In full gear, Sweeney honors 9/11 first responders

This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY -- As Brian Sweeney embarked on the final lap of his annual stair climb to honor first responders who lost their lives in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, he glanced behind him to see a line of cadets from the Kansas City Fire Academy falling in line to follow him.

The 38 cadets were volunteers at the Royals’ 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb on Tuesday morning at Kauffman Stadium, stationed at each section through the lower deck of the ballpark. They cheered on the participants who climbed over 2,000 steps that symbolized the height of the World Trade Center towers and the firefighters’ heroic efforts to save others that day nearly 23 years ago.

When Sweeney, the Royals’ pitching coach and organizer of this event, took on his final lap, the cadets wanted to do their part and help him finish. Together, they snaked through the lower bowl of The K, one step at a time.

At the top of the stairs in the right-field corner, close to the scoreboard that had the names of the nearly 3,000 men and women who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, Sweeney stood and high-fived every cadet and thanked them.

“Organically, with the cadets filing in, that was special,” Sweeney said. “Every year we’ve done this, something like that has happened, where you’re like, ‘This is what’s good in the world.’ When we’re together, we can make special things happen.”

This year was Sweeney’s fourth season putting together a stadium stair climb to remember Sept. 11, an effort he began in 2021 while a member of Cleveland’s coaching staff. When he was hired as the Royals’ pitching coach ahead of the ‘23 season, he approached general manager J.J. Picollo about starting a similar event in Kansas City.

In the two seasons the Royals have held the organizational event, it’s doubled in participation. More than 100 people showed up on Tuesday, including members of Kansas City's front office, business operations and on-field personnel. Royals pitchers Alec Marsh, Cole Ragans, James McArthur, Daniel Lynch IV, Will Smith, Chris Stratton and Michael Wacha were there to cheer on the climbers. And with the Guardians in town this week, even president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti, who hired Sweeney in Cleveland in December 2017 and saw this event start there, joined the climb.

Members of the KCFD were there as well, and the Academy’s cadets volunteered as part of their training.

“One of the things they’re learning is that working with the community is also part of our job,” Captain Matt Thornton of the KCFD Academy said. “Just helping out when and where we can. Events like this are a part of that. I’m hoping we can help grow it in the years to come.”

Picollo emphasized that events like Tuesday’s are bigger than baseball, an important reminder when emotions are high on the field in a playoff race.

“Couple of times when I was gassed, you just look up at that scoreboard and see all those names,” Picollo said. “What they did to save people’s lives, these stairs were nothing. This was a really great event, and it’s close to Brian’s heart. What he does at home in his community and here in Kansas City to support the fire department is amazing. We just want to support him and a cause that’s really important.”

A volunteer firefighter in the offseason, Sweeney comes from a family of first responders. His dad, Ed, was a firefighter in Yonkers, N.Y., for 35 years. Now 88 years old, Ed still lives in the same house Brian grew up in and still shares stories about the Yonkers Fire Department.

To honor his father and help his community, Brian completed the coursework necessary to become a volunteer firefighter in 2017. Now in the winter months, he has a pager always on if the West Crescent Fire Department needs help in Clifton Park, N.Y.

“I never knew what my dad went through,” Sweeney said. “When he came home smelling like smoke, I didn’t know what that meant. He could have been saving somebody. He could have been going into a fire. When people are running out, these guys are running in. When somebody calls 911, they need somebody to show up. Firemen and women show up. And I wanted to show up. I didn’t want to stand idly by when there were emergencies.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, Sweeney was playing in the Seattle organization about to begin the Triple-A World Series in New Orleans. A phone call from a friend informed him of the attacks on the World Trade Center. All Sweeney wanted to do was get home to New York. Many of his first responder family and friends went to Ground Zero to help.

That’s why an annual stair climb to remember the fallen is so important to Sweeney. It’s also why he began Tuesday’s climb wearing his full firefighting gear, adding an extra 45 pounds as he tackled each step.

He had to shed the jacket and oxygen tank after the first lap, then the pants and boots after the second lap, but he still had the helmet on when he finished with the cadets streaming in behind him.

“The gear was brutal,” Sweeney said. “It just doesn’t breathe. No chance I could make three laps in all of it. But that’s what it was for: Having that pain gives you the thought, ‘What were those guys thinking when they were going up, having to climb 70-plus flights of stairs and helping people out without knowing what’s happening?’

“I’m just walking up stairs in the stadium with people cheering me on. To go through that little bit of torture to honor those people when they were going in and everyone else was running away -- that’s the least we can do.”