On paper the Orioles pitching was not as deep or commanding as the Dodgers twosome of Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. Koufax was the 1966 Cy Young Award Winner as baseball's best pitcher and Drysdale had won the Cy Young Award in 1962.
The Orioles however had one of the greatest hitters in major league history in Frank Robinson, whom they obtained in a trade from the Cincinnati Reds before the season started.
Robinson had won the National League MVP in 1961 with the Reds and then became the first player to win the award in both leagues when he won the American League MVP in 1966. This was a "triple crown" year for Frank Robinson as he led the AL in batting average (.316), runs batted in (122) and home runs (49) and powered the Orioles to their first league championship since moving to Baltimore.
The Series was a four game sweep by the Orioles that no one expected as the Orioles pitchers limited the Dodgers to 2 runs in the 4 games. The Dodgers bats went silent after game 1 and they were shut out in the last 3 games (6-0,1-0 and 1-0) facing Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker and Dave McNally. Frank Robinson, fittingly, won the World Series MVP.The Orioles became the first non-Yankees american league team to win the World Series since the 1948 Cleveland Indians.
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