ATLANTA -- After taking Tuesday morning off to tend to a family issue, Nancy Swanson certainly didn't anticipate what greeted her after she was told to report to suburban Atlanta's West Side Elementary to tend a "fifth-grade matter."
When Swanson entered the school's media room, she initially thought the students waving Braves foam tomahawks were simply wishing her well during Teacher Appreciation Week. But the children served as the undercard for the real surprise, which occurred when Dansby Swanson strolled across the room to greet his unsuspecting mother with a bouquet of fresh flowers.
"It was cool," Atlanta's shortstop said. "I hadn't seen her for two weeks, and being able to be here for this was really cool. It was funny, because I asked the Braves if they were going to bring anything for her, and they said, 'Yeah, flowers.' That was good, because that's what I would have gotten her. It was just cool to be here and see the kids and see how excited they were."

When Nancy Swanson arrived at her school, she noticed a sports media truck parked outside. But she still didn't deduce that its presence for a Teacher Appreciation Week event might mean her son was there, too.
"I really had no idea," Nancy Swanson said. "It still had not hit me that [this was Teacher Appreciation Week]. I had some other things going on this week, so it was interesting that it was here. But I still had no idea, so I was extremely surprised."
While attending Marietta High School, Dansby Swanson occasionally walked a few blocks to visit his mother while she was teaching at West Side Elementary. Now that he's playing for the hometown Braves, the 23-year-old lives just a few miles from his parents during the regular season. But the daily grind of the Major League Baseball season has made it difficult for him to consistently spend time with his family.
"We don't see each other," Nancy Swanson said. "He does have a house here now. Even when he lived with us last summer, there wasn't much seeing him. Our work schedules were very different. So Saturday mornings, Sunday nights and any other opportunity we get to see each other is nice."