CHICAGO -- The Chicago White Sox will have the unique circumstance of three different men managing the team June 2-4 during a three-game series in Seattle.
Manager Robin Ventura will miss the first two games of the trip for the graduation of his daughter in California. Bench coach Mark Parent will manage the first game Ventura misses on June 2. Parent will miss the second game on June 3 for his son’s high school graduation.
“We are still going over how we are going to do it on the third,” Ventura said. “My first choice would be to have Joe (McEwing) do it, but he likes to coach third. We have Coop (pitching coach Don Cooper) who has done it. I am not going to have Joe manage and coach third base at the same time. We will figure it out.”
Ventura said he would never have been able to manage in the golden era of baseball when baseball men missed births of children and other family events.
“I wouldn’t be here working under those conditions,” he said. “I would never miss an important day for my family. This was already on the agenda as off days when I took this job. There are things you will miss, but for the big things it is essential that you are there and tell them you love them.”
The Sox manager also got the OK from his wife, Stephanie, and his four kids before he signed a three-year contract to manage the team in October 2011.
“I am not so sure they just wanted me out of the house,” Ventura joked. “The kids are older now, so it is easier for us to make family schedules. We just tell them we are going and they love to come back to Chicago and join us. It has become an easier thing for all of us.”