game. Set. Match.
The Dodgers had scored only two runs the entire series against the dominant Oriole pitching staff. And, though the Dodgers had only surrendered 13 runs in four games, it was more than enough to sweep the Orioles to victory.
End of an era
And that was it for the great teams of the 1960s in Los Angeles. Just a few weeks after the series, the great Sandy Koufax would announce his retirement after having just won his third Cy Young Award. He had gritted his way through the season, battling pain most of the way, and in the end, there just wasn’t anything left in the tank. Don Drysdale would pitch a couple more years, making the All-Star team in 1967 and ’68 before his retirement at the end of the 1969 season.
And as for the Dodgers, they would have to wait for the next Golden Age. Wait for the likes of Garvey, Lopes, Smith, and Cey before they would get back to the Fall Classic. They would play in four World Series in the 70s and early 80s, but only win one. And much as they had hoped to, they never surpassed the accomplishments of the great early days in Los Angeles. It was simply the most dominant run of baseball that the franchise had ever seen.
But all good things have to come to an end. And for the Dodgers, their sixties heyday came to an end one chilly October day in Baltimore.
