MOOSIC, Pa. — In his mind, Nick Swisher can still hear the roll call. He can still summon the feeling of having thousands of New Yorkers chant his name, the feeling of mutual respect they shared before each game when he would turn and salute the fans in the outfield.

In his mind, Swisher can still hear it, even though it is mid-June and he is miles away from the Bronx, standing on first base and wearing the black-and-neon-green uniform of the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. There are no crazy bleacher creatures in the outfield here, just families picnicking on a hillside. Over his left shoulder, kids cheer as a furry blue mascot named Champ waddles across the top of the home dugout.

Twilight descends on PNC Stadium, and Swisher waves his mitt back and forth to shoo away a swarm of gnats.

“I didn't think I was going to be here this long,” Swisher said. “But here I am. I really thought this was going to be more of a sprint than a marathon.”

But if a marathon is what it takes to get back to the big leagues, then a marathon is what Swisher says he will run, even with cranky 35-year-old knees. A little more than a week ago, he got the bad news that despite having problems at first base, the Yankees had bypassed him again and instead decided to call up a pitcher. For any other player, it might have been the ultimate insult, something that made him question why he was doing what he's doing. For Swisher, being passed over for the fourth straight time was liberating.

“I'm like, ‘Dude, who cares what anyone else thinks about you right now?'?” Swisher said. “Before I was too worried about what other people were thinking. I was starting to think that I wasn't any good and it was affecting my game. Then, this happens, and I said to myself, ‘Get it together,' because I know what I can do.”

Swisher, who was cut by the Atlanta Braves on March 27, signed with the Yankees' Triple-A team just before the start of the season and hit .340 with three homers in 13 April games. But with rumors of a promotion circulating, he struggled in May, hitting .200 with just one home run.

“It was the wrong month to have a bad month,” said Swisher, who is starting to heat up, hitting .375 with three home runs over a recent 10-game span.

Swisher doesn't need to be doing this. He has a World Series ring, an All-Star Game appearance and a dozen mostly solid seasons with the Oakland Athletics, the Chicago White Sox, the Yankees, the Cleveland Indians and the Braves. He could have stayed home this season and collected millions — $10 million from Atlanta and $5 million from Cleveland, to be exact. A popular player with fans and the media, Swisher says he has a number of options to consider for his post-playing career.

But he's not ready for that yet, which is why he's living out of a hotel and celebrating Father's Day on FaceTime. Swisher has a 3-year-old daughter, Emerson, and his wife, JoAnna Garcia, is pregnant.

“I'm blessed to have a wife to give me this opportunity to chase my dream, but I'm still here in Triple-A and my wife is nine months pregnant in Tampa,” Swisher said. “I can't bring her up here to Scranton. No offense to anyone, but this is, well, it's not New York, if you know what I mean.”

No, it's not. It's been 13 years since Swisher was last in the minors, and at this stage of his career it has lost any charm it once had. There is no private plane travel in the International League. In fact, there is no plane travel at all. On Thursday night, after finishing a four-game series in Toledo, Ohio, Swisher and his teammates boarded a coach bus for a nine-hour ride back to Scranton, arriving at 6:30 a.m. They had to be back at the ballpark 10 hours later.

No, this is not the Ritz Carlton and the Yankees. This is hotels without late-night room service and towns that shut down before the game is over. Postgame dinner is sometimes a sandwich from the ballpark wrapped in a napkin.

“You've got to do what you've got to do,” Swisher said.

Like he was with the Yankees, Swisher is a popular teammate. When the team does go somewhere with an open restaurant, the salary disparity between Swisher and the rest of his teammates — most of whom are trying to eat off their $25 per diem — makes it no big deal for him to pick up a check. He is also always there to offer advice and encouragement.

“He's been a great addition to the clubhouse,” Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager Al Pedrique said. “He's a guy who loves to share his experience with the young players.”

Of course, he would rather be sharing that experience with players in the Bronx or another major league ballpark. And he is convinced that he will.

“The one thing I always dream about is running back on that field one more time and getting the roll call and pumping up those bleacher creatures like a WWE wrestler,” he said. “I dream about bringing energy back in that stadium, because that's how I remember it.”