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Why A’s Graveman brings a knife fighter’s mentality to the mound

A’s pitcher Kendall Graveman is one of the loosest guys in the clubhouse, but around an hour before game time, he flips a switch.

And suddenly, the 6-foot-2 right-hander becomes a bad man.

“Some of our kids would call him a knife fighter,” said Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen, Graveman’s college coach for four years. “You step between the lines, someone is gonna get cut up. He was that deadly serious when he stepped out on the field.”

Graveman brought that demeanor with him from Alexander City, Alabama, where he played for his dad from Little League through high school.