Crazy story of why a Waterford baseball facility shut down for a pair of New York Yankees

Before we get to the New York Yankees win over the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday night, spoiling Miguel Cabrera's three-hit night, leaving him just one shy of 3,000, I need to tell you a story about Swanny.

Several years ago, I was coaching a travel baseball team and I was driving a couple of boys to a winter practice. My son Jake and two of his teammates — Aidan Cullen and Nick “Swanny” Swanson — were in the van. I think they were around 16 years old.

Can I get an “Amen!” for travel-ball car pools?

Anyhow, they started throwing a tennis ball back and forth in the van. Why? Because they were 16; and 16-year-old boys do stupid things — and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

At some point, the throws got more intense, and more erratic. I got beaned in the back of the head while driving. I was furious; I pulled the van over, kicked them out and made them walk part-way to practice through Pontiac.

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Not for long.

Just long enough to send a message: Don’t freakin’ mess with the driver! Although I’m not sure I said it that nicely.

Now, about 10 years later, I can’t tell you how much I miss those days. These boys grew up way too fast.

Swanny went on to play baseball at Alma College and he’s still chasing his baseball dream in a different way. He’s the director of an indoor baseball facility in Waterford called USA Prime Michigan Baseball & Softball Training Center. Gotta give him credit. He wants to make baseball his career, which is cool.

I was scrolling through Facebook on Monday night and came across one that stopped me cold. There was Swanny with Aaron Judge — yes, the Yankees star Aaron Judge.

Wait a second, what the heck?

“Not a bad day when Judge and Teacherman come to town,” Swanny posted. “Awesome having Aaron Judge and Richard Schenck in at our place, not every day you get to see how a big leaguer goes about his business and the work behind the scenes. #PrimeOnTop.”

On Wednesday afternoon, I went to the Yankees clubhouse to ask Judge about it.

“It’s something I've done my whole career,” Judge said. “I’ve got a hitting guy (Richard Schenck) that I work with. I just try to have him come out every two weeks.”

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So that is how Judge ended up at a baseball facility in Waterford on Monday, working with Schenck.

“How many times do you do that during the season?” I asked Judge.

“Usually every two weeks,” he said. “Just to kind of help keep me dialed in. It's just like a good little checkup.”

OK, that’s wild. So I called Swanny.

“How did this happen?” I asked.

“It's a funny story actually,” Swanny said. “A couple of years ago, Aaron Judge was hitting at another facility and a whole bunch of kids ended up coming in.”

But Judge wanted his privacy.

“So he actually looked on Google and found our place,” Swanny said. “So Richard called me and I was up at Central Michigan and we were in a summer tournament. He was like, ‘Hey, man, we're in town. My name's Richard. We're looking for a place to hit. Do you mind if I bring Aaron up there?’”

“Me, not knowing much, I was like, yeah, Aaron who?” Swanny said, laughing.

“Aaron Judge.”

“I was like, Holy crap,” Swanny said. “So all of a sudden, I dropped everything. I'm like, 'Absolutely, man. I'll see you on Monday.’ I cleared out the facility and locked it down. They wanted privacy. And he came in and hit with Aaron. The first day he was in here was for like 45 minutes.”

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Then, Judge came in the next day, too.

“He called an Uber,” Swanny said. “And Aaron Judge is walking down the sidewalk trying to find his Uber in the middle of Pontiac, Michigan.”

With the Yankees back in Detroit this week, Judge returned to Swanny’s facility.

“He called me earlier this year and was like, 'Hey, man, we're coming back. We'd love to use the facility gonna be there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,'" Swanny said.

The Yankees had an off day on Monday in Detroit, so Swanny opened the facility for Judge.

“Judge comes in with his wife and his dog,” Swanny said. “I swear to God, his wife is the nicest person I've ever met. She was talking to us about life on the road. And so they came in and they hit for 40 minutes.”

“He got done hitting and he walks outside the cage and he was like, 'so what do you guys think?'” Swanny said. “We all kind of laughed, and we said, 'Pay the man!' He was dying laughing and it was pretty funny. He's a cool guy though, super cool guy.”

Swanny said that Judge and his wife called an Uber.

“They're outside in our parking lot, throwing snowballs around, playing with their dog until their Uber came," Swanny said "And I'm like, this is so cool."

But Judge wasn’t the only Yankee in Waterford.

Anthony Rizzo also used the facility this week.

“What is it, their routine?” I asked.

“It’s a lot of talking and it's a lot of videos,” Swanny said. “Rizzo came in and they started talking about Barry Bonds' swing and Miguel Cabrera was mentioned.”

The hitting coach had a collection of videos of MLB players. And they would compare the swings.

“It's kind of cool watching these elite level baseball players, talking about other elite level baseball players and how their swings are comparable,” Swanny said. “It was a wild concept.”

“When Rizzo was leaving, he was like, ‘yeah, it's pretty cool to be compared to Barry Bonds. Now if only I could hit like him.’”

By the way, Judge hit a double on Wednesday night, driving in a run. And Rizzo hit a homer, knocked in a pair of runs and scored twice in the Yankees' 5-3 win.

Judge and Rizzo were the difference in this game.

And I blame Swanny.

On a night when Miggy climbed to within one hit of 3,000 — and the crowd was buzzing — this loss felt like a tennis ball to the back of the head.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: NY Yankees stars get some swings in at Waterford batting cage