Andrew Graham is a 44-year-old Sydney, Australia, native who spent more than two decades as a player, coach and manager in professional baseball in the United States with the Detroit Tigers.
He is in the first season as the Phillies’ rehab position players’ coach in Clearwater who was called to serve this week as the IronPigs’ co-manager with coach Ray Ricker as manager Chris ‘Tank’ Adamson is taking personal time.
Graham and Adamson are long-time mates from the land down under.
Here is a Q&A with Graham, who still has the Australian accent but owns dual citizenship:
The Morning Call (TMC): How did this opportunity present itself?
Graham: “About three weeks ago, [Phillies fifth-year field coordinator Kevin Bradshaw] called me and said, ‘Tank is going away. He’s on vacation. Would you be OK with managing the Triple-A team?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’”
Graham and Bradshaw worked together in the Tigers organization prior to Bradshaw coming in 2022 to the Phillies.
Graham and Adamson played against each other in Australia as youngsters. They have coached together the last seven years with the Australian national team.
TMC: You and Tank have some history, right?
Graham: “He’s always been a great baseball mind, a great guy. Everyone who I meet around here loves Tank. He’s a good person and loves the game of baseball.”
TMC: Are there similarities between you two?
Graham: “Most Australians, we’re good people who want to meet everybody and get to know everybody. But, sometimes, we’re taken for granted. Because we’re from Australia, our baseball knowledge [is questioned]. ‘How do you guys know the game coming from Australia?’ But I was born and raised playing baseball since I was 4½ years old. My dad played until he was 52. I’ve been on the national team since I was 21. I played college baseball and got drafted and played professionally. Tank didn’t do it that way. He went to college and then into coaching and playing in Australia.
“I got to know Tank really the best when we were on the coaching staff at the Premiere 12 in 2020 in Tokyo. We became really close friends.”
The Phillies called Graham to check on Adamson when Adamson came looking for a job in 2021.
TMC: What attracted you to baseball at a young age?
Graham: “My dad was playing. He coached my brother, who is two years older than me. I’d go to all of his games and was the bat boy. When they had a kid pull out, I started playing with the older guys. I was 4½ playing with guys 6½.
“When I was 11, my dad realized I was pretty good. I kept pursuing that and made all the state levels in Australia. I got offered a professional contract at age 15½ by the Seattle Mariners, but denied that because I hadn’t even started 10th grade. I don’t think I was ready to come over here as a 15-year-old. I came here to college at 18, and that was a culture change.”
Graham, who went to Armstrong State (Ga.) before the Tigers drafted him in the 19th round of the 2003 amateur draft, still struggled with the transition.
“You didn’t have cell phones then. You didn’t have FaceTime. It was a 5-minute phone call a week to my parents [Ian and Colleen]. It was just too expensive, even with a calling card. It was like $3 a minute.
“My whole family still lives in Australia. I have an older brother who is still there, so I left my family, everyone, friends and came over here. I was thinking it would be two years to play junior college ball and now 26 years later, I’m still here.”
Graham lives with his wife and 8-year-old daughter in Tampa. The 6-foot-4, 215-pounder played there for eight years as a catcher and coached for 17, including 16 as a manager, so he is no stranger to this week if not most of the IronPigs’ roster.
While acting earlier this year as the minor league position player rehab coach, he worked with Keaton Anthony and Gabriel Rincones Jr., both of whom started this season recovering from injuries at Phillies’ complex in Clearwater, Fla.
Graham’s responsibilities and schedule were different then.
TMC: What was your day-to-day at Florida?
Graham: “Obviously, it starts in the morning. I wake up very early at 5:45, get to the complex at 6:45, 7. I get a little workout in myself, then meetings at 7:30, 7:45 to go over the rehab players. Some of [the rehab players], they’re just in the hands of physical therapists or the doctors. When they got on the field, I’m in charge of their base running, taking ground balls, their progression, their skill work, then in the cages trying to get them healthy to get them back on the field.”
TMC: How does your manager experience help you with that?
Graham: “It helps me more with the mental side, because there is a lot of time for these guys’ minds to wander. Sometimes, they will do too much because their days are done by 2 o’clock, and they get bored. So, they want to continue to do more which is sometimes going to hurt them.
