Today’s blog post
has another addition to my new thread adding to the great 1971 Topps
“Baseball’s Greatest Moments” set, this time adding Baltimore Orioles
Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer, celebrating his
1966 World Series shutout at the age of 20:
The Orioles stunned
the baseball world with a four-game sweep of the defending champion Los
Angeles Dodgers, led by a quartet of young pitchers, including the
20-year-old Palmer.
Palmer was facing
off against all-world starter Sandy Koufax, who was coming off another
incredible season that saw him win 27 games while posting an incredible
1.73 ERA, good enough for an unprecedented third
Cy Young Award.
Palmer was up for
the challenge, as he would match zero’s with Koufax through the first
four innings, until the Dodgers defense allowed Baltimore to break
though.
Palmer in the
meantime kept tossing zero’s, eventually winning the game 6-0, with a
complete game shutout that gave the Orioles a two-games-to-none lead in
the Series, straight to the aforementioned sweep
and the unlikely championship.
He scattered four hits in the game, while striking out six batters, this nine days short of his 21st birthday, becoming the youngest pitcher to win a World Series game.
Just a sign of what
the young righty was to do on a Big League mound over the next 16 or so
seasons, leading straight to Cooperstown and his place as a “Hall of
Fame” pitcher.
