Tony Vitello was asked a press conference question that no MLB manager wants to answer, and he almost went too far in the process
Former Tennessee Volunteers head baseball coach Tony Vitello, who is in his first season as the manager of the San Francisco Giants, is learning quickly that honeymoons don’t last long in the big leagues.
Former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello is learning that honeymoons don’t last long in the big leagues.
Vitello, who is in his first season as the manager of the San Francisco Giants, is the leader of a team that’s tied with the New York Mets for the worst record in the national league.
As a result, the Giants heard some rare boos in Oracle Park on Saturday during the team’s 13-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Tony Vitello addresses Giants fans booing during loss to Pirates
Vitello was asked about the boos after the game and he said that fans are free to voice their opinions if they buy a ticket (or if they’re gifted a ticket).
The former Tennessee coach also suggested that his team’s effort wasn’t good enough.
“They paid for their ticket or, at the very least, even if it was free, they chose this over everything [else],” said Vitello. “I mean, there’s 85 million shows you can watch on Netflix, or every other deal there is. Or in this city — I haven’t gone out much, but anytime I have, there’s a lot going on.
“So whether you paid for your ticket or you just chose to do this over other options, or maybe your walls are painted orange and black and this is the team your whole family, for generations, has supported and you’ve got a lot invested. So you want something in return or, at the very least, a good effort — maybe execution here and there … but I think it got to the point where it wasn’t an acceptable effort. They probably did what you or I would maybe do — I don’t know that I’d do that (boo), just trying to be as positive as possible — but I think it’s pretty realistic (for fans to boo). And if anything, maybe it’s reverse psychology and providing a little extra motivation.”
I’m certainly not one to tell Vitello how he should manage his team, but I think questioning the effort of players in early May is probably not the best idea for a rookie manager. Especially when it’s a rookie manager who had no previous MLB experience before this season. The MLB season is a grind, no one in the sport is going to be at their best for every inning of a 162 game schedule. Bad stretches are inevitable. So you’ve got to be careful questioning effort when it could really just be that a player had a bad day, something that’s normal for the rest of the population.
Vitello, of course, has to find a way to pull his team out of the weeks-long slump they’ve been in. But questioning his team’s effort and essentially giving Giants fans, who are some of the best in the sport, a license to boo is a strategy you don’t often see from a manager.
The not-so-great news for Vitello and the Giants is that things won’t get easier this upcoming week.
After Sunday’s game against the Pirates, the Giants will travel south for a series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Giants took two of three from the Dodgers in San Francisco last month, but the series in Los Angeles will likely have a much different feel.