Tag Archives: Tony Vitello

November 15, 2025

West Coast Rocky Top

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An active group of Tennessee alumni in San Francisco talked about new Giants manager Tony Vitello at their Saturday football dive-bar. They’re very excited to see the former coach take over the Giants. They seem like a fun group:

There’s a reason Blooms staff members are willing to wake up early for a football game played by a school that’s about 2,500 miles away: Their fans know how to have a good time. Jimi Reid, an alumni group member who grew up in Marin County, is crucial to Saturdays at Blooms because he can play the banjo. Alongside group member Kyle West on the guitar, Reid leads the Volunteers fans in singing the school’s fight song “Rocky Top” every time the Vols score.

“I’ve worked at a lot of different bars and with a lot of different college groups. These guys are just right at the top of everybody else,” Blooms Saloon bartender Curtis Hefley told SFGATE. “They’re polite, they know how to drink, they know how to order.”

SFGate.com

They’ve gone all in on the Giants:

The Tennessee alum group is already making plans to be a presence at Oracle Park next season. Reid even showed SFGATE a mock-up of a potential Giants-Volunteers crossover uniform: One side has Tennessee’s shade of orange on a white jersey, and the other side has the Giants’ black shade on a gray jersey. He also said they’d welcome an official Tennessee fan night at the game, similar to what the Giants do for local school alumni groups. They may even try to bring in the banjo and play “Rocky Top” for Vitello.

Maybe the Giants will play Rocky Top when Vitello makes a pitching change.

October 23, 2025

Vitello Hire

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It would appear it’s all over except for the announcement. Tony Vitello will be the next manager of the Giants. It’s a bold move for President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey:

It seems that Buster is a bust-a-move kinda guy. He doesn’t sit back and make safe choices. He goes “all-in” on his vision. He shimmies when everyone else is still shakin’.

I think there are a few things happening. One, Buster believes players come to the big leagues not fully ready to play. They need more coaching, more development. Funny, that was Gabe Kapler‘s schtick! It didn’t go over well. Vitello will need a different approach. Two, Buster thinks the team isn’t sufficiently on top of the “little things” that come up in every game. Fundamentals and situational awareness, stuff like that. He wants a hyper-attentive captain at the helm.

RaisingMattCain.com

I am on the skeptical side of this deal. The hype comes from this being a first of a kind hire, and sports writers love “first time” stories. A big piece of the hype comes from a love of Buster Posey, even outside of San Francisco. He is one of the great heroes of the game, the Giants winning three World Series having depended on Posey producing an MVP type season. There is also the comparison between Posey and the person he replaced, Farhan Zaidi, who at the end seemed to be despised by everyone. If Posey gets the same or worse results than Zaidi, it doesn’t make Posey look all that great.

I would be less skeptical if the Giants found themselves in rebuilding mode with a roster of young players. That’s not the case. Vitello will be expected to win with a mature roster, and we’ll see how the Giants improve that during the winter. Right now, I’m very interested in seeing the over/under for the 2026 Giants when those lines come out after the World Series. We’ll know then if the betting public thinks this is a good move or not.

Note that I hope Vitello succeeds. If he does, there will be a much bigger talent pool to draw from in setting up the field management of a team. That’s usually a good thing.