Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez will miss Friday and Saturday’s games in San Francisco so he can attend his daughter Gigi’s graduation from Georgia Southern.
Bench coach Carlos Tosca will manage in Gonzalez’s absence. Tosca has 382 games of managing experience at the major league level. He was 191-191 as Toronto’s manager from 2002-2004.
“She only graduates college once,” Gonzalez said. “I always tell my coaching staff when it comes to weddings, funerals, and stuff like that - that’s important.”
Gonzalez also missed one game in 2009 as Marlins manager to attend Gigi’s graduation from Lassiter High.
Ideally he would only miss one game on this occasion too. But because the Braves are on the west coast and the graduation is 9 a.m. Saturday so he couldn’t get back in time for the game Saturday. He’ll manage Thursday’s series opener against the Giants, then fly to Savannah on Friday morning.
He’ll be back in San Francisco by Saturday evening but the Braves and Giants play a day game that day, a 1:05 p.m. local start, 4:05 p.m. eastern.
“I hate it because you’ve got to miss two games just because of where the schedule is,” Gonzalez said. “There was no way I could make it back. I tried everything other than renting a private jet.”
