Graeme Lloyd

Long-limbed southpaw Graeme Lloyd became the first Australian to win a World Series ring. The 6’8”1 reliever joined the New York Yankees bullpen late in the 1996 season and remained with the club for the 1998 championship too. Through the 2011 season, this distinction remained unique among Aussies. Just one other of Lloyd’s countrymen, Grant Balfour, had made it into the World Series (Tampa Bay, 2008).2

Lloyd, the third Australian-trained major-leaguer, was also the first pitcher from Down Under to reach the majors (1993). By the end of 2011, 18 more hurlers had followed him.3 None, however, had appeared in more games than Lloyd’s 568. He pitched 533 innings, showing that he was used as a specialist for much of his career, but he did post 17 saves to go with his 30-36 won-lost record and 4.04 ERA. For middle relievers, perhaps the most telling statistic is the percentage of inherited runners allowed to score; over his career, Lloyd’s mark was a respectable 141 out of 447 (32%). He also had a spotless 0.00 ERA in 13 postseason appearances, including a win in Game Four of the 1996 World Series.

Except for an unusual visa issue, Lloyd could have stayed in the majors beyond 2003 – but he was then free to join the Australian national team as they won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics. In late 2008, he became a coach in his native land.

Graeme John Lloyd was born on April 9, 1967 in Geelong. This small city (pronounced Juh-LONG) is about 60 kilometers southeast of Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria. His father, Noel, was a sheep rancher.4 The ranch was in Gnarwarre, a little to the west of Geelong. Noel and his wife Pauline also had three daughters named Deborah, Sherryn, and Jennine.

At the age of 10, Lloyd picked up a baseball for the first time after one sister’s boyfriend convinced him to try the game, which is not in the mainstream of Australian sports.5 As the Associated Press reported in 1994, he was hooked. “It was sort of a fluke,” Lloyd recalled. “The first day, I just grabbed the ball and started throwing it, never dreaming what it would lead to. And 17 years later, here I am. What if I hadn’t gone that day? It’s all pretty amazing.”6

“I had a go at cricket in school and I played Australian Rules Football for a couple of years, but I always came back to baseball. It was what I was best at,” he added.7 That is significant because Victoria is the stronghold of Aussie rules football, and height is an asset in that game. Yet as a contributor to the Ultimate Mets website wrote in 2003, “I played baseball with Graeme Lloyd for about seven years. When he was ten years old everyone who saw him play knew that he was going to be something special. But apart from his obvious physical talent, ‘Lloydy’ had the one quality that I and none of his Australian contemporaries had: the mental toughness to make it to the top.”

“My first team was the All Stars – they were a team in the Geelong baseball league,” Lloyd recalled in 1989. “I spent two years playing with Essendon in the city [Melbourne], and then back to Geelong again before finally ending up at Sunshine.” At age 19 in 1987, he made his debut in the Claxton Shield tournament, then Australia’s top baseball competition. Amateur teams represented their states, and Lloyd was a utility player for Victoria. When his team faced Queensland in Brisbane, the crowd was rough. Lloyd said, “You watch the British soccer and you think, wow, you never see this in Australia, but I thought they were that close to coming over the fence.”8

The Toronto Blue Jays signed Lloyd as an amateur free agent in January 1988. As he told the story the next year, “A few talent scouts came out from the American leagues to have a look around and see what talent was here. I think what happened with me was that someone said to one of these guys ‘go and have a look at this guy.’ So they came and had a bit of a look, and they decided to invite me to spring training.”9 In 2012, he said, “It’s a whole different world now. . .The scouts now have the media in the palm of their hands. They see a kid on their iPhone and say ‘wow, he has a great action’ and think about coming to Australia to sign him. And we have a lot of scouts here now.”10

The man who signed Lloyd was the Jays’ director of international scouting, Wayne Morgan. He made an assessment that held true for Lloyd’s pro career. “He doesn’t throw real hard, but he might get a little faster. He’s got good movement, a good delivery and can throw strikes. His curve is not bad and he’s got the start of a pretty nice change-up.”11 A decade later, a Sports Illustrated scouting report ahead of the 1998 World Series described him at his big-league peak. “With his long arms LH Graeme Lloyd is tough on lefties: ‘Wraparound’ breaking ball gets them to flinch.”12

Shortly after he signed, Lloyd appeared for Victoria in the Claxton Shield again in 1988. In addition to pitching, he played first base. In one game, he hit a three-run homer off Bob Nilsson (older brother of future big-league teammate Dave Nilsson) “with seemingly minimal effort. . .and casually strode around the bases.”13 The designated hitter was in effect for the bulk of Lloyd’s pro career; in the majors, he came to the plate just seven times, going 0-for-6 with a walk. He did still occasionally appear at first base in Australian league play, though.

