The Catch - 40 Years Later

Mets RF Ron Swoboda, known for The Catch in 1969, before Endy Chavez's Catch in 2006, was asked recently about that moment.

When the ball was hit, Swoboda recalls, "And I'm like, 'Uh oh! You make your break, you go for it, and most of the way there, I'm like, 'I'm not getting to this.' But I'm committed to this track, so you just keep chasing it....At some point you say, 'Well, I better dive."

Continuing, Swoboda says, "I look at the replay and say, 'How'd I get to that?"

That is the telling question. Swoboda made the majors with his bat, not his glove. Swoboda, a native of Baltimore was upset that a Baltimore broadcaster once commented, "the only way Swoboda could ever make a living with his glove is to cook it and eat it."

Swoboda worked with fielding and 3B coach Eddie Yost because "I was tired of being embarrassed."

Eddie Kranepool, a New Yorker through and through, helped Swoboda put things in perspective. In game one, Don Buford led off the game with a HR. Swoboda still believes he should have caught the ball. Swoboda remembers, "I come in (to the dugout) and I'm all over myself about letting it go over the fence, and (Ed) Kranepool, who's a New York guy, says something rather pointy to me - 'Shut up and get the next one,'" Swoboda said. "So I got the next one."

Thanks to Michael Obernauer - NY Daily News for the great article and the recent photo of 'Rocky'.