'Swanee' honored during ASG broadcast

After finishing up dinner on Tuesday night, Royals vice president of communications and broadcasting Mike Swanson was settling down in his chair with the All-Star Game on TV when he looked up and saw a picture of himself as the Chiefs’ water boy in 1969.

“What is happening on the television,” he thought as he grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

Next thing he knows, there’s a picture of him celebrating a championship with the D-backs. There he is throwing out the first pitch at a Royals game in 2018. There’s the viral photo of him sleeping with the World Series trophy. A photo of his wife, Renee, and daughter, Rachel, finished out the montage as Fox broadcaster Joe Buck paid tribute to Swanson, known around the industry as “Swanee,” who’s retiring at year’s end after 43 years in baseball.

“It was just an overwhelming thing to see,” Swanson said Wednesday. “It was an out-of-body experience. This happens to people other than myself. I spent 43 years as a behind-the-scenes guy. Not out front or being a headliner. It was just a whole minute or whatever it was, kind of mind-blowing experience.”

Soon after the segment ended -- as Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield dug in for his first at-bat of the night -- calls, texts, emails and social media notifications flooded Swanson’s phone. People from all over sent congratulatory notes, people he hasn’t seen or talked to in a while, people he didn’t even realize still had his number.

“It was just heartwarming,” Swanson said. “You get to the end of the career, and it was one of those really cool moments where everybody recognized what you did and how you did it -- I’m just going to crush the word ‘overwhelming,’ but that’s really how it feels.”

Behind the scenes or not, Swanson has had an impact on a vast majority of the baseball world. In the span of his work life, working in public relations for the Padres, Rockies and D-backs before returning home to Kansas City before the 2007 season, he’s widely recognized as one of the best in the PR field -- handling the art of media relations, helping the press and broadcasters do their jobs while maintaining the trust of everyone from players to umpires to staff. He’s been an essential and integral part of the Royals organization and baseball, recognized as far back as 2002, when he was awarded the Robert O. Fishel Award for public relations excellence.

Swanson could write a book about all the experiences he’s had, including Chiefs stories and statistician stories and broadcasting stories -- and many, many more baseball stories. There will be time in the second half of this season to focus on a more Royals-centered chapter here, too.

As he talked on the phone Wednesday, he mentioned the people he knows who have been doing this job for even longer than he has, and how nice it was to hear from them Tuesday night. He laughed at how Buck kept talking about Swanson even as Merrifield came up to bat, hoping that the segment would end soon so Merrifield could get his moment at the All-Star Game.

Most of all, Swanson was appreciative of what transpired Tuesday night, and it likely won’t be the last public congratulations he receives this season as he makes his farewell tour around different ballparks. He has the next few months to savor before the next adventure comes along.

“I just don’t feel like I can go any longer at the pace I’ve been going,” Swanson said. “These 43 years, I’ve had a hell of a front nine. Now, I want to see what the back nine plays like. … I’m not burned out, and I’m not being shown the door. My health, for all intents and purposes -- besides for having a crappy back -- is pretty good.

“I’ve had the good fortune of watching players’ sons come through my clubhouse. When the first grandson comes through, that’s when I know it’s definitely time [to] hang it up. I thought it was time to get out before that happens.”