Lloyd pitched just over four seasons in the minors from 1988 through 1992. He did reasonably well in Class A his first year, but appeared in just three games in 1989 because of an elbow injury, which he attributed to bad mechanics. “I’ve pulled tendons off the bone,” he said that December, “and that was caused by the seemingly simple thing of lowering my elbow and in effect slinging the pitch.”14

However, he had a backup plan behind baseball. “You need something else playing the minors. See, I’m an electrician by trade.” (He had gone to high school at Geelong Technical College.15) He added, “I’ve noticed as a sales rep for Pony [the athletic shoe company], so I know I won’t be at a loss if I don’t make it. I’ve been diverse in my interests so I know I’m going to be okay either way.”16

Lloyd was speaking as the brand-new professional Australian Baseball League began operations in the winter (summer, in the Southern Hemisphere) of 1989-90. He was a member of the Melbourne Monarchs – but played mainly first base in 18 games. He was 14 for 51 (.275) with a homer and five RBIs, even stealing three bases. He appeared just once on the mound, retiring one batter and picking up a save.

Returning to Myrtle Beach of the South Atlantic League (Class A) in 1990, Lloyd still wasn’t ready for a heavy pitching load. He appeared in just 19 games. Yet he began to show promise, going 5-2 with a 2.72 ERA. Another point of interest was that he started six games – from then on, he appeared exclusively out of the bullpen in the U.S., though not in Australia. In fact, during the 1990-91 season, he was the starter in all nine of his outings for his new team, the Perth Heat. He completed four (but pitched just 55 innings total), posting a 6-1 record with a 2.62 ERA. Perth won the ABL championship.

In 1991, Lloyd moved up to Dunedin in the Florida State League (high Class A). He had a fine season as the closer, saving 24 games in 52 appearances (2-5, 2.18). That broke the club record set the previous year by Mike Timlin. Graeme then followed up with another strong season for Perth: 6-2, 2.70 in 60 innings pitched across 11 games.

Climbing to Double A in 1992, Lloyd notched 14 more saves for Knoxville in the Southern League (4-8, 1.96). Perhaps his most salient stat as a minor-leaguer was that he allowed just 10 home runs in 271 innings pitched.

On December 7, 1992, the Philadelphia Phillies selected Lloyd in the Rule 5 draft – but the very next day, they traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers for a minor-league pitcher named John Trisler who never got beyond Double A. Meanwhile, Graeme went on to have his strongest season yet at home: 8-1, 1.48 for Perth in 10 games. In 61 innings pitched, he struck out 57 and walked just four.

Lloyd never pitched a day in Triple A. He jumped right to the majors based on his performance in spring training 1993. On April 11 in the Oakland Coliseum, announcer Roy Steele made public note that the first Australian pitcher was making his debut. The Brewers were trailing 6-0 when the rookie entered in the seventh inning with two outs. He retired the first man he faced, Eric Fox, but gave up a two-run homer in the eighth to Rickey Henderson. Manager Phil Garner thought it was a good low pitch, but “(Bleep) happens,” said Lloyd. “It didn’t exactly put icing on the cake. I was disappointed in that. Apart from that, it was good to get out there.”17

Three days later, on April 14, he became half of the first Australian battery in the majors as Dave Nilsson returned from an injury rehab assignment – but a 7-2 California Angels lead turned into a 12-2 blowout. As Nilsson said, “It wasn’t a real great moment, was it? I’m just ashamed that it happened in a game like that. I just wished it would have happened in a better game.”18 Over time, the pair would hear more than their share of kangaroo and koala jokes.

After Lloyd and the whole Milwaukee bullpen got off to a shaky start, pitching coach Don Rowe issued a vote of confidence, saying, “They’re trying as hard as they can. As long as they don’t give up, I’m not going to give up on them. We’re going to give these guys every chance to succeed.”19

Lloyd went on to have a solid rookie year: 3-4, 2.83 ERA, WHIP of 1.2 in 55 games. He did not appear in a game after September 19, though. Phil Garner said, “I just think he needs a long rest,” and the club indicated that Graeme would not pitch in Australia that winter.20 As it turned out, he did see limited duty with Perth (0-1, 4.66 with four saves in nine relief outings).

