Senior Advisor of Communications & Broadcasting
Mike Swanson is in his third year as Senior Advisor of Communications & Broadcasting, after retiring in December 2021 to cap a 43-year career in Major League Baseball, including 15 years from 2007-21 as the Royals Vice President of Communications and Broadcasting.
Known as “Swanee” throughout the industry, he has had the good fortune to work in the front office for a World Series Champion in each league. Prior to his return to Kansas City in 2007, he spent nine years with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he was the Sr. Director of Public Relations, a stint that included a World Series title in 2001.
In February 2021, Swanson was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, honoring his career in professional sports. He previously earned the prestigious Robert O. Fishel Award for Public Relations Excellence. The award, named after the long-time baseball executive, goes to the “Active, non-uniformed representative of Major League Baseball whose ethics, character, dedication, service, professionalism and humanitarianism best represents the standards propounded by Robert O. Fishel.” He has spoken on four occasions at the Major League Baseball Rookie Career Development Program in Leesburg, Va., becoming the first club PR representative to serve on a panel in the 27-year history of the program. Swanee served as the Public Relations liaison for the MLB All-Star squad that played an eight-game series in Japan in November 2000.
He was also the PR liaison for the 2013 World Baseball Classic champion Dominican Republic squad and acted in the same role during the 2017 tournament. In “retirement,” Swanee served as the PR liaison for Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Prior to his start-up role with Arizona, Swanee had a similar experience with the Colorado Rockies, joining their staff in 1992 as the Public Relations Director, a year before they played their first game. He also worked in the PR department with the San Diego Padres for seven seasons.
Though baseball is his passion, Swanee has had the opportunity to work in other sports. His mother, the late Betty Swanson, worked for both the Kansas City Athletics and Chiefs over a 36-year span, with the younger Swanson tagging along and working in the equipment rooms of both franchises.
Around his baseball career, Swanee served as a television statistician, starting in 1977 with the late Keith Jackson on college football and evolving into stints with Monday Night Football, and the sharing of booth space with some of the top announcers in sports. The University of Kansas alum has worked six Final Fours, six Super Bowls, four NFC Championship Games, five Sugar Bowls, six Cotton Bowls, three Fiesta Bowls, the 2007 BCS Title Game, 23 Maui Invitationals and the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in 2018.
In 2020, the Kansas City chapter of the Baseball Writers Association honored Swanee with the Good Guy Award, which goes to the Royal who exemplifies a cooperative spirit with the beat writers. The Good Guy Award has since been renamed the Mike Swanson Award.
A 1972 graduate of nearby Raytown High School, Swanson was inducted into the Raytown School District Hall of Fame in 2016. He and his wife, Renee, have a daughter, Rachel, who is a graduate of KU, and reside in Lee’s Summit, Mo.