SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Born a Midwesterner, adopted by Southerners, Tony Vitello was a long way from home when he was introduced Thursday as the next manager of the San Francisco Giants. It wasn\u2019t, however, the first time the 47-year-old headed west while charting unfamiliar terrain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was probably the most passionate about baseball of all the players that we had,\u201d Debra Cole said of the college-aged Vitello who arrived at their house in Salinas, some 100 miles south of Oracle Park, in the summer of 2001. \u201cAnd, seriously, he was a whole lot of fun. But I can\u2019t talk about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he attempts to make the first successful jump from college straight to the major-league managerial ranks, Vitello faces a different set of challenges than his first entreaty to California. Back then, he slept in the bunk bed of the Coles\u2019 elementary-aged sons and spent most of his time at the since-defunct Salinas Municipal Stadium, where he first played one season then got his start in coaching the next in the California Collegiate League.<\/p>\n
More than two decades later, Vitello extended an invitation to make sure the family that hosted him then was there with him, again. Debra and her youngest son, Matt, now 34, were both on hand to witness the kid they hosted for two summers replace a black suit jacket with a No. 23 home jersey on the club level of the Giants\u2019 waterfront ballpark.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t that awesome? He reached out and said, \u2018Come up!\u2019 \u201d Debra said, fighting back tears. The Coles hosted players for eight summers, up to five at a time, \u201cand all we ever did it for was to help these guys achieve their dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dream of one day donning a major league uniform hadn\u2019t entered Vitello\u2019s mind then, he admitted Thursday, seated to the left of a future Hall of Famer, Buster Posey, who ultimately made the final call on the unprecedented hire but credited general manager Zack Minasian with floating the original idea.<\/p>\n
It took years of climbing the collegiate coaching ranks, eventually turning a dormant program at Tennessee into national champions, before Vitello considered the idea of coaching at the big league level. Playing was never an option.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy skill level wasn\u2019t very high (as a player),\u201d Vitello said. \u201cIt was just so far above the clouds that I never even saw it. For me, as a coach, I was just trying to make my way. I was just trying to do a good job, and fortunately it helped me get to the next spot and then the next spot \u2026 and eventually this did become a dream. So it is a dream come true, but it\u2019s a very recent dream. It wasn\u2019t one I had for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vitello led the Volunteers to a .722 winning percentage over his eight seasons. Minasian said the interactions San Francisco\u2019s amateur scouts had while evaluating their players \u2014 eventually drafting or later acquiring a handful of them, including outfielder Drew Gilbert and last year\u2019s first-round pick, Gavin Killen \u2014 gave him the confidence that Vitello was up for the leap, which is common in other sports but almost unheard of in baseball.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, managers have typically risen through the minor league ranks and served on other staffs at the major league level before getting their first gig. They call it paying your dues. Greg Vitello, who raised Tony in the suburbs of St. Louis, says it\u2019s \u201cjunk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m calling it right now,\u201d Greg Vitello said of any doubts over his son\u2019s lack of any professional playing or coaching experience. \u201cHis personality is such that he convinces people to trust him. I just think that if you can get people to trust you, that\u2019s the most important thing. Being able to play minor league baseball or major league baseball, I think that\u2019s inconsequential right now. I think it\u2019s trust. His personality is built that way. He gets people to trust him, no matter what level you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
A path to playing professionally may have never crossed Vitello\u2019s mind, but a career in coaching didn\u2019t seem so far-fetched to his father, who coached multiple sports for 46 years at DeSmet High School, where Tony eventually went to school and played baseball.<\/p>\n
On car rides home from games, Greg would pose questions to Tony about strategy and other players on the team. One of them was Bill Mueller, who would eventually go on to his own big-league career, playing for the Giants in 2002 and winning the World Series with the Red Sox in 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would put him on the spot because I coached by myself,\u201d Greg said. \u201cI would ask him, \u2018What do you think about the third baseman? Should he be hitting third? Should he be hitting seventh? Do we need a new right fielder?\u2019 Even though he was talking about his peers, he was willing to give me feedback and talk about that stuff. His insight to the game was just tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vitello\u2019s baseball acumen will show itself over time, but his personality came through seconds into his response to the day\u2019s first question. His teams at Tennessee played with lots of passion and emotion, so how did he expect that style to translate at the major league level?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you\u2019d ask my mom, she\u2019d want me to tone it down. But if you\u2019d ask my dad, he\u2019d say to kick it up a notch,\u201d Vitello said, garnering laughs from around the room.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for Vitello to namecheck the Giants\u2019 storied history, either, noting the \u201cexcellence\u201d of former managers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker, the \u201ctoughness\u201d of Madison Bumgarner and Sergio Romo, the \u201cloyalty\u201d of Posey and the \u201crecords set\u201d by Willie Mays, Barry Bonds and Tim Lincecum \u2014 all in his opening statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fully aware of the tradition that\u2019s here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite growing up near St. Louis, Vitello said his dad \u201ckind of brainwashed me\u201d into growing up a Cubs fan. His favorite player was Andre Dawson and, a second baseman, he \u201ctried to be Ryne Sandberg.\u201d He settled for a signed ball that Sandberg personally inscribed: \u201cGood thing you got into coaching.\u201d Now, they have at least one thing in common: No. 23. (\u201cIt means you\u2019re sandwiched between two legends,\u201d i.e. Will Clark and Mays, Vitello said.)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just can\u2019t fathom the fact that he\u2019s going to wear a Giants uniform and be the Giants\u2019 manager,\u201d Greg said, reflecting on the times he \u201cdragged\u201d young Tony to Wrigley Field. \u201cI keep using the word \u2018surreal,\u2019 but that\u2019s what it is for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would have been just as hard for the Coles to know they were hosting a future big league manager. A lifelong family of Giants fans, Debra noted the names of her two boys: Matt (as in, Williams) and his older brother, Will (as in Clark). And now, an even closer connection to the franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in good hands,\u201d said Vitello, describing his time in Salinas as \u201cvery special.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was educated on the Giants fanbase, the organization itself and just how great of an area this is,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s different up here. It just is. Abnormal may sound like weird in a bad way, but very abnormal these past few days I\u2019ve been here. The attention to detail. The people at the hotel. It\u2019s not random, it\u2019s not coincidental. It\u2019s culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Born a Midwesterner, adopted by Southerners, Tony Vitello was a long way from home when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2356,363,2329,99],"class_list":["post-262049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-california","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}