The following two big-league seasons were no great shakes, with an aggregate record of 2-8 and a 4.90 ERA in 76 games (79 innings pitched), though he did pick up seven saves. Milwaukee’s closer in those years was Mike Fetters. Of course, 1994 was cut short by the major-league strike. Once the ABL season opened, Lloyd returned to form. He was 5-2 with a 2.27 ERA in 10 games (47 2/3 innings pitched).

In 1995, Lloyd strained a tendon on the middle finger of his pitching hand and did not appear after late July. He pitched his last 10 games at home in 1995-96 with a new team, the Brisbane Bandits. Pitching only out of the bullpen, he was 2-2, 2.20 with three saves in 16 1/3 innings. That brought his lifetime ERA in Australia to 2.34, the best in the league’s history, to go with his winning percentage of .701 (36-15).

Graeme was pitching well for the Brewers in 1996, but the club had a mediocre 61-68 record as of August 23. He then got an exciting change of scenery. The New York Yankees, leading the American League East, traded reliever Bob Wickman and outfielder Gerald Williams to Milwaukee. In return, they received Pat Listach, a player to be named later, and Lloyd. “Yankees General Manager Bob Watson had been trying all season to land a proven left-hander for his bullpen,” wrote the New York Times.21

However, Lloyd had a bad time of it over the remainder of the season. He allowed 12 hits and 5 walks in just 5 2/3 innings, and as a result he was 0-2 with a frightening 17.47 ERA. It emerged that he not only had a bone spur in his elbow (which prevented him from throwing his bread-and-butter pitch, the curveball) but also that his shoulder had required a cortisone shot not long before the trade. The Yankees filed a formal complaint with the American League office.22

Nonetheless, New York kept him on the postseason roster. Said manager Joe Torre, “When you make a deal, you make a commitment. . .To make up your mind about a guy after just one, two or three games when he’s hurt is a mistake. Wanting Lloyd to succeed is more than just a Joe Torre-Bob Watson thing. The whole organization was involved in wanting him over here and I felt that once he was okay physically we owed it to him to give him the opportunity to help us.”23

Their faith was rewarded. Lloyd pitched twice in both the division series against Texas and the league championship against Baltimore, facing eight batters and allowing just one hit. Then in the World Series, he kept his ERA at 0.00. In Game Three, he got two important outs in the eighth inning. After replacing Mariano Rivera, who was then still a setup man, he retired lefties Ryan Klesko and Fred McGriff. In Game Four, with the game tied and runners on first and second in the ninth inning, he got McGriff to hit into a double play. The Yankees then scored two in the tenth, and Graeme got the win.

After the bone spur was removed in November 1996, Lloyd remained a useful member of the Yankees’ pen for the next two seasons. In 1998, after returning from double hernia surgery the previous December,24 he was especially effective – it was likely his best season in the majors. Although he pitched just 37 2/3 innings in 50 games, he was 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA, and his WHIP was just 0.85. His 1998 performance was intriguing because it defied his reputation as a Lefty One-Out Guy. Even though he held lefties to a .200 average (16 for 80, three home runs allowed), he was even tougher on righties that year: .182 (10 for 55, and no homers).

One colorful episode in 1998 – albeit somewhat out of character for the easygoing Australian – came in a game against Baltimore on May 19. After Orioles reliever Armando Benítez served up a three-run homer to Bernie Williams, he drilled Tino Martinez in the back with a pitch, and a brawl erupted. “Lloyd, who was the first to attack Benítez after sprinting from the bullpen, and  Darryl  Strawberry received three-game suspensions for what [AL President Gene] Budig described as ‘overly aggressive behavior, fighting and prolonging the violent incident.’”25

Cleveland knocked the Yankees out in the AL Division Series in 1997, but it wasn’t Lloyd’s fault, as he retired all five men who faced him in two outings. During the 1998 postseason, as New York won 11 games and lost just two, the specialist saw very little action. He appeared just once in each series against Texas, Cleveland, and San Diego, facing just four batters and giving up one hit.

