Kevin Gorman: Unforgettable Father's Day for dad of Pirates' Travis Swaggerty

Travis Swaggerty Sr. exited the Pirates clubhouse with a home white jersey draped over one shoulder, holding his son's gold tie and wearing a smile that seemed to be permanently fixated to his face.

For the single father, it marked a moment where his dreams came true.

"This is on the top of the list of all-time best Father's Day gifts," Travis Sr. said Friday of Travis Jr. signing a reported $4.4-million bonus with the Pirates. "I don't know if I could script it any better."

Travis Sr. wouldn't allow himself to get caught up in his son's draft status at South Alabama, where the 20-year-old outfielder skyrocketed into a first-round prospect and then a top-10 pick by the Pirates.

Pirates today announced we have signed outfielder Travis Swaggerty, the 10th overall selection in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft. #MLBDraft : https://t.co/6ntpZkCmcC pic.twitter.com/8CXjL6VF87

— Pirates (@Pirates) June 15, 2018

"I was in a bubble," said Travis Sr., 43, an electrical contractor in Mandeville, La., who also has a daughter, Brook, 23. "I wouldn't look at mocks drafts, nothing. I'd probably critique harder than anything. I just sat back and watched."

Travis Sr. beamed as he stood to the side and listened to his son credit his sacrifices and support for his success, which started with Travis Jr. falling in love with the game while watching his father and friends play softball. Travis Sr. insisted that his son give a firm handshake and look a man in the eye, and Travis Jr. translated those character traits and his "drive and determination" from his father to his love for the game.

"The main thing about baseball, it's doing everything for the right reasons," Travis Jr. said. "It's playing for the right reasons. It's having each at bat for the right reasons. You don't just go up there to swing. You don't just go up there like, 'Oh, we're down 9-2. This at bat doesn't matter.' It's about going hard every single day, every single at bat."

Funny thing, but father wouldn't let son play organized baseball until he was 10 years old. Travis Jr. watched ESPN before school every day to see game highlights but was deemed too intense – to the point Travis Sr. called him "annoying" and "out of control, almost."

"He was so driven, that he had to be first at anything," Travis Sr. said. "I just didn't feel like he was ready. When we decided to put him ball at 10, he had analyzed the game backward and forward.

"As a child, he stared at ESPN when he was this high," Travis Sr. said, holding his hand waist high. ""He's loved the game of baseball probably as early as he could talk. He knew the game backwards and forward, literally, before he ever stepped on the field. He's a model student, model kid, model son. It was just a matter of giving him the tools, giving him the support to get him here. The rest of it was all him."

It wasn't lost on Travis Jr. how much his father supported his baseball career, financing his travel and hotel costs. Their only vacations, if you want to call them that, revolved around where baseball took them every summer for the past eight years without knowing if it would pay off.

"I just saw something in him," Travis Sr. said. "Did I know he could get to this point? No. I knew he was a notch above every year. I tried to give him every avenue to excel. He'd do something exceptional, not routine."

So, the Swaggertys chased their dream together, father and son, and started Father's Day weekend with a special moment that had them smiling as they stood at the edge of the grass at PNC Park during batting practice, talking with Pirates president Frank Coonelly and a parade of Pirates players who stopped to congratulate and welcome Travis Jr.

"It's an emotional roller coaster, for sure. But every kid who plays baseball dreams about this process," Travis Jr said. "To just watch it unfold for myself, it's hard to put into words and hard to wrap my head around. It's almost not reality. It's kind of nice. I wish I could go back and tell my 15-year-old self or 18-year-old self, 'This is what it's like and you're going to be able to do it.' This has just been an amazing process and I couldn't be more thankful."

It's real!! Time to go to work #RaiseIt https://t.co/YEm7qVYQp6

— Travis Swaggerty(@TSwaggerty_21) June 16, 2018

That Travis Jr. thanked his father first upon his introduction by Pirates general manager Neal Huntington meant the world to his old man, who couldn't believe that the reality was even better than they had dreamed.

"As far as sacrifices, you do what you do as a dad," Travis Sr. said. "For him to recognize it, that's when the payoff came. This will definitely go down as the all-time best Father's Day of my life."

A Father's Day Travis Swaggerty Sr. will never forget.

Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.