Tag: Dansby Swanson

Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner are going by ‘Nickel and Dimes’ this year and everyone made the same joke

That’s one way to create more revenue at Wrigley Field

Among all the virtues of spring training in baseball’s modern era, the best might just be what it does for team chemistry. It’s where players develop the inside jokes that will sustain them all summer, create the celebrations they’ll bust out whenever they hit a walkoff and bestow nicknames upon each other that are sure to come up in interviews for the remainder of the year.

It’s that latter act where the Chicago Cubs infield duo of Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson could’ve used a little more help — or at least some audience testing.

And anyone who’s followed baseball free agency over the last decade or so could probably tell you why pretty quickly.

Ok, on the one hand, Nickel and Dimes is a great name for a double play combo. On the other, c’mon guys. Read the room! You’re playing on a team that until recently was shedding as much salary as it could.

As the team’s negotiations to bring back free agent Cody Bellinger continue to drag on, the nickname feels more apt for the front office than anywhere else.

The Cubs are a big market team that certainly hasn’t acted like it in quite some time. The North Siders last ranked among the top five payrolls in baseball 2020 and watched homegrown talents like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber accept massive contracts from other franchises.

All of which is to say Hoerner and Swanson aren’t the first thing to that comes to mind when Cubs fans hear “Nickel and Dime”.

Mallory Swanson threw out a Cubs first pitch to husband Dansby Swanson, and it was so wholesome

This is the most wholesome first pitch ever.

MLB first pitches can be hit and miss, but we dare you to find one as wholesome this season as U.S. women’s national team forward Mallory Swanson throwing out a first pitch to her husband, Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson.

Indeed, the Swansons took part in this awesome first pitch ahead of Chicago’s home tilt against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night.

Mallory Swanson, who also plays for the NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars, pitched the ball right to Dansby Swanson, and it turned out to be as good of a first pitch as you could hope for. Plus, this is just so sweet.

How often do you get to see a married couple take part in a first pitch like this?

The Swansons are one of the most athletically gifted famous couples around, and it’s awesome to see them get to have a moment like this at Dansby Swanson’s place of work.

We can bet the Cubs will want to bring back Mallory Swanson next season for another first pitch after this successful attempt.

Mets pitcher Kodai Senga’s ridiculous ghost fork had Dansby Swanson fuming after a strikeout

Can’t blame him after that pitch.

There haven’t been many positives to take away from the New York Mets’ 2023 season, but first-year pitcher Kodai Senga has certainly held up his end of the bargain.

Senga arrived from Japan’s NPB after signing a five-year, $75 million deal with the Mets in December. And he quickly introduced big-league hitters to his signature pitch: the ghost fork.

The pitch is amazingly deceptive and looks like a fastball to the hitter until the pitch takes a life of its own with forkball movement. In Monday’s 11-2 win over the Chicago Cubs, Senga’s ghost fork basically had shortstop Dansby Swanson in disbelief after a strikeout.

Swanson struck out against the ghost fork in his first at-bat. And his second at-bat didn’t go any better in the third inning. Swanson fell behind in the count, and Senga finished him off with a 79 mph ghost fork that broke 49 inches vertically.

Again, that’s a pitch that initially looks like a fastball to the batter. There’s not much anyone can do about that, and Swanson couldn’t hold back his frustration after the strikeout. He spiked his bat and helmet as the inning came to a close.

Fans were also impressed with the pitch. A ghost fork like that one is almost impossible to hit.

Dansby Swanson had to exit Cubs game after taking wife Mallory to surgery at 4 a.m.

“Realistically I felt like my body was just kind of done”

Dansby Swanson said his “body was just kind of done” after being forced to exit a Chicago Cubs game following a day in which he accompanied his wife Mallory Swanson to surgery at 4 a.m.

While warming up in the top of the 6th inning against the Seattle Mariners, Swanson motioned to the bench that he needed to exit the game.

Though there were initially fears of an injury, Dansby instead appeared to simply be drained after an emotional few days that saw Mallory suffer a torn patella tendon that likely ended her World Cup dream.

“Realistically I felt like my body was just kind of done,” the Cubs shortstop told reporters after the game. “I felt like doing anything more probably would have put me in harm’s way.

