In just his second spring training game, Tony Vitello experienced something that no MLB manager has ever seen before
Tony Vitello’s first two MLB spring training games as a manager have provided some interesting moments.
Former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello now has two spring training games under his belt as the manager of the San Francisco Giants.
And both of those games provided some interesting moments in what otherwise would’ve been mundane spring training games that flew under the radar.
In Vitello’s first game, the former Tennessee coach saw his team get down 5-0 before rallying for a 10-5 win. Vitello was also hit by a foul ball in the dugout.
Nothing too crazy, but more excitement than a spring training game usually provides.
Vitello’s second game is where things got bizarre.
Tony Vitello experienced something that no MLB manager has ever seen before
It took Vitello just two spring training games to experience something in baseball that no other MLB manager in the modern era has experienced.
In the first inning, with two runners on base and no outs, Chicago Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki singled when a blooper fell just out of the reach of Giants second baseman Luis Arráez.
Arráez quickly threw the ball back into the infield, and chaos ensued on the basepaths.
Thanks to the chaos and some heads-up baseball from shortstop Willy Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman, the Giants managed to turn a triple play.
According to The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, who cited The Society for American Baseball Research (which keeps a database of all regular season triple plays), no triple play has ever begun with a hit (of course Vitello was in the dugout for the first instance of it happening).
The triple play, however, wasn’t even the most bizarre thing that happened in the first inning.
The inning started with an emergency alarm going off that told fans to evacuate the stadium.
Nothing was actually wrong, which is why the game continued, but the alarm went off for several minutes.
It’s often said there’s a great chance you’ll see something at the ballpark that you’ve never seen before on any given day. That was certainly the case on Sunday in Scottsdale.
By the way, in this same game, Giants legend and new Hall of Famer Jeff Kent joined legendary announcer Jon Miller in the broadcast booth, dropping stories and at one point calling Alex Rodriguez a “son of a bitch.”
Just another day at the ballpark.
Tennessee Volunteers News
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Former Tennessee Vols head coach Tony Vitello has had an eventful week in spring training.