Lloyd also got married in 1998.26 He had met Cindy Lee Barak in Tampa – the spring training home of the Yankees – and their wedding took place in Australia.27

Not long after the newlywed returned for spring training in 1999, on February 18, New York acquired Roger Clemens from the Toronto Blue Jays. They sent David Wells, Homer Bush, and Lloyd in return. Lloyd had hoped to get a shot as the closer, a role for which Toronto had penciled in Robert Person.28 He got some save opportunities in the early going, but rookie Billy Koch emerged as the closer. Returning to setup duties, Graeme had an active and generally good year for the Jays in 1999, appearing in 74 games and going 5-3, 3.63 with three saves.

After the season, Lloyd rejected an arbitration offer from Toronto, became a free agent, and signed in December with the Montreal Expos. He signed a three-year deal worth $9 million (including a $3 million signing bonus) to become setup man for Ugueth Urbina. A new owner, Jeffrey Loria, had just taken control of the Montreal club a couple of weeks earlier. The signings of Lloyd and Hideki Irabu were a sign that Loria was willing to spend after the Expos had tightened their purse strings in previous years.

The year 2000 brought professional and personal crises to Graeme Lloyd. It was a series of events right out of the Book of Job. First, in spring training, he went on the disabled list with tendinitis in his pitching shoulder. While he was sidelined, on April 3, his wife Cindy died. The young woman was just 26. She had been battling Crohn’s Disease, the inflammatory bowel disorder, for 14 years.

Lloyd felt continued shoulder pain in late April, and after an MRI, he underwent arthroscopic surgery in May for a partially torn rotator cuff. The initial estimates called for him to be out three to four months, and though he was able to test his arm on the sidelines in early August, he was not able to return.29 On top of that, in August, a tornado destroyed his home in Palm Harbor, Florida.30

Lloyd worked hard to rehabilitate his shoulder. As his friend Keith Zlomsowitch said, “He did it for her. Cindy was so proud of him. He made it his mission after surgery to get back for her.”31 Graeme has apparently also done charitable work on behalf of Crohn’s Disease, although press citations are not visible, suggesting a low-key effort.

Reminiscing about that period in 2004, Lloyd said, “I suppose you can either go one way or the other. The other way wasn’t an option for me. I just went through deciding what I wanted to go on with in life and how I wanted to do it. I came back the next year after the surgery and after I lost Cindy, and I had probably one of the best years I had in my career. We all go through tough times, and I thought, ‘This is what they talk about, you either move on or get stuck.’ I decided to see what I could do. I think my focus was a little different after that.”32

Indeed, the comeback effort was successful: Lloyd appeared in a career-high 84 games for Montreal in 2001. He also won nine games, a personal best, while losing five and posting a 4.35 ERA with one save. He won the Tony Conigliaro Award for battling back from his adversities. “The Conigliaro Award. . .yeah, it is special to me,” he said in 2012.33

An amusing moment with Lloyd came in a Nike commercial presented during the 2001 World Series. The spot celebrated the international character of Major League Baseball, with 10 players from various nations singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in different languages. Lloyd delivered the line “And it’s root, root, root for the home team.” The creative people at the ad agency, Wieden & Kennedy, must have had a subversive streak – “root” in Australian slang means “have sex.” Judging by Graeme’s mischievous smile, he was a willing co-conspirator in the inside joke.

Lloyd picked up a career-high five saves in 41 games for Montreal before the All-Star break in 2002. On July 11, the Expos – in salary-cutting mode again – included him in an eight-player deal with the Florida Marlins. The book Clubhouse Lawyer: Law in the World of Sports told how it came about, entirely against Lloyd’s wishes.

“Lloyd’s contract with Montreal allowed him to name twelve teams to which he could not be traded. Florida was one of the no-trade teams that Lloyd had identified. . .To his dismay, Lloyd later learned that, under the terms of his contract, he was required to submit his list. . .by November 1, 2001. Lloyd and his agent did not submit the list until after that date, negating the benefit of the no-trade provision.”34

One reason the pitcher was unhappy was because Florida had come to be owned by Jeffrey Loria. “Lloyd reacted to the trade by saying that Loria had lied to him when Loria owned the Expos. Appalled by the prospect of playing for Loria again, Lloyd filed a grievance in an attempt to reverse the deal.”35 But after arbitrator Shyam Das upheld the trade, Lloyd took it like a pro. “Now I’m here. I’m going to be a Florida Marlin. I do resolve things with people I had problems with, and I don’t hold grudges. . .I’m the type of person that likes to get along with everybody.”36

Lloyd finished out the season with the Marlins, became a free agent once more, and signed a minor-league deal in January 2003 with the New York Mets. “I know that I’ll be battling for a job,” he said. “I have to show what I have, and hopefully that’s good enough to go north with the team. . . I have a lot left in baseball and I want to redeem myself.”37

He did a creditable job in 36 outings for the Mets (1-2, 3.31, 1.3 WHIP). New York was having a dreadful season, and as part of what the New York Times called a “purge,” the Mets traded the veteran on July 28 to the Kansas City Royals – who at the time were leading the AL Central.38 The last 16 appearances of his big-league career came in 2003, and he allowed runs in 10 of them. That left Lloyd with a 10.95 ERA for Kansas City, which faded and finished third.

