JUPITER, Fla. – Fredi Gonzalez might have felt like he was managing the Red Sox or Yankees, so thick was the ring of reporters and cameramen around the Braves manager Monday morning.
The unusually large contingent turned out for Gonzalez’s first game against the Florida Marlins since the club fired him as manager in June. The Braves hired him in October to replace retired icon Bobby Cox.
“It feels good,” said Gonzalez, seated in the first base-side dugout with St. Louis Cardinals painted on the roof, not the third base-side dugout of the Florida Marlins (the two teams share the spring training complex and Roger Dean Stadium).
“Good memories, you know?”
Someone shot back a follow-up: Like what?
“You get an opportunity to manage a team for the first time and it’s here,” said Gonzalez, who was born in Cuba and raised in Miami. “So it’s good. It’s a good opportunity. Not many people get one opportunity. I got two, so you feel blessed.”
He said he was glad to face the Marlins, to get it out of the way before the teams play regular-season games that matter. The Marlins won 4-3 in 10 innings Monday.
Afterward, Gonzalez was asked by a Florida TV reporter about returning to face the Marlins. Again, he didn't supply anything juicy for the local 6 o'clock news.
"I got treated well here," he said. "It just didn’t work out."
When the reporter asked if he felt he was in a better place now, Gonzalez smiled and said, “I think anytime you get to wear a major league uniform, it’s a good place.”
He managed the Marlins for 3 1/2 seasons, fielding competitive teams every year with some of the smallest payrolls in baseball.
Gonzalez insisted that there wouldn’t be added motivation when he and second baseman Dan Uggla, who was traded to the Braves after turning down Florida’s first contract extension offer, face the Marlins during the season.
“Not for me,” he said. “I think you try to beat everybody equally. I think it’ll be a little weird going into Land Shark ... Pro Player ... Joe Robbie, whatever it is – Joe Robbie Stadium. That’s what I call it ... the first time.”
Someone gave him the correct current name for the Marlins stadium, which has had multiple name changes and corporate sponsorships.
“Sun Life Stadium, that’s what it is now?” Gonzalez said. “The first time you go in, that’ll be a little weird. But I don’t think you put more emphasis on beating the Marlins than you do other clubs.”
Braves players say the transition from the popular Cox to Gonzalez has been as seamless as possible and that Gonzalez has taken charge without changing the clubhouse culture or team chemistry they said was so important in 2010.
Gonzalez was Cox’s third base coach before being hired to manage the Marlins.
“He’s done great,” Braves catcher Brian McCann. “Him being here before, knowing some of us before he got back over here, it’s made the transition pretty easy.
“He’s running it. It’s going to be run his way, as it should be. This is his camp. Nothing has really changed. You come out, get your work in. It’s basically the same thing.”
Braves players have welcomed Gonzalez and responded to his direction.
“Yeah, because he’s a great manager,” McCann said. “And he’s a great person. I mean, when you put those two things together, it’s going to be an easy fit.”
Over in the Marlins clubhouse, no one seemed surprised to hear Gonzalez has fit in well with his new team.
“Obviously he was over there before, so he knows a lot of the guys,” Marlins pitcher Ricky Nolasco said. “I think it’s a good situation for him. I wish him the best over there. I’m sure the guys are going to appreciate him over there.”
Asked what he liked about playing for Gonzalez, Nolasco said, “He’s laid back. He just let us kind of do our thing. We’re all adults and big leaguers here, we know what we’ve got to do to get ready. He just respected the players like a manager should.”
Gonzalez was asked if he learned anything from his stint with the Marlins that he can do differently now, to help him succeed with the Braves.
“I don’t know if there’s one thing,” he said. “You’re always prepared better after your first job to handle things better. Nothing prepares you to manage a club until you’ve managed.”
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