Fifty years later, Jim Palmer vividly remembers his disbelief as he walked from Memorial Stadium on the evening of Oct. 9, 1966, a newly minted world champion.
Had the young, unproven Orioles really just swept the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers? Had the 20-year-old Palmer and his mates really just thrown three straight shutouts to beat the likes of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale?
All around him, Baltimore broke into what The Baltimore Sun called the zaniest celebration since the end of World War II. Revelers practically trampled moving cars on The Block, lighting firecrackers and chanting "Birds!