Tony Vitello gave an unsurprising response to Joe Maddon’s ‘insulting’ comments about Giants hiring a coach with no MLB experience
Former Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon made some odd remarks about Tony Vitello this week.
Former Tennessee Vols head coach Tony Vitello has only been the San Francisco Giants’ manager for a couple of weeks, but he’s already dealing with his first media distraction.
Earlier this week, former Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon went on KNBR and said he’s rooting for Vitello to do well in San Francisco, while also saying that it’s “kind of insulting” that Vitello was hired by the Giants despite having no MLB/minor league experience as a player or coach.
“I’m using the word insulting only from the perspective that it appears as though you don’t have to have any kind of experience on a professional level to do this job anymore,” said Maddon. “Because when I was coming up, you had to have all that. You had to go through the minor leagues, you had to ride the buses. I was a scout. I started in 1981. I finally get a managerial job in 2006. I mean, there was a rite of passage, a method to get to that point. So, to think that somebody could just jump in there and do what it took you twenty-some years to be considered qualified to do — it is kind of insulting.
“Having said that, the next part is, I wish him nothing but the best. Because I watch videos of the guy, and I can actually understand why it’s perceived that he’s ready to do something like this. So, I guess the overarching point is, in today’s world, prerequisites to get jobs of this caliber…it doesn’t require the years of experience that you may have had to have gone through in the past. I think communication skills, perceived leadership skills, those are the kind of things that become more valid or important. And not necessarily having kind of internal knowledge and working knowledge of the craft at hand — which would be Major League Baseball.”
Tony Vitello responds to Joe Maddon’s criticism
Vitello, who is in Las Vegas this week for MLB’s GM meetings, was asked by The San Francisco Standard about Maddon’s comments.
Tennessee fans won’t be surprised to hear that Vitello took the high road (despite his reputation as a fiery personality, Vitello is typically as humble as it gets when discussing criticism).
Vitello also noted that he had hoped to ask Maddon for some advice before the comments were made.
“I get it,” said Vitello. “I just wonder if he’ll still take my call because he was on my list of people that I wanted to call and seek out advice. There’s a couple of very specific reasons for that with his history. So I wonder if he’ll still take that call. I’ve used him as an example often in recruiting. One thing we did at Tennessee was really try to allow guys to be who they are. That kind of became our brand name, and that’s something that he did with the Cubs in particular.”
If anyone in San Francisco is worried about how Vitello will handle the media, that response should quell those concerns. Vitello essentially ensured that the comments from a 71-year-old ex-manager won’t become an even bigger story.
College Football
Predicting the 2025 coaching cycle: Lane Kiffin makes unexpected move, Florida gets bold, and Penn State breaks hearts in the SEC
This year’s college football coaching cycle is shaping up to be one of the wildest of all time.
