1966 Los Angeles Dodgers
National League Champions
LeagueNational League
BallparkDodger Stadium
CityLos Angeles
OwnersWalter O'Malley, James & Dearie Mulvey
PresidentWalter O'Malley
General managersBuzzie Bavasi
ManagersWalter Alston
TelevisionKTTV (11)
RadioKFI
Vin Scully, Jerry Doggett
KWKW
José García, Jaime Jarrín
← 1965 Seasons 1967 →

The 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers won the National League championship with a 95–67 record (1+1⁄2 games over the San Francisco Giants), but were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

Regular season

Sandy Koufax became the first pitcher to win three Cy Young Awards in a career.[1]

Season recap

The defending World Series champion Dodgers relied upon the same model that brought them the championship in 1965; great pitching, tight defense, and speed. However, ace pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale held out nearly all of spring training in a celebrated contract dispute, finally signing just before the start of the regular season. The hold out did not seem to affect Koufax, who went 27–9 with a 1.73 E.R.A. However, Drysdale had a sub par season going 13–16 with a 3.42 E.R.A. More than making up for that, Claude Osteen had his best season to date, winning 17 games with a 2.85 E.R.A., and rookie Don Sutton replaced aging Johnny Podres in the rotation, chipping in with 12 wins and a 2.99 E.R.A. Finally, reliever Phil Regan had a remarkable year, going 14–1 with 21 saves.

The National League race was a 4 team affair between the Dodgers, Giants, Pirates, and Phillies, with all but the Phillies taking their turn in 1st place during the summer. The Dodgers vaulted to the top with an 8-game win streak in mid-September. However, the pennant was still not decided until the final day of the season. The Giants, who had eliminated the Pirates by beating them on the next to last day, needed to beat the Pirates again in the season's final game, and then hope the Dodgers would lose both games of a double header in Philadelphia to the Phillies. If that happened, the Giants would have trailed the Dodgers by 1/2 game, and would still have had to fly to Cincinnati to play the Reds in a make-up game, needing a win to tie for 1st. The Giants defeated the Pirates in extra innings, and the Dodgers lost the first game of the double header, blowing a lead in the 8th inning. However, while the Giants were waiting at the Pittsburgh airport (not knowing if they were going to fly to Cincinnati or go home), Koufax beat the Phillies in the second game of the double header. While they were waiting, a reporter asked Giants pitcher Ron Herbel "you guys don't know where you're going yet, do you?" Herbel replied "we know where we're going. No way superman (Koufax) loses the second game."[citation needed]

Season standings

National League 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Los Angeles Dodgers 95 67 0.586 — 53–28 42–39
San Francisco Giants 93 68 0.578 1½ 47–34 46–34
Pittsburgh Pirates 92 70 0.568 3 46–35 46–35
Philadelphia Phillies 87 75 0.537 8 48–33 39–42
Atlanta Braves 85 77 0.525 10 43–38 42–39
St. Louis Cardinals 83 79 0.512 12 43–38 40–41
Cincinnati Reds 76 84 0.475 18 46–33 30–51
Houston Astros 72 90 0.444 23 45–36 27–54
New York Mets 66 95 0.410 28½ 32–49 34–46
Chicago Cubs 59 103 0.364 36 32–49 27–54

Record vs. opponents

1966 National League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD NYM PHI PIT SF STL
Atlanta — 7–11 10–8 14–4–1 7–11 14–4 11–7 7–11 8–10 7–11
Chicago 11–7 — 6–12 5–13 8–10 8–10 5–13 6–12 6–12 4–14
Cincinnati 8–10 12–6 — 4–14 6–12 10–7 10–8 8–10 7–10 11–7
Houston 4–14–1 13–5 14–4 — 7–11 7–11 7–11 4–14 6–12 10–8
Los Angeles 11–7 10–8 12–6 11–7 — 12–6 11–7 9–9 9–9 10–8
New York 4–14 10–8 7–10 11–7 6–12 — 7–11 5–13 9–9 7–11
Philadelphia 7-11 13–5 8–10 11–7 7–11 11–7 — 10–8 10–8 10–8
Pittsburgh 11–7 12–6 10–8 14–4 9–9 13–5 8–10 — 7–11 8–10
San Francisco 10–8 12–6 10–7 12–6 9–9 9–9 8–10 11–7 — 12–6
St. Louis 11–7 14–4 7–11 8–10 8–10 11–7 8–10 10–8 6–12 —


Opening Day lineup

Opening Day Starters
Name Position
Maury Wills Shortstop
Wes Parker First baseman
Willie Davis Center fielder
Ron Fairly Right fielder
Jim Lefebvre Third baseman
Lou Johnson Left fielder
John Roseboro Catcher
Nate Oliver Second baseman
Claude Osteen Starting pitcher

