Former Tennessee Coach Tony Vitello Plans to Embrace "Great" Life in San Francisco

Tony Vitello is a former Tennessee baseball coach who recently accepted his first MLB manager position with the San Francisco Giants. He is someone who has spent nearly ten years in the Tennessee area, and will now be living in San Francisco, which he plans to embrace.

Here is what he had to say when speaking to the Giants media on Thursday during his introductory press conference.

Tony Vitello on Embracing San Francisco

“Yeah, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience it before. I mean, we’ve had conversations, so it’s all blending together for me. But I played and coached in Salinas, and, you know, came to several games here. Bill Miller, a former player that, I don’t know, you might be too young. Do you remember Bill Miller? Yeah, pretty good teams he was a part of, and a pretty good dude there, and he took good care of me. So, I was able to see this environment myself. My former college roommate is here, Ryan Pickett. He’s one of several people that are from this area and are Giants fans that I’m friends with, so like Tennessee, where you referenced, when that job first became available, I was busy with what I was trying to do at another program, at Arkansas. I was like, it’s not who you are, but who you know. I was like, I don’t know anybody at Tennessee. Well, it kind of turned out I did. There was like seven, eight little connections. And it’s been interesting how this has come to be. Obviously, there’s some players in the organization I’m familiar with, but just a lot of random connections. And again, two summers that were very special to me that I spent in Salinas, California, not too far from here, where I was educated on the Giant fan base and the organization itself, and also just the people in general, and how great of an area this is."

Tony Vitello in Previously Spending Time in Salinas

“Yeah, I was in good hands. Deborah Cole was my host mom those two summers, and people make a place, you know. And the park was fun to go to, and we had a good group of players, and the fans, not quite as big of a crowd as here, were abundant, but it was the people there that just made you feel welcome. And being from the Midwest, you’ve got different stereotypes throughout the country on what the vibe is like, where you’re from, and in the Midwest, home and family, and kind of feeling welcoming is very, very important. That was very evident from day one, in part again, who I was staying with and who I was surrounded by. But just in general, and it’s different up here. It just is. Abnormal may sound like you’re saying weird in a bad way, but very abnormal, the last couple days since I’ve been here. The attention to detail, the people at the hotel that have either been tipped off or maybe already, I’m like, ‘How much did you get these guys to’ — but you know, it’s not random, it’s not coincidental. It’s culture. And again, that’s also a vague word, and one that’s overused a lot, but it’s abnormal here, and I think it’s probably fed into the success of the organization, which has also been abnormal.”

For the rest of what he had to say click HERE.

Tony Vitello on Embracing San Francisco

Tony Vitello in Previously Spending Time in Salinas

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