Yet again, he became a free agent that October. The Boston Red Sox – where fellow Australian Craig Shipley was in the front office – were interested in bringing the lefty on board for the 2004 season. But as the Sydney Morning Herald wrote, “That’s when the U.S. Government stepped in. Just two weeks before Lloyd was to apply for his new working visa – a hurdle all Australian sportspeople must clear before playing professionally in the U.S. – the immigration department announced its annual quota had been reached. All of which left Lloyd without a U.S. club for the season, although, in a timely turn of fortune, it paved the way for his entry into the Australian Olympic squad for Athens.”39

Lloyd was excited about going to the Olympics at age 37, saying, “It might be karma.”40 Australia upset Japan 1-0 to reach the finals against Cuba, but lost a tough game and wound up taking silver. Graeme pitched one inning in that game, after having appeared in three others during the initial round-robin phase of the tournament.

At least one story indicated that Lloyd hoped to resume his big-league career after the Games ended.41 However, he did not resurface in baseball until 2008, when he rejoined the Perth Heat for Claxton Shield competition, which had resumed several years previously after the Australian pro circuit had become defunct. There was some talk that at age 41, the new pitching coach might also toe the rubber again, but he put those thoughts aside after a couple of setbacks during training. Yet there was tangible excitement about his presence, among the media as well as the team. Geoff Hooker, managing director of baseball for Western Australia, said, “He has a certain aura about him and not just his physical size either. To have Graeme, who current and former players have had to look up to for years, is a major coup.”42

The Australian Baseball League was revived for the 2010-11 season, and Perth won the first championship in the league’s new incarnation. The Heat repeated as champions in the 2011-12 season, and Lloyd remained the team’s pitching coach, “instilling [his] work ethic into many of the young players on their roster.”43 The notion arose that he might become manager at some point.44 Geoff Hooker, also Chief Executive Officer of the Heat, said, “I am so pleased for getting him. I think he brought a confidence and calmness to the clubhouse that gave us a real edge in the tight games.”45

In February 2012, Graeme Lloyd looked back on what baseball has meant to him and favorite memories from his career. “Baseball has given me the most amazing experiences of my life, from the depths of despair to the absolute euphoria of reaching the pinnacle of sport. It has opened my life up to the different cultures of the USA, Mexico, the Czech Republic and pretty much everywhere else in between. The dynamics of the game do not change, it’s still you against a hitter and the competitiveness that goes with it.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play for a few big league teams, and with each team, I met an amazing cross-section of people from throughout the USA and Canada – from the incredibly harsh environment in New York to the relative kindness in Kansas City. I’ve been booed by 50,000 and cheered by 50,000. Baseball gave me more experiences in three weeks than you’d expect in an entire career.”46

Lloyd has remained active in baseball. Most recently, he served as manager of Geelong-Korea, an ABL club based in his hometown, during the 2019-20 season. He replaced Dae-Sung Koo. Since then, however, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the franchise to miss two straight seasons.

In memory of Cindy Lloyd (1974-2000). The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America website (www.ccfa.org) provides information and notes how you can help if you wish.

Grateful acknowledgment to Graeme Lloyd for his memories and to Geoff Hooker for obtaining Graeme’s input over lunch on February 20, 2012. Continued thanks to Nicholas R.W. Henning in Australia for his input. Graeme Lloyd is frequently mentioned in the second novel by Nicholas, “Boomerang Baseball”.

This biography was most recently updated on November 7, 2021.

Photo Credits

1994 Donruss baseball card

Perth Heat

Sources

www.baseball-reference.com

www.retrosheet.org

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ll/graeme-lloyd-1.html (Olympics information)

www.ultimatemets.com

Peter Flintoff, & Adrian Dunn, Australian Major League Baseball: The First Ten Years (Self-published and printed independently, 2000). (Used as a source for Australian Baseball League statistics only.)

Notes