Ronald Alan Swoboda (born June 30, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player and television sports color commentator.

He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1965 through 1973, most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that became known as the Miracle Mets when they rose from being perennial losers to defeat the favored Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series for one of the most improbable upsets in World Series history.

[1] Swoboda executed one of the most impressive defensive plays of the series in the ninth inning of Game 4 to help preserve a Mets victory.

He then played for one season at the University of Maryland, and after an impressive showing in the AAABA tournament in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Swoboda was offered a $35,000 contract to sign with the New York Mets and scout Pete Gebrian on September 5, 1963.

At the age of 20 he made his major league debut as a pinch hitter in the season opener, and lined out in his only at-bat.

This was followed by a five-game losing streak that saw the team fall into fourth place in the newly aligned National League East.

In Game 4, Swoboda, not known for his fielding, made a spectacular catch of a ball hit by Brooks Robinson in the ninth inning to stop an Orioles rally.

[9] In March 1971, Swoboda and minor-leaguer Rich Hacker were traded to the Montreal Expos in exchange for young outfielder Don Hahn.

Swoboda played in his final major league game on September 30, 1973, at the age of 29 and was released by the Yankees at the end of the 1973 season.

After his retirement from baseball, Swoboda worked as a television sportscaster in New York City on WCBS-TV, on WISN-TV in Milwaukee, and for many years at WVUE in New Orleans.

Swoboda was the color commentator for telecasts of games played by the New Orleans Baby Cakes, the AAA farm club of the Miami Marlins before the team relocated to Wichita, Kansas after the 2019 season[10].He was also a recipient of the Thurman Munson Award in February 2009.

In a guest column for the New York Daily News, Swoboda wrote, "I'm kidded, occasionally, by folks who wonder: 'How long are you going to keep living off of one catch?'