Tony Vitello is the unfair victim of one of the worst things right now about pro sports in major markets
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Tony Vitello is in his first spring training as the manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Former Tennessee Vols head baseball coach Tony Vitello has been in spring training with the San Francisco Giants for less than a month.
And he’s already the victim of a media firestorm.
Vitello, who was named the Giants’ new manager last October, met with reporters on Monday and aired some grievances about the timing of the reports about him taking the San Francisco job.
The former Tennessee coach wasn’t happy that news about his interest in the job leaked last fall before he could talk to his coaching staff.
Vitello said the next day that he didn’t face any backlash from the Giants for his comments.
“I wouldn’t take what I say too seriously,” said Vitello. “We were talking about Lil’ Wayne [the other day]. Again, I think the facts of the case were what I just said. It’s just that. Anybody else would react the exact same way, and it has no real impact on the opportunity that was presented. And it wouldn’t have changed what Buster (Posey) and I would have agreed to and joined to do. So, it just happened to be circumstantial. Like I said, when it affects the people, first off myself, but the people that I’m around every day, too, then it was less than ideal circumstances. But pretty ideal circumstances as I sit here [now].”
For the media outlets that have covered Tennessee baseball daily over the last seven or eight years (outlets like VolQuest, GoVols247, Rocky Top Insider, the Knoxville News Sentinel), and those of us who have listened to nearly every word Vitello has said publicly in recent years, the comments on Monday weren’t a surprise. One of the things that makes Vitello who he is is his authenticity. When something is on his mind, he’s going to say it. And then he’ll move on.
Tennessee fans and the folks in the Knoxville media understood that, and (at least I believe) nearly everyone who followed or covered the Vols appreciated that about the former UT baseball coach.
One memorable example came in 2024 when Vitello passionately defended his team after a reporter asked if the season would be a failure if the Vols didn’t advance to the College World Series (Tennessee would end up winning the College World Series a few weeks later).
I thought Vitello’s comments on Monday about the premature reporting that happened last October were just Tony being Tony. It had nothing to do with him regretting his decision to leave Knoxville or anything like that. It was simply a coach who felt he didn’t get to handle the situation the way he believed he should have, because someone in the national media jumped the gun by reporting that a deal was getting close when, according to Vitello, no decision had been made at that point.
Unfortunately, that’s not how some folks in the San Francisco media saw Vitello’s comments.
Tony Vitello is the unfair victim of big market sports talk radio nonsense
Vitello is getting a quick lesson this week in the nonsense that comes with managing in a big market.
The reactions I’ve seen from talk show hosts in the Bay Area to Vitello’s comments this week have been downright embarrassing.
I mean, we had one host saying that Vitello has got to “move on” from his time at Tennessee.
Like, what?
Vitello is all-in on the Giants. He spent his offseason literally traveling around the globe to start building relationships with Giants players.
I don’t see what having an issue with the way something was reported has to do with Vitello “moving on”.
It wasn’t just one station that had a take like that — it was multiple stations/hosts in the San Francisco area.
I don’t spend a lot of time consuming sports talk radio in big markets — I’m sure there are some shows that do a great job — but these kinds of takes are way too common.
For example, it’s no secret I’m a big New York Mets fan. I see Mets stuff in my social algorithms all the time. Sometimes that includes content from WFAN, one of the major sports talk stations in New York. Those guys spend more time talking about what kind of bag a player showed up to spring training with than the actual sport.
This isn’t something that’s unique to San Francisco.
This is going to be part of the job for Vitello. He’s going to have to deal with stuff like this. If he takes a pitcher out of a game in the fifth inning and the pitcher looks unhappy — which happens every night in MLB (these guys are elite competitors) — you just know the next morning the San Francisco sports talk shows are going to question if Vitello has lost control of the clubhouse or some other nonsense.
Maybe people like the drama. Maybe that’s why these shows continue to get airtime. But this stuff is nonsense. And it’s why many coaches and players revert to “coach speak” — because they know their words will be twisted and analyzed like they’re robots who should always say the exact “right thing”.
Sports talk shows beg coaches and players to be authentic. And then when they are, they get overly criticized and overanalyzed to the point where it makes them want to never be authentic again. Is that what we really want from sports media?
I’m not saying I nail it every day or that I’ve never been part of the problem, but man, it’s time for a lot of us in sports media to grow up.
Tennessee Volunteers News
Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper leaves no doubt about how he feels about Tony Vitello managing the Giants
Phillies superstar Bryce Harper had some thoughts about Tony Vitello in MLB.
