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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Michael Sykes

Dansby Swanson got emotional while explaining how him signing with the Cubs created a special connection with his grandfather

Dansby Swanson Cubs Cub

Often times when we’re in the midst of the offseason in any sport, it’s easy for us to forget as fans that the players are human beings, too.

They’re not just people who are signing with teams for no other reason than to just win a championship. Sure, that’s a huge part of it. But there are often so many more underlying reasons players make the free agency decisions they make.

Dansby Swanson had one of the sweetest reasons you’ll ever hear.

Swanson made the jump from his hometown team of the Atlanta Braves to the Chicago Cubs this offseason. It seemed to be a weird decision considering he seems like a guy who loved playing for his hometown team.

But there was another reason he signed with the Cubs and it was so touching. It was to form a new, special connection with his grandfather who recently died.

“Malorie [his wife] and I got married on December 10. The next morning we found out that my grandfather was not doing so well…and so we pretty much left our wedding venue the next morning and drove home. And, basically, had to rush over to the senior living facility where he was at…and he ended up passing away the day after I got married.”

That, alone, is just gut-wrenching. Losing a loved one the day after you get married is unimaginable. Going through that had to be incredibly difficult for the Swanson family.

But here’s why him being a cub means so much. He continued:

“Every day when I would come home from school I would run up to his house and pretty much demand that he come outside and hit me ground balls. But every time we walked in he would have a Cubs game on, back when it was on WGN…And I was like ‘Pops, we’re in Atlanta dude. We’re Braves fans.’ All he ever wanted me to be was doing what I’m doing now. So, having won a championship in Atlanta for one of his favorite teams, we just felt that the Cubs, which were his second favorite team, that bringing a championship to this city is what we felt called to do.” 

What an amazing story. So many fans were moved by this.

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