SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Mike Sweeney was playing golf with George Brett last week when his cell phone rang with some good news: He had just been selected as the 26th member of the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame.
Moments after getting the word, Sweeney received his marching orders.
"You have to call your dad," Brett said.
Sweeney's father, who is also named Michael but goes by the nickname "Big Mike," was a promising outfielder in the Angels organization in the early 1970s. But after hitting .346 for Idaho Falls in the Pioneer League in 1971, Big Mike realized that $300 a month wasn't enough to support a wife and a baby. So he quit baseball and took a job driving a beer truck to take care of his family, which eventually expanded to include eight children.
About two months ago, Big Mike was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and the road has since taken him to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, where he is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Needless to say, his son's news flash was a day-brightener.
"My dad was my hero," Mike Sweeney said. "Now he's fighting for his life. He was the first person I called, and he was emotional. He told me the best words a son could hear: 'I’m proud of you.' It makes me want to cry."
Sweeney, 41, is a longtime favorite of Kansas City fans because of his consistent production and sunny-side-up demeanor. He was Dale Murphy-caliber friendly as a player, and he made his mark on the field with five All-Star appearances, 197 homers and an .861 OPS in 13 seasons with the Royals.
Five years after his retirement, Sweeney is in Royals camp as a special assistant for baseball operations. He spends a lot of time dispensing bear hugs and sharing positive vibes and baseball acumen, not necessarily in that order.
"They gave me a nice, fancy title," Sweeney said. "Basically I do whatever Dayton Moore, J.J. Picollo, the Glass family and Ned Yost ask me."
That's Kansas City's general manager, assistant general manager, owners and manager, respectively.
Sweeney will join Brett, Frank White, Bret Saberhagen and 14 other players in the Royals Hall (the eight non-playing members include club founder Ewing Kauffman, longtime broadcaster Denny Matthews and former managers Dick Howser and Whitey Herzog). Caricatures of the 17 players adorn the batting tent adjacent to the Surprise Stadium clubhouse, and Sweeney's likeness will be among them when the Royals return to the Cactus League in February 2016.
As Sweeney enjoys his moment in the organizational spotlight, he is unapologetically old-fashioned about what it represents to him personally.
"One thing I always said was, 'I want to be a good example for my children and the kids that look up to me,'" Sweeney said. "I played in a tainted era, but I'm proud to stand here and say I never tried a greenie, and I never did PEDs or steroids. I can hang my hat on the fact that I have no regrets. That's a priceless gift when you finish playing baseball. Not everybody can say that."
It's also a priceless gift to place a phone call to a struggling father in need of encouraging news. Sweeney will enter the Royals Hall of Fame on Aug. 15, which coincides with a series against Big Mike's former team, the Angels. The entire Sweeney clan is looking forward to that date.
"This has given my dad something to look forward to and hopefully fight for," Mike Sweeney said. "It'll be a blessing."