Swoboda’s “King-Sized” Clout

Ron Swoboda Didn’t Make History on April 14, 1965, But He Should Have!

The Sports Time Traveler has been following the 1965 Mets day-by-day.

This morning, as I read the July 11, 1965, New York Times, I saw something that made my eyes almost pop out of my head.

In Arthur Daley’s Sports of the Times column, he mentioned that the Mets’ Ron Swoboda had hit a 565-foot home run back near the start of the season.

Somehow, I missed that back in April. I immediately searched backward in the newspaper archives and found the game.

So now I take you back 60 years and 3 months for a monumental finding.

SHEA STADIUM – April 15, 1965

Yesterday afternoon the Mets played their 2nd game of the 1965 season. Since they lost their 1st game, they’re already in their familiar last place position in the National League.

At the start of this game against their fellow expansion club, the Houston Astros, the Mets didn’t look like a last place team. In fact, they didn’t look like the Mets at all.

On the mound to start the game for the New York Mets was the winningest lefty pitcher in major league baseball history – Warren Spahn.

Yes, Warren Spahn was on the New York Mets!

In some kind of “MET-a-physical” anomaly, Warren Spahn had been unceremoniously dumped by the Milwaukee Braves for whom he had been a hero since 1942, winning 356 games, and leading the team to 3 World Series appearances, and 1 World Series championship over the Yankees in 1957.

Now pitching for the Mets, and out to prove that at 44 years old he could still be a force, Spahn demonstrated why the Braves made a big mistake. He pitched no-hit ball until 2 outs in the 5th inning, and shut out ball until 1 out in the 7th, at which time the Mets held a 2 – 0 lead.

NOTE from The Sports Time Traveler

Spahn was also the Mets’ pitching coach. And if this were 2025, he would have taken himself out of the game when his shutout had reached 6 innings, and let one of the younger arms finish out the game.

But this game was in 1965, and Spahn was of the creed that real pitchers pitch complete games. And so he stayed in until he had given up 3 runs through 8 innings, only coming out after he hit a double in the bottom of the 8th and was removed by manager Casey Stengel for a pinch runner in a tie game.

Now back to 1965.

Extra Extra!

The game went into extra innings tied at 3 and stayed that way until the 11th inning.

Now comes the big story.

This is the “forgotten” story from my perspective as The Sports Time Traveler.

Mets’ 20-year-old rookie, Ron Swoboda, who looked like a promising slugger in his only season in the minors last year in 1964 (17 HRs / 72 RBI’s / .271 avg) in a combination of AA and AAA ball, came up to pinch hit in the bottom of the 11th with 1 out and the Mets down 7 – 3.

That’s right, the Mets had let up 4 runs in the top of the 11th. Remember this is the 1965 Mets. They were experts in how to blow games.

Turk Farrell was on the mound for the Astros. Farrell was also not your typical expansion team pitcher. He had been a solid starter for the past 3 seasons, winning 35 games for one of the worst teams in baseball, while sporting an ERA of just over 3. Going back further, Farrell had been one of the best relief pitchers in the league in 1957, when he won 10, saved 10, and had an ERA of just 2.38.

Swoboda was unphased by Farrell. Ron teed off on a Turk pitch and blasted it for a home run.

Jack Lang in the Staten Island Advance called it a “king-sized homer.”

The homer was so long that it intrigued the Astros’ bullpen coach, Clint Courtney, who watched it soar over his head as it cleared the wall, cleared the bullpen and cleared the street beyond the bullpen before settling the Shea Stadium parking lot.

Courtney, the Astros’ coach, was so taken by this blast that he decided to document the tape measure shot by Swoboda.

John Wilson of the Houston Chronicle supplied this report in the April 15, 1965 newspaper. It’s the only report that documents the length of the home run.