Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker to miss San Diego Padres series for son's graduation

WASHINGTON -- Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker is slated to miss the three-game weekend series with the San Diego Padres due to the high school graduation of his son, Darren, in California. The series begins Friday at Nationals Park and is slated to end Sunday.

Baker's son graduates on Saturday and the veteran skipper will join the Nationals when they begin a series on Monday in San Francisco against the Giants. Baker grew up and still lives in northern California and he was the manager of the Giants from 1993 to 2002.

"It is a long way," Dusty Baker said of not being able to get back for Sunday's game in Washington against the Padres. Baker is in his second season as the manager of the Nationals and he led Washington to a division title last year.

Nationals bench coach Chris Speier will fill in for Baker while he is gone.

Darren Baker is a standout baseball player and is best known from the 2002 World Series when as a batboy he was scooped up by J.T. Snow of the Giants to prevent a collision at home plate after a long hit by Kenny Lofton. The younger Baker committed to play baseball at Cal last fall.

Dusty Baker said before Thursday's game in Washington against Seattle that he hopes to get some fishing in when the Nationals have an off day on June 1 in California. The Nationals entered Thursday in first place in the National League East with a record of 28-17.