1966 Topps #35 Ron Swoboda
Carries the gold Topps All-Star Rookie trophy for his 1965 selection.
About Ron Swoboda
Card #35 landed in the first series of 1966 and wears the gold Topps All-Star Rookie trophy earned for his 1965 season. Back in left field, Swoboda ran into the sophomore wall: he had told a television audience how much he liked fastballs, and pitchers fed him breaking balls the rest of the way, holding him to .222 with 8 home runs and 50 RBI in 112 games. He did land a three-run pinch-hit walk-off against the Giants that August.
Ron Swoboda came out of Baltimore's Sparrows Point High School and one year at the University of Maryland, signing with the Mets in September 1963 for $35,000 after a strong showing in the AAABA tournament. He made the big club out of spring training in 1965 at age 20 and hit 19 home runs as a rookie, a Mets rookie record that stood until Darryl Strawberry hit 26 in 1983, and earned a place on the 1965 Topps All-Star Rookie Team. He picked up the nickname Rocky for his less-than-reliable fielding, though his arm was strong and accurate. He was the Mets' left fielder in 1965 and 1966, moved to first base and then right field in 1967 when Tommy Davis arrived, and batted a career-best .281 that season. Platooned during the 1969 championship year, he collected six hits in 15 World Series at-bats against Baltimore and drove in the winning run in the clinching fifth game, but he is remembered for the backhanded diving catch off Brooks Robinson that saved Game 4. Traded to Montreal in March 1971 and on to the Yankees that June, he finished with a .242 average, 73 homers and 344 RBI over nine seasons, then spent decades as a television sportscaster in New York, Milwaukee and New Orleans.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 328 | 2 | 26 | 119 | 78 | 52 | 19 | 32 | 0 |
| SGC | 25 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted. Where SGC registers no separate row for a variation state, its slabs of that card are listed under the base state.
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Related cards
Team card: #172 New York Mets
More New York Mets cards:
- #17 Johnny Stephenson
- #51 Gordon Richardson
- #67 Mets 1966 Rookie Stars
- #87 Dan Napoleon
- #108 Bobby Klaus
- #124 Tug McGraw
- #154 Chuck Hiller
- #188 Al Luplow
- #191 Darrell Sutherland
- #212 Ed Kranepool
- #241 Dennis Ribant
- #262 Jack Hamilton
- #282 Johnny Lewis
- #302 Ernie Bowman
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #35 card?
It is card #35 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ron Swoboda of the New York Mets.
How many cards are in the 1966 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 613 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no number used twice, and 14 cards carry catalogued print variations - five checklists, the trade and sold statement backs, the three-state #43 Don Landrum, three team-card dot pairs and the #161 Jerry Lumpe white streak - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-11.