The 1966 major league baseball season began on April 11, 1966. The regular season ended on October 2, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 63rd World Series on October 5 and ended with Game 4 on October 9. The Orioles swept the Dodgers in four games, capturing their first championship in franchise history. Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the Los Angeles Dodgers from the season.
The 37th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, was held on July 12 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. The National League won, 2âÂÂ1.
The Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Braves, being the seventh team since 1953 to relocate, and the fourth of National League teams since then. The move from Milwaukee was the second time in modern-era baseball (since 1901) that the city was left without a team. Previously, the 1901 Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis following the season (the team, the St. Louis Browns, went on to relocate to Baltimore as the Baltimore Orioles in ). Major league baseball would return to Milwaukee in with the relocation of the American League Seattle Pilots as the Milwaukee Brewers. The National League would see its return in when the Brewers transferred in to the league.
Three teams played the 1966 season in new stadiums. On April 12, the Braves ushered in Atlanta Stadium with the Pittsburgh Pirates taking a 3âÂÂ2 win in 13 innings. One week later, Anaheim Stadium opened with the California Angels losing to the Chicago White Sox, 3âÂÂ1 in the Angels' debut following their move from Los Angeles to nearby Orange County. On May 8, the St. Louis Cardinals closed out old Sportsman's Park/Busch Stadium I with a 10âÂÂ5 loss to the San Francisco Giants before opening the new Busch Memorial Stadium four days later with a 4âÂÂ3 win in 12 innings over the Atlanta Braves.
1966 would be William Eckert's first season as commissioner.
The 1966 schedule consisted of 162 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had ten teams. Each team was scheduled to play 18 games against the other nine teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place by the American League since the season and by the National League since the season, and would be used until .
American League Opening Day took place on April 11, featuring a game between the Cleveland Indians and Washington Senators, while National League Opening Day took place the following day, featuring six teams. The final day of the regular season was on October 2, which saw all 20 teams play, continuing the trend from the previous season. The World Series took place between October 5 and October 9.
The 1966 season would see the following rule change:
An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at
The postseason began on October 5 and ended on October 9 with the Baltimore Orioles sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1966 World Series in four games.
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<sup>1</sup> American League Triple Crown batting winner
<sup>2</sup> National League Triple Crown pitching winner
The 1966 season saw three teams move to three new venues.
For the first time, NBC became exclusive national TV broadcaster of MLB. The network replaced ABC as the holder of the Games of the Week package. The New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, which had instead sold their TV rights to CBS in prior seasons, also joined NBC's package. The new package under NBC called for 28 games, as compared to the 123 combined among three networks during the 1960s. NBC also continued to air the All-Star Game and World Series.