Andrew Graham (born 22 April 1982, in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

) is an Australian baseball manager and former player who played with the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

organization from 2003–2007. Graham is currently the manager of the

Lakeland Flying Tigers The Lakeland Flying Tigers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Lakeland, Florida, and play their home games at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. H ...

, a minor league affiliate of the

. Growing up in Australia he played baseball for the Ku-ring-gai Stealers Baseball Club.

Early career

Graham started his baseball career with

Armstrong Atlantic State University Armstrong may refer to: Places * Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places Antarctica * Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands Argentina * Armstrong, Santa Fe Australia * Armstrong, Victoria Canada * Armstrong, British Columbia * Armstrong, O ...

in 2003. The Tigers picked him up in the 19th round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft. He was assigned to the

Oneonta Tigers The Oneonta Tigers were a minor league baseball team located in Oneonta, New York. They were members of the New York–Penn League. The Tigers were the Short-Season A classification affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, and played their home games ...

and hit .182 in his first season. In 2004, he played for Oneonta (.280 in 8 games) and the

West Michigan Whitecaps The West Michigan Whitecaps are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Comstock Park, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, and play their home games at LMCU Ballpark. ...

(.253 in 26 games). Graham made his

Claxton Shield The Claxton Shield was the name of the premier baseball competition in Australia held between state-based teams, as well as the name of the trophy awarded to the champion team. From the summer of 1989–90 until 2001–02, and again since 2010� ...

debut in 2005, in which he was 3 for 14 for the

New South Wales Patriots New South Wales Patriots compete in the Claxton Shield baseball championship in Australia. The Patriots were one of the founding teams of the Claxton Shield in 1934 and competed as New South Wales until 1988 when the Claxtion Shield was awarde ...

. He played for the

Australian national baseball team The Australian national baseball team represents Australia in international baseball tournaments and competitions. It is ranked as the top team in Oceania, and is the Oceanian Champion, having been awarded the title in 2007 when New Zealand wi ...

in the 2005 Baseball World Cup, going 4 for 15 with a double and two passed balls in seven games, starting ahead of

Trent D'Antonio Trent M. D'Antonio (born 14 August 1985) is an Australian professional baseball utility player for the Sydney Blue Sox of the Australian Baseball League. He has previously played for the Florida Marlins organization. He is the all-time leader fo ...

. In February 2006, Graham was selected to play in the

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...

. In Claxton Shield 2006, the New South Wales catcher hit a .409/.435/.636 clip with 5 runs, 4 RBI and 5 doubles in five games. He was filling a big role replacing the catcher role with the retirement of long-time Australian star Gary White. Graham hit only .127 in 28 games for Lakeland in 2006 but was better with the

Erie SeaWolves The Erie SeaWolves are an United States, American professional baseball team based in Erie, Pennsylvania. They compete in Minor League Baseball (MiLB) as a member of the Eastern League (1938–present), Eastern League's Southwest Division, serving ...

, batting .276/.344/.362 in 20 games. In the

2006 Intercontinental Cup The 2006 IBAF Intercontinental Cup was held in Taichung, Taiwan from November 9 through the 19th. Eight countries contested the tournament, which was played at Taichung Baseball Field and the newly built Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium ...

, he was 4 for 8 with two walks and 5 RBI as the backup to Matthew Kent. He was only 3 for 20 with a homer and a walk in the 2007 Claxton Shield. Graham batted .208/.274/.292 in 36 games for the 2007

Toledo Mud Hens The Toledo Mud Hens are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Toledo, Ohio, and play their home games at Fifth Third Field. A Mud Hens team has played in ...

as the backup to a player with an even lower average that year,

Dane Sardinha Dane Kealoha A. A. Sardinha (born April 8, 1979) is an American former Major League Baseball catcher who played for the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, and Philadelphia Phillies between 2003 and 2011. Amateur career A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, ...

. In the 2007 Baseball World Cup, Graham hit .231/.389/.308 while splitting catching duties with Kent. In 2008, Graham was released as a free agent from the Detroit organisation. In 2009, he was selected to play in the

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international baseball competition. It began on 5 9 and finished 5 26. Unlike in 2006, when the round-robin format of the first two rounds led to some eliminations being decided by run-difference ti ...

held in March, as the starting catcher alongside Joel Naughton.World Baseball Classic Rosters
/ref> In September he was selected for

2009 Baseball World Cup The 2009 Baseball World Cup (BWC) was the 38th international Men's amateur baseball tournament. The tournament was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, which titled it the Amateur World Series from the 1938 tournament through ...

, making it his third consecutive World Cup selection. Graham played in the inaugural season of the rebooted

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it sh ...

for the

Sydney Blue Sox The Sydney Blue Sox are a professional baseball team, and one of eight foundation teams in the re-formed Australian Baseball League (ABL). The team plays their home games at Blacktown International Sportspark (BISP), one of the two venues use ...

in 2010–11. He played his last game in professional baseball with the team 5 February 2012 in the deciding preliminary series game of the 2012 Australian Baseball League postseason

Coaching career

In December 2009, Graham was hired as the minor league catching coordinator for the Tigers and then as a coach with the

GCL Tigers The Florida Complex League Tigers are a Rookie-level affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, competing in the Florida Complex League of Minor League Baseball. Prior to 2021, the team was known as the Gulf Coast League Tigers. The team plays its home gam ...

in 2010. Since 2011, Graham has been a manager in the Detroit organisation including the

Connecticut Tigers The Norwich Sea Unicorns are a baseball team located in Norwich, Connecticut. From 2010 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League (NYPL) as the Class A Short Season affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They play th ...

from 2011-2013,

2014-2016,

in 2018 and

in 2017 & 2019. With the Whitecaps in 2015, Graham led the team to the

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...

championship going 75-64. Graham was also a coach on Australia's

2017 World Baseball Classic The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to March 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts ...

roster.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Andrew 1982 births Living people Australian expatriate baseball players in the United States Baseball catchers Baseball coaches Erie SeaWolves players Lakeland Tigers players Minor league baseball managers Oneonta Tigers players Baseball players from Sydney Sydney Blue Sox players Toledo Mud Hens players West Michigan Whitecaps players 2006 World Baseball Classic players 2009 World Baseball Classic players Sportsmen from New South Wales