Kevin Graber gave a speech to address his induction.
On Sunday, Boys Baseball Head Coach Kevin Graber (KG) was inducted into the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame.
Graber has led Andover Baseball to five Central New England Prep Final Championships and to the Central New England Prep Final Four 12 consecutive times. He also holds multiple coaching honors and has mentored over 70 collegiate baseball athletes, some of which were Gatorade Massachusetts Players of the Year. Before Andover, Graber played professional baseball as well. This year, he returned to the school after two years, during which he was a coach and a coordinator in the Chicago Cubs organization. While with the Cubs, he directed baserunning and base-stealing strategies and took on key responsibilities in Major League Spring Training.
Graber’s career as a baseball player was difficult: as a Senior in college, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to undergo six months of chemotherapy and three months of radiation. Despite the health complications, Graber worked tirelessly and made sacrifices to fulfill his aspirations.
“It wasn’t a lot of fun and I had to rebound after and through all that stuff to find my way into professional baseball as a player back in the 1990s… I could have said, ‘Oh, well, the professional level isn’t for me.’ But I didn’t. I thought it was important enough to keep going and dedicate a good chunk of my life to grinding and making sacrifices to make that happen. I’m proud of the fact that it wasn’t easy. One of my many mantras is that nothing worthwhile is easy, and that was certainly the case with my path in baseball,” said Graber.
Penn State commit Robert Brown ’25, a player on the Andover Boys Baseball team, was present at the Hall of Fame induction. He congratulated Graber, crediting this honor to Graber’s relentless dedication to the game of baseball. Brown also cited the attendance of baseball legends Don Mattingly and Buck Showalter.
“He was among some of the baseball greats in that room: Don Mattingly and Buck Showalter… To be among that company and in a room like that was truly incredible. It’s a testament to all the hard work and dedication that he’s put in throughout his career. He’s jumped through so many hoops and taken so many risks. He’s talked about how a lot of people credit his success to luck and he rebutted that by saying it’s not luck. Some of the things that he’s risked, some of the things that he’s done… It’s a testament to his dedication and his love for the sport that really came together that night,” said Brown.
Reflecting on the induction, Graber emphasized the significance of being honored alongside baseball legends, whom he watched growing up. An inductee alongside Graber was 18-time Major League Baseball (MLB) all-star catcher Yogi Berra, a player who had won ten World Series titles — the most of any other MLB player.
Graber said, “It’s a big deal. I used to feel like a baseball player who coached, but now I’ve been coaching for more years than I’ve played the game. Now I feel like a coach who used to be a player and an honor like this makes me hit pause and think back to my playing days in a way that I don’t often anymore. When you compound that with the list of other players who are honored, which includes some of my idols growing up and players I watched on television with my dad, it’s really humbling… To be included in a group like that makes it pretty special.”
Brown described Graber’s circle of supporters who attended the ceremony, which included his former and current players, family, and childhood friends.
“As for the spectators, [Coach Graber] had a massive crowd. He filled four or five tables full of people… It was full of different people from all different walks of his life. That’s the same for the other inductees: you could tell how much these people meant to their community and the people around them by who showed up for them,” said Brown.
Even with the notability of coaching professional baseball, Graber missed being involved within the Andover community. His return is not only to baseball at Andover but to the many roles and people on campus.
Graber said, “I missed a lot about Andover. It’s not so much the baseball stuff; what I really missed was advising, being in the dorm, being in the classroom, teaching EBI [Empathy, Balance, Inclusion], and chaperoning everything under the sun just because I love being around the students and playing a role in their lives. One of the things I took away from professional baseball was how much I enjoy that part of being around people and being around families and kids. I just missed that quite a bit so it’s good to be back.”
Graber will serve as Andover Boys Baseball’s Head Coach in the Spring.
