Fredi Gonzalez reportedly learned that the Atlanta Braves were firing him when he received an unexpected flight confirmation email.
According to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gonzalez received an email shortly before his former team’s loss to the Pirates on Monday informing him that he had a scheduled flight to Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon. Since the Braves still had three more games in Pittsburgh that week, Gonzalez knew that was a bad sign.
Apparently the Braves had decided to fire Gonzalez on Monday — or perhaps sooner — and booked his flight that day for Tuesday evening. President of baseball operations John Hart flew to Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning, where he joined GM John Coppolella to give Gonzalez the bad news.
“I don’t think there’s a perfect time to do it,” Gonzalez said, refusing to go into detail about how he learned his fate. “I think you do it when they feel like the time is right, so they did it.”
The Braves, off to a 9-29, are on pace for the worst season in franchise history. There’s no way Gonzalez could have been completely blindsided, though having to connect the dots via email is never ideal.
“I think I’ll be OK. I’ve already talked to a bunch of baseball people, they texted me, offering support,” Gonzalez said. “Maybe I’ll take a week or two off, a month off, ride the motorcycle around before it gets too hot.”
At least the Braves tried to do the right thing, which is more than some other professional teams can say. The internet era can be very, very cruel.
