By Steve Hummer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There are millions of people from Atlanta. You park behind them every workday on one interstate or another.

But only a relative few are of Atlanta. Those whose family history is written in red clay, who trace their fondness for the city and every spoke on its wheel to a time even before the first Home Depot began hiring.

Dansby Swanson, a Brave since a heralded and unconventional trade in December, but an Atlantan by blood, is very much the latter.

Just how deep is the connection?

Well, there is a tiny white clapboard building with a metal roof in west Cobb County that is something of a landmark for devotees of flour and buttermilk and shortening. Stilesboro Biscuits it’s called. The Swanson family history states that Dansby’s great-great grandfather ran a small store and gas station out of that same location.

There is one Swanson in a local athletic hall of fame — and it ain’t Dansby. His mother, Nancy, accomplished in tennis and basketball, owns a small spot in a foyer display outside the Marietta High School gym. Ask the kid who the best athlete in the family is, and he takes sides quickly.

“My mom, no doubt,” Dansby said. “My dad was a very good athlete, too (played baseball at Marietta and Troy), but he’ll even admit it’s my mom.”

The new wanna-be Braves infielder is someone who can rhapsodize about the mostly blighted history of Atlanta sports and not make any of it sound forced.

“My pride and passion for this city is through the roof,” Swanson said last week.

James Dansby Swanson — he always went by Dansby, his mother’s maiden name — began his baseball at Adams Park in Kennesaw. Moved on to the select East Cobb program, where he played for a while with the son of Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. Split time between baseball and basketball at Marietta High (he reports that his shot is, “still money.”)

Swanson may have wandered from his base, playing his college ball at Vanderbilt and going off with Arizona when it made him 2015’s top amateur pick. His first and to-date only minor league assignment — shortened when he took a pitch to the face in a “simulated” game — took him to faraway Hillsboro, Ore.

But, even so, he said, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t check to see if (the Braves) won that night, even being in the Diamondbacks system.”

Swanson may have discovered joys outside metro Atlanta, still making his offseason base in his old college town of Nashville. But not at the expense of ingrained loyalties. When invited to be a Titans 12th Man on the field before Tennessee’s game against the Falcons last season, Swanson warned the team he’d be obliged to wear his Falcons gear. The two sides agreed on another date.

There is just this uncommon air of belonging and belief about this soon-to-be 22-year-old who has yet to take his first cut at a big league pitch.

Choosing Vandy as his college came with a sizable leap of faith. So convinced was Swanson that the pricey college was the place where he could best flesh out his lifelong baseball dream that he was willing to take out student loans — since repaid — to supplement his partial scholarship.

“I just knew it deep down inside that I was going to be something one day,” he said. “I didn’t know if it was going to be after three years or four years (in college), but I knew one day it was going to happen.”

In his performance portfolio, Swanson owns a Most Outstanding Player award from the 2014 College World Series won by Vandy. Within three years — with one a washout because of injury — he built himself from a lightly recruited high school player into the top pick in the land.

He’s had but a sip of pro ball — thanks to that early beaning he played only 22 games last season for the Hillsboro Hops. But such is Swanson’s make-up that Gonzalez, speaking last week before the first jumping jack of spring training, could not rule out a very swift climb to the majors.

“When we made the trade and sat there and looked at it, I thought: This guy was the No. 1 pick in the nation. This guy played three years of college baseball, which to me is the equivalent of a short season, professional. Why can’t this guy break camp with us next spring?

“We’ll see. He’ll let us know. … It wouldn’t surprise me that this guy would be up here sooner rather than later. It’s really up to him.”

When describing how much he enjoyed his brief stop in Oregon, Swanson didn’t refer to the scenery. Rather, he invoked a sentiment not particularly common today, one that offers a little insight to character. “I felt I got treated just like everyone else. That’s something I always wanted,” he said.

“I’m just another guy, just like everyone else. I don’t want to be put ahead of someone else just because of my draft status. That’s not right to me.”

His college coach, Tim Corbin, once summed up Swanson thusly: “He has a care level for his personal game and the team.”

His parents describe in their youngest of three children a fierce sense of fealty, a strong commitment to the concept of team-building. It may be quaint and naive, but Cooter Swanson, the dad, capsulized the entire family’s belief just two months ago, saying, “We’re thinking he’s going to play for the Diamondbacks until he retired.”

When the trade to the Braves happened, it was received as a mixed message. Teams don’t trade away the top pick of the draft six months after the selection. Swanson made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t react until he gave himself time to weigh the sense of rejection common to any trade against the thrill of possibly one day playing with his favorite team.

And the outcome of his contemplation? “Let’s call it a tie,” he said.

Whenever he arrives with the Braves, Swanson undoubtedly will face the unique expectations and challenges of a hometown product. Just like Jeff Francoeur did. Like Jason Heyward did, and Brian McCann.

A Swanson Twitter post to start 2016 was aimed at the audience at-large, but it very well could have applied to himself now that the kid who is of Atlanta is a Brave. It read: “My challenge to everyone for the New Year — 1. Be yourself. 2. Respect others. 3. Let God take the wheel.”

Last week, he expanded beyond the limits of social media.

“It’s a challenge to be yourself. If you work on yourself and develop yourself then what you are is going to be good enough. Some people try to be things that they aren’t and it gets them in trouble.

“(Respecting others) is another thing that’s lost these days. There’s the entitlement factor of behavior. People think they deserve respect. But you don’t deserve anything until you prove it.”