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London had the best record in the EBF Northern Conference in 1966 at 97-65, earning a second straight British Isles division title. Defending conference champ Glasgow was wild card again and earned a third-straight berth with an 88-74 mark. They edged Birmingham (87-75) and Berlin (85-77) for the final spot. The Barons were seven games behind 1964 champ Hamburg in the North Central Division as the 92-70 Hammers are back in the field after just missing the prior year. Brussels won the Northwest Division in back-to-back seasons and grabbed a seventh playoff berth in eight years. The Beavers were 92-70, 10 games away from Paris.

London’s Benny Baker was the conference MVP; his second after having done it as a rookie in 1960. The 30-year old English 1B was the WARlord at 9.2, taking second in home runs (51) and RBI (125) and adding 103 runs, 187 hits, and a .318 average. Berlin’s Joachim Muller won back-to-back Pitcher of the Year. The 28-year old German led in ERA (1.83), WAR (8.7) and FIP- (56), adding a 19-7 record over 246.1 innings with 253 strikeouts.





The best overall record for the European Baseball Federation came from Vienna at 108-54. The Vultures set an EBF record that still holds as the top mark as of 2037; a team ERA of 2.36. Their 448 runs allowed remains a Southern Conference record. Vienna cruised to back-to-back Southeast Division champs, well ahead of Athens and Belgrade. Those teams battled for the wild card with the Anchors getting it at 85-77, edging the Bruisers by two games and both Naples and Zurich by three. This ended a six-year playoff drought for the Anchors and meant the defending EBF champ Mountaineers missed the playoff field. The other division titles were lopsided with Marseille at 100-62 atop the Southwest and Rome at 96-66 in the South Central. It was the fifth straight division title for the Red Wolves, while the Musketeers ended a four-year drought. Barcelona, who had a four-year streak entering the season, fell to 78-84.

Conference MVP went to Naples RF Paul Schlacher. The 29-year old Austrian lefty was the WARlord at 11.3, also leading in home runs (51), RBI (121), OBP (.419), slugging (.700), OPS (1.118), and wRC+ (224). Leading Vienna’s record-setting rotation was 25-year old Frenchman Baptiste Imbert. He won Pitcher of the Year with the lead in ERA (1.87), WIHP (0.90), quality starts (26), FIP- (58), and WAR (9.0), adding 290 strikeouts in 254.2 innings. Imbert pitched one more year in Europe before spending the rest of his career in MLB.

The first round of the playoffs had Glasgow upset London in four games, Brussels outlast Hamburg in five, Athens stun Vienna in four, and Marseille taking a battle with Rome in five. This set up a Northern Conference Championship rematch between the Highlanders and Beavers and for back-to-back seasons, the wild card Glasgow squad advanced, this time 4-2. The Southern Conference Championship was a rout with the wild card Anchors getting pummeled by the Musketeers in a sweep. This gave Marseille its first conference title.



The 1966 European Championship was only the second final to end in a sweep. Glasgow crushed Marseille 4-0 to send the trophy to Scotland for the first time. RF Jasper Blackmore was the finals MVP, posting 21 hits, 9 runs, 5 home runs, and 14 RBI over 14 playoff starts.



Other notes: EBF’s 10^th perfect game came from Glasgow’s Klaus-Dieter Koopman, striking out eight against Amsterdam on August 25. At the end of July, Armando Rojas became EBF’s first pitcher to 4000 career strikeouts. Loris Eichelberger would join him at the start of September. They would be the only two to accomplish the feat until 1978. 3B Fragiskos Farkas became an eight-time Silver Slugger winner.