Notable transactions

Roster

1966 Los Angeles Dodgers
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C John Roseboro 142 445 123 .276 9 53
1B Wes Parker 156 475 120 .253 12 51
2B Jim Lefebvre 152 544 149 .274 24 74
SS Maury Wills 143 594 162 .273 1 39
3B John Kennedy 125 274 55 .201 3 24
LF Lou Johnson 152 526 143 .272 17 73
CF Willie Davis 153 624 177 .284 11 61
RF Ron Fairly 117 351 101 .288 14 61

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Tommy Davis 100 313 98 .313 3 27
Jim Gilliam 88 235 51 .217 1 16
Jeff Torborg 46 120 27 .225 1 13
Nate Oliver 80 119 23 .193 0 3
Al Ferrara 63 115 31 .270 5 23
Dick Stuart 38 91 24 .264 3 9
Jim Barbieri 39 82 23 .280 0 3
Dick Schofield 20 70 18 .257 0 4
Wes Covington 37 33 4 .121 1 6
Derrell Griffith 23 15 1 .067 0 2
Bart Shirley 12 5 1 .200 0 0
Tommy Hutton 3 2 0 .000 0 0
Jim Campanis 1 1 0 .000 0 0
Willie Crawford 6 0 0 ---- 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Sandy Koufax 41 323.0 27 9 1.73 317
Don Drysdale 40 273.2 13 16 3.42 177
Claude Osteen 39 240.1 17 14 2.85 137
Don Sutton 37 225.2 12 12 2.99 209

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Joe Moeller 29 78.2 2 4 2.52 31

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Phil Regan 65 14 1 21 1.62 88
Ron Perranoski 55 6 7 7 3.18 50
Bob Miller 46 4 2 5 2.77 58
Jim Brewer 13 0 2 2 3.68 8
Nick Willhite 6 0 0 0 2.08 4
Bill Singer 3 0 0 0 0.00 4
Howie Reed 1 0 0 0 0.00 1
Johnny Podres 1 0 0 0 0.00 1

1966 World Series

Main article: 1966 World Series

Game 1

October 5, 1966, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Attendance: 55,941

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Baltimore (A) 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 9 0
Los Angeles (N) 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0
W: Moe Drabowsky (1–0) L: Don Drysdale (0–1)
HR: BAL – Frank Robinson (1), Brooks Robinson (1)    LAD – Jim Lefebvre (1)

Game 2

October 6, 1966, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Attendance: 55,947

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Baltimore (A) 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 2 0 6 8 0
Los Angeles (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 6
W: Jim Palmer (1–0) L: Sandy Koufax (0–1)

Game 3

October 8, 1966, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Attendance: 54,445

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Los Angeles (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0
Baltimore (A) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 X 1 3 0
W: Wally Bunker (1–0) L: Claude Osteen (0–1)
HR: BAL – Paul Blair (1)

Game 4

October 9, 1966, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Attendance: 54,458

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Los Angeles (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0
Baltimore (A) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 X 1 4 0
W: Dave McNally (1–0) L: Don Drysdale (0–2)
HR: BAL – Frank Robinson (2)

Awards and honors

Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax

All-Stars

The Sporting News awards

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Spokane Indians Pacific Coast League Roy Hartsfield
AA Albuquerque Dodgers Texas League Bob Kennedy
A Santa Barbara Dodgers California League Norm Sherry
A Jamestown Dodgers New York–Penn League Bill Berrier
A Tri-City Atoms Northwest League Duke Snider
Rookie Ogden Dodgers Pioneer League Tommy Lasorda

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Tri-City, Ogden

1966 Major League Baseball Draft

Main article: 1966 Major League Baseball Draft

This was the second Major League Baseball Draft. The Dodgers drafted 67 players in the June draft and 9 in the January draft. The top draft pick was pitcher Lawrence Hutton from Greenfield High School in Greenfield, Indiana. He played in the Dodgers farm system through 1971 and finished with a 22–28 record and 4.33 ERA in 117 games, never advancing past AA.

The most successful picks from this draft class were Bill Russell and Charlie Hough. Russell, the ninth round pick out of Pittsburg High School played with the Dodgers through 1986, mostly as a shortstop and later managed the team from 1996 to 1998. Hough was drafted in the eighth round out of Hialeah High School as an infielder but quickly converted to pitcher. He played with the Dodgers through 1980 and then with three other teams until he retired in 1994. He later became a coach for the Dodgers organization.

Notes

  1. ^ Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 234, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0
  2. ^ Johnny Podres page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Howie Reed page at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Wes Covington page at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Thad Tillotson page at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ "Hutch Award | Baseball Almanac".
  7. ^ 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB January Draft-Regular Phase
  8. ^ 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase
  9. ^ 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft
  10. ^ 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB June Draft-Secondary Phase

References

External links

National League champions
1966 MLB season by team
Los Angeles Dodgers
Categories