“It felt like the night was over for me, pretty simple. I probably haven’t eaten or slept or drank enough water the past few days, so already getting fluids in me and taking care of myself.”

Cubs manager David Ross added: “The doctors, they’re pretty confident it was just some cramping — which makes some sense with the day he’s had.”

Dansby ‘heartbroken’ for Mallory

The Cubs shortstop said he was “heartbroken” for his wife, who revealed she had surgery in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

“Glad we can be here together — I can’t imagine being apart right now,” Swanson said. “Everybody knows it’s a pretty tough and heartbreaking situation for her. I’m heartbroken for her. Just a lot of tears and sadness.

“Two things can be true at the same time: It can stink, and we can be sad and upset. We can also understand God’s bigger picture and plans and everything. … It’s just a sad time and we’ll get through it together.”

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Dansby Swanson: NWSL would’ve moved Mallory Swanson to keep us in same city

Mallory Swanson on Angel City FC? It could’ve happened if the Dodgers signed her husband

Dansby Swanson signed with the Chicago Cubs in December, landing in the same city where his wife Mallory Swanson plays for the Chicago Red Stars.

But the shortstop said that even if he’d signed with a different team, the NWSL was open to moving the U.S. national team star to ensure the couple played in the same city.

The Cubs handed Swanson a seven-year, $177 million contract to land him as a free agent from the Atlanta Braves. After years in a long-distance relationship, the couple, who were married in December, were finally together in the same city.

In an interview with USA TODAY Sports, Swanson said that the NWSL was open to moving his wife away from the Red Stars had he signed with a team other than the Cubs.

“This is technically her last season in Chicago,’’ Swanson said, “but the [NWSL] pretty much made a promise that they would do right by her. Say I had signed with the Dodgers, they would have traded her to a team that’s in Los Angeles. They were very open to that. And since I’m in Chicago now, I think they’re going to be OK keeping her around.’’

That is unfortunate news for Angel City FC, who could’ve landed one of the most in-form players in the world had the Dodgers pushed harder to sign her husband.

Dansby Swanson admitted that both he and his wife were unsure if they wanted to continue their careers in Chicago, but ultimately came around to the idea.

“It’s funny like before Chicago, we were both kind of like I don’t know,’’ he said. “She said, ‘I don’t know if I want to there.’ I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to be there.’ But the more we prayed about it was like, ‘Chicago is where we’re supposed to be.’ Looking back, things just started falling to place than makes a lot of sense now.’’

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

This story from Dansby Swanson will move you to tears.

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.

Umpire Chad Fairchild apologized to Mets pitcher Chris Bassitt for missing a strike call

“My bad!”

Angel Hernandez could learn a thing or two from Chad Fairchild here.

On Monday, in the middle innings of the New York Mets game versus the Atlanta Braves, pitcher Chris Bassitt had Dansby Swanson in a 2-2 count with two outs. Bassitt delivered what seemed to be a strike at first glance, as he even started walking off the field after retiring the side, but umpire Fairchild called the pitch a ball, extending the inning to the surprise of… well everyone!

Bassitt was clearly not happy with the call, as the pitch was not only over the plate but also above Swanson’s knees. Thankfully for the Mets, Bassitt was able to get out of the inning cleanly after that mishap. But surprisingly, in between innings Fairchild apologized to Bassitt for missing the call!

In the universal symbol of “my bad” Fairchild owned up to the missed call and Bassitt accepted it with a quick head nod. Now that’s how you settle officiating disputes!

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Braves’ Dansby Swanson calls out Atlanta fans for reaction to horrible Alec Bohm call

“It just can’t happen, and it never needs to happen again.”

It has been established that Alec Bohm being called safe on the slide at home — both in the moment and upon replay review — to give the Philadelphia Phillies a win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday night was the wrong call.

Slow motion replays that are all over Twitter show Bohm didn’t touch home plate with any part of his cleat, which led to Braves fans at Truist Park to throw trash on to the field in protest.

Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson took some time after the game to address the fans and strongly called them out for their behavior:

“It’s an embarrassing representation of our city because I know being from here, that’s not how we act,” he said, adding that he noticed kids in the front row of the stadium were in danger with the debris being tossed. “It just can’t happen, and it never needs to happen again.”

Well said, and exactly right. Sure, it was a bad call. But don’t throw trash on to the field.

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