“I was fortunate to work with Anthony and Rincones, who loves to swing. So, it was more of me going back to dealing with players who are hard workers who have all the talent, but sometimes more is not the right way.”
During rehab, Graham kept telling Rincones that he’d be ready by July. Rincones finally questioned his coach about why so long, why July? Graham meant Rincones would get his first major-league promotion by July.
“I wanted him to start realizing how close he was and to start getting in his mind around the fact that every little decision he makes can change his effect on the game and to be prepared to go up there and be playing for Philadelphia.”
Rincones returning to Triple-A Lehigh Valley on May 26, then earned his first MLB call-up on June 12. He hit a home run three days later in his second game with the Phillies.
TMC: What keeps you going in the game?
Graham: “Minor league baseball is a grind, but you get to watch a beautiful game. I didn’t come all the way from Australia, leave my whole family to come here and not enjoy baseball. To impact a player, to see them develop, it may not be something you said, but there are a couple players out there who you see down the road and they give you a hug and say, ‘Thank you. You’re the one who got me to the big leagues.’”
Graham worked with Tigers rookie phenom Kevin McGonigle.
“I had him straight out of the draft,” he said, “and I had him in Double-A my last year there. It was fun watch him develop, help him with some of the mental side and getting used to professional baseball coming from high school in Philadelphia. He’s 21 and not just competing in the big leagues.”
Graham also feels good about his work with current Tigers DH/OF Kerry Carpenter and Reds outfielder Dane Myers.
“Myers was in the [low-A] Florida State League and struggling with velocity,” Graham said, “then [the Tigers] turned him into a position player. I fought for him to not be released and stay on my team, and now look at him.”
TMC: What’s the one thing you miss most from Australia or can’t find here?
Graham: “I’ll keep it simple, a good, old meat pie. When I went back there over Christmas, that was one of the first things I went and got. But the main thing I miss about Australia is, sometimes, the culture. It’s just a little bit more relaxed. No doubt.”
TMC: How about an Australian word that slips into your dialogue?
Graham: “When there’s the World Cup [soccer] or World Baseball Classic, it’s like you revert back to using your Australian talk. I remember I went to spring training and I said ‘heaps’ [or piles], and no one has really heard of heaps.
“It’s just a little sarcasm, a dry sense of humor. I haven’t changed that.”
Graham returns to Clearwater after Sunday’s series finale against Worcester. Adamson returns to Lehigh Valley on Tuesday for the start of a six-game series against visiting Syracuse.
Roster moves
RHP Gabriel Barbosa, who picked up the win Thursday night when he allowed an earned run on four hits in three innings, was sent to Double-A Reading where he has a 7.53 ERA this season in four games.
RHP Andrew Painter will wear No. 16, but it is not determined when he will pitch again for the IronPigs.
LHP Tanner Banks is active and wearing No. 44. He last pitched Wednesday, when he allowed two home runs and four runs total (one earned). He owns a 5.86 ERA in 26 games this season for Philadelphia.
How they scored
Bottom 1: Christian Cairo singled and stole second. One out later, Otto Kemp was hit by a pitch. Keaton Anthony followed with a two-run double to the left-field corner. IronPigs 2-0.
Top 4: Anthony Seigler doubled with one out and Mikey Romero walked. Matt Thaiss, batting .212, singled in Seigler and Romero with two outs. Tied at 2
Top 5: Tyler McDonough led off with a 455-foot home run, his third of the season. WooSox 3-2
Bottom 5: Felix Reyes singled with one out, stole second and scored on Kemp’s single. Tied at 3
Bottom 7: Kemp picked up his third hit of the night and sixth homer of the year, a solo shot with two outs. IronPigs 4-3
Bottom 8: Carter Kieboom walked, took second on Dylan Carlson’s hit by pitch and scored on Cairo’s two-out single. Reyes then hits a pop-up next to the mound that is not caught for a two-run single, scoring Carlson and Cairo. Kemp followed with his fourth hit with a single before Anthony’s third hit scored Reyes. De La Cruz singled in Kemp. IronPigs 9-3
Up next
RHP Drake Fellows (0-1, 5.82 ERA) vs. Worcester TBA in a 6:35 p.m. start from Coca-Cola Park. Fellows allowed three earned runs combined in his first three starts this year with Lehigh Valley, but four each in his last two outings including Sunday in four innings at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com