Kevin Graber had been supplied alternatives like this earlier than, however the longtime Phillips Academy baseball coach realized this time issues had been completely different. His kids, who had lengthy been his precedence and a serious motive why he bought out the skilled recreation within the first place, had been now all grown up and away in faculty. Suddenly the prospect of becoming a member of an MLB group appeared much more interesting.
So a 12 months in the past this week Graber took the plunge and formally joined the Chicago Cubs as a minor league coach. He couldn’t have imagined the whirlwind that awaited.
Originally employed because the Cubs’ spring coaching complicated coordinator, Graber wound up being promoted twice over the course of the season, first to roving minor league discipline coordinator after which to supervisor of the Tennessee Smokies, the Cubs’ Double-A affiliate. Under his management the Smokies took off, and lately the membership captured its first Southern League championship since 1978.
“A little bit different than the brownies my wife would make after we won a high school championship,” Graber joked of the champagne-soaked celebration that adopted Tennessee’s title-clinching 10-3 win over the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.
Throughout his first 12 months with the Cubs, Graber was repeatedly the best man in the best place on the proper time. Originally anticipated to supervise the membership’s spring coaching operation and later handle the rookie league group, Graber bought bumped to discipline coordinator after his predecessor was elevated to massive league hitting coach.
In that function Graber often traveled to Chicago’s 4 minor league associates in Myrtle Beach, South Bend, Iowa and Tennessee, and through a midsummer journey to Knoxville the Smokies’ supervisor place unexpectedly grew to become vacant. The Cubs plugged Graber into the function and issues bought rolling from there.
Besides attending to handle a Double-A affiliate to a championship, Graber additionally had the chance to teach among the most promising younger gamers within the sport. He mentioned getting to inform Pete Crow-Armstrong and B.J. Murray Jr. that they had been going to Seattle for the MLB Futures Game was particular, as was attending to work with lots of the membership’s high prospects each day, amongst them former Worcester Academy star Matt Shaw.
“That’s a really cool opportunity to be with players at that level who are so profoundly gifted, but are also such incredibly hard workers who the organization has identified as a legitimate Major League Baseball prospect,” Graber mentioned. “That’s a great responsibility for me to make sure everything is going well with these players, and I don’t take that lightly.”
While leaving a highschool job to affix an MLB group might appear to be a no brainer to some, it wasn’t a simple determination. Graber and his household had been ingrained within the Phillips Academy group since 2008, and over time he bought to look at his youngsters develop up on the Andover campus together with lots of of different college students who got here by the distinguished faculty.
Among these was Thomas White, one of many high pitching prospects within the 2023 MLB Draft, and becoming a member of the Cubs would have additionally meant lacking out on his senior 12 months at Phillips and the possibility to see his journey over the end line.
“You get to be really close to these families,” Graber mentioned.
Ultimately Graber and his household determined the time was proper and uprooted themselves from the Merrimack Valley to Phoenix, Ariz. Now with a memorable first 12 months beneath his belt, Graber expects to renew his function as discipline coordinator and assist do no matter he can to assist Chicago’s younger gamers attain their full potential.
And if he finally ends up getting tossed one other curveball or two subsequent season, he’ll be prepared for that, too.
“Whatever the Cubs need from me, that is what I will do,” Graber mentioned.
Twins finish drought
On Oct. 5, 2004, the Red Sox started what wound up being a historic playoff run culminating within the group’s first World Series championship in 86 years.
That similar day the Minnesota Twins beat the New York Yankees 2-0 in Game 1 of their American League Divisional Series. It was the membership’s final playoff win for almost twenty years.
Minnesota’s incomprehensible 18-game dropping streak within the playoffs lastly got here to an finish this previous week, because the Twins dispatched the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 within the Wild Card spherical to win the franchise’s first playoff collection since 2002. In the interim the Twins had been swept 4 instances within the ALDS (thrice by the Yankees, who additionally went on to win that ’04 ALDS 3-1) and twice within the Wild Card spherical.
It was a cathartic and emotional breakthrough for the Twins and their followers, however now the AL Central champions have their work reduce out for them of their second-round matchup towards the defending World Series champion Houston Astros.
AL East or least?
Considering how sturdy the AL East appeared for almost all of the season, the division hasn’t precisely coloured itself in glory by the primary week of the playoffs.
Two of the division’s three playoff qualifiers, the Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays, had been unceremoniously dumped from the postseason in lopsided two-game Wild Card sweeps. The Jays and Rays had been outscored a mixed 16-2 of their 4 losses, every solely managing a single run of their respective collection.
For the Blue Jays, the result was underwhelming however not fully out of left discipline, as a result of regardless of boasting a powerful assortment of expertise Toronto’s offense has underperformed all season. The membership additional sabotaged itself by lifting Jose Berrios after a leadoff stroll within the fourth inning of Game 2 regardless of a low pitch rely and an in any other case dominant begin. That determination instantly backfired when Yusei Kikuchi went on to permit three straight baserunners and two runs to attain.
The Rays efficiency, nevertheless, was wildly uncharacteristic.
Tampa Bay has at all times prided itself on taking part in basically sound baseball, however this previous week the Rays seemed just like the worst model of this 12 months’s Red Sox. Tampa Bay dedicated 4 errors in Game 1’s shutout loss, and on Wednesday they seemed overmatched towards previous good friend Nathan Eovaldi.
Even after a 99-win marketing campaign, this offseason goes to deliver a number of laborious questions for a Rays franchise that may’t appear to translate its common season success into an October breakthrough. The similar might be mentioned for the Blue Jays, who’ve been solidly in win-now mode for the previous three seasons and whose championship window could possibly be closing.
Savannah Bananas coming to Fenway
Banana Ball is formally coming to the large leagues.
After taking New England by storm with extremely acclaimed stops in Brockton, Hartford and Portland this previous summer time, the Savannah Bananas are set to deliver their distinctive spin on baseball to Fenway Park subsequent 12 months as a part of the upcoming 2024 Banana Ball World Tour.
The Bananas will play at Fenway Park on Saturday, June 8, 2024, marking certainly one of six dates the Bananas will play at an enormous league venue. Originally based as a summer time faculty group, the Bananas have developed into baseball’s reply for the Harlem Globetrotters, turning into well-known for his or her entertaining antics, in-game dances, distinctive guidelines, frequent fan interactions and celeb cameos.
This previous August’s recreation in Brockton rapidly bought out and featured Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon and New England soccer legend Doug Flutie. It’s a protected guess the celebs might be out in drive for subsequent summer time’s showcase at Fenway Park.
Tickets for Bananas video games are lottery-based, and followers considering attending ought to go to thesavannahbananas.com/tickets and be a part of the Ticket Lottery List for a chance to buy tickets.
Source: www.bostonherald.com