San Francisco Giants president Buster Posey (left) and new manager Tony Vitello is introduced to the news media at a press conference at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Thu Oct 30, 2025 (AP News photo)
By Stephen Ruderman
SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants introduced their colorful new manager, Tony Vitello, in what turned out to be a massive press conference at Oracle Park this morning.
Members of the media and the Giants’ top brass all gathered on this foggy morning on the Club Level at Oracle Park, as Chairman Greg Johnson and President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey introduced Vitello to the city of San Francisco and Northern California.
It looked to be a rather-small crowd, but about 10 to 15 minutes prior to the start, a whole tsunami of people showed up. It felt like the entire city of San Francisco showed up.
Posey introduced Vitello, and presented him with a Giants’ cap and Giants’ jersey. As of right now, Vitello’s number will be 23, which was worn by Felipe Alou when he managed the club from 2003 to 2006.
It was a surreal experience for Vitello, who admitted that he never dreamed of being a big league ballplayer, as he admitted his skills were not up to par. However, he said that becoming a big league manager was a dream come true.
Members of Vitello’s family were in attendance, as were members of Vitello’s host family when he was a coach for the Salina Packers of the California Collegiate League in 2002. Vitello is actually pretty familiar with the Giants’ organization, and even said he sat behind home plate in Kansas City for Madison Bumgarner’s five-inning performance in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series.
Vitello is a revolutionary hire in the game of baseball. There have been many innovative things that have happened throughout the history of the game, and Vitello’s arrival is up there as one of the most notable.
Vitello is the first man to go straight from coaching college baseball to managing a major league team without any experience whatsoever in organized and professional baseball.
There’s always the question of how big league players will respond to a new manager. That question may be asked more than ever with a college head coach coming in to head a big league team
Outfielder Drew Gilbert, a character himself, who made himself a hit with his quirky personality, played for Vitello at Tennessee. So did starting pitcher Blade Tidwell, who came over from the Mets to the Giants along with Gilbert in the Tyler Rogers trade on July 30.
Gilbert was ecstatic when he heard the news. Vitello then said that he would be Gilbert’s babysitter.
On a podcast with Greg Olsen last week, Vitello said that personalities were a requirement. Vitello made reference to the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies, a team with many gregarious personalities.
Vitello touched up on his comments from a week ago.
“I think the biggest thing is to be comfortable in your own skin, and let [your] personality shine through, regardless of what [your] day is like,” said Vitello. “There is a lot of downtime in our sport, so personality is somewhat of a requirement for [things] to go as well as I think it could go.”
John Kruk, the Phillies’ first-baseman in 1993, and one of the biggest characters on that team, said that players would stay deep into the night after games to drink beer and talk about baseball.
“The thing is to let that stuff evolve organically,” added Vitello. “If you