National media outlet rips former Tennessee Vols coach Tony Vitello to shreds while using the word ‘pathetic’
Former Tennessee Volunteers baseball coach Tony Vitello is off to a sluggish start in his first season as the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Vitello’s team has one of the worst records in MLB.
Former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello is off to a sluggish start in his first season as the manager of the San Francisco Giants.
San Francisco currently has one of the worst records in the league at 14-21.
Vitello, who made the jump to MLB without previous big league experience, is starting to feel the heat a bit, even though it’s still extremely early in the season.
National media outlet goes scorched earth on Tony Vitello
CBS Sports ranked MLB’s eight new managers based on the job they’ve done over the first month of the season and Vitello came in dead last.
CBS Sports’ Dayn Perry wrote that Vitello has been an “awkward fit” for the Giants so far. Perry also wrote that Vitello was “pathetic on at least one occasion”.
“Vitello, hired away from his prior post as head coach at the University of Tennessee, has proved an awkward fit thus far — awkward to the point of being pathetic on at least one occasion,” wrote Perry. “Presumably, though, Vitello has learned that this isn’t college baseball and his players aren’t in college. That means the focus can shift to … the worst start in franchise history. To be sure, the Giants (14-21) didn’t profile as serious contenders in a competitive NL West, but Vitello has them on target for their worst season in almost a decade. If the offense doesn’t improve, the Giants could indeed finish behind the Rockies in the NL West.”
It’s certainly been an uneven start for Vitello, but that’s been true for several teams in the league with high expectations (the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies, for example).
The “pathetic” comment, though, seems unfair to me. Perry was referencing when Vitello was ejected in early April in a game against the Mets.
The umpire got the call right, so Vitello was on the wrong side of the argument. But he’s far from the first MLB manager to be on the wrong side of an argument. I’ve been watching baseball for well over 30 years, and that ejection doesn’t even come close to qualifying as memorable. If it was anyone but Vitello, it would already be a distant memory.
Vitello was always going to go through some growing pains as he adjusts to the big leagues. I don’t think torching him in an article on Cinco de Mayo, however, is fair or necessary. Let’s let the season play out before we fully judge Vitello’s first year as an MLB manager.