Here's the Catch - by Ron Swoboda (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In time for the 50th anniversary of the Mets' miraculous 1969 World Series win, right fielder Ron Swoboda tells the story of that amazing season, the people he played with and against (sometimes at the same time), and what life was like as an Every Man ballplayer.

Ron Swoboda wasn't the greatest player the Mets ever had, but he made the greatest catch in Met history, saving a game in the 1969 World Series, and his RBI clinched the final game. By Met standards that makes him legend. The Mets even use a steel silhouette of the catch as a backing for the right field entrance sign at Citi Field.

In this smart, funny, insightful memoir, which is as self-deprecating as a lifetime .249 hitter has to be, he tells the story of that magical year nearly game by game, revealing his struggles, his triumphs and what life was like for an every day, Every Man player, even when he was being platooned. He shows what it took to make one of the worst teams in baseball and what it was like to leave one of the best. And when he talks about the guys he played with and against, it's like you're sitting next to him on the team bus, drinking Rheingold. Here's the Catch is a book anyone who loves the game will love as much.

Review Quotes

"To hear him tell it, former New York Mets outfielder Ron Swoboda is a lucky man; fortunately for the reader, he is also a witty writer with a highly developed self-deprecating sense of humor. In a year that will see an explosion of Mets books, this is an unexpectedly good one. Ron, why did you wait so long to write it?" --Booklist

"Here's the Catch is a winner. All that is revealed surrounding his time in baseball, including two-plus seasons as a New York Yankee, comes from Swoboda's heart. How Swoboda reinvented himself, as his playing options dwindles, into a career in TV sportscasting is nothing less than fascinating." --Utica Observer-Dispatch

"Perhaps the most memorable image from the 1969 World Series is right fielder Ron Swoboda splayed on his side following his diving catch in the fourth game. Swoboda's memoir, fittingly titled Here's the Catch, centers on his career-defining snag, but it's more than that. At its core, the book is a quirky, gruff, intermittently lyrical exploration of the precarious life of a marginal major leaguer -- one who quotes Victorian poetry in one sentence, then likens his on-field performance to whale dung in the next." --Newsday

"A rollicking memoir...with tales of Swoboda's remarkable relationships with some of baseball's greats -- the colorful Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges and Tug McGraw. There's a fair amount of locker-room humor and fast-paced accounts of memorable games, including that 1969 catch." --The New Orleans Advocate

"This is a loving look back at an exciting life and mediocre career for which the author refreshingly expresses great gratitude. A Mets book anyone can enjoy." --Spitball

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