Tony Vitello has already learned the hard way one thing he can’t do in MLB that he did at Tennessee
Tony Vitello is off to an 0-2 start as the manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello is still searching for his first win as the manager of the San Francisco Giants.
The Giants are 0-2 after the first two games of the season (the Houston Astros, Arizona Diamondbacks, and San Diego Padres are all also 0-2).
Vitello will eventually get that first win, and everyone will soon forget how the Giants’ season started.
The lessons that Vitello learns early in the season will matter more than whether the Giants won or lost a couple of games in March. Vitello, after all, is navigating the big leagues for the first time in his life. There are going to be some learning moments for him as he figures out what works and what doesn’t work at this level.
Vitello, in fact, has already learned one of those lessons.
Tony Vitello was a little too fiery before the first game of the season
Vitello admitted after the Giants’ loss to the New York Yankees on Friday that his “fire and brimstone” speech to the team before the first game of the season left the clubhouse a little too emotional.
“I’d kind of put it on me a little bit,” said Vitello. “I got all fire and brimstone a few days ago, and I think some good words were shared, but I also think as of right now it’s a little emotional in there, and there are a lot of try-hards. Maybe it stems from that conversation prior to the season or maybe it stems from all the Opening Day fanfare, being the home team, but regardless, everybody wants it to change.”
Giants starting pitcher Robbie Ray dismissed the idea that the team was too emotional, pointing out that big leaguers can handle the ups and downs that are part of a long baseball season.
Vitello was excellent at motivating his players at Tennessee, but the SEC season is a sprint, whereas the MLB season is a marathon. There will be times when Vitello will need to be fiery with his team. But more often than not, Vitello’s main objective will be to keep the clubhouse loose — that’s when players are at their best.
Unfortunately for Vitello, there will be plenty of hot takes about his first couple of games with the Giants. You will see people saying he’s in over his head, or that San Francisco made a mistake. All of that, at least for now, is nonsense. Growing pains aren’t just inevitable for Vitello, they’re necessary. It’s part of the growing process. And the mistakes that he makes will be mistakes that most managers have made at some point in their career. The only difference is that Vitello is making mistakes while in the spotlight, while most big league managers had the luxury of making mistakes in a random minor league town with very little media coverage.
Vitello, just like the players he manages, will need to keep his confidence and stay consistent and remember that he’s at this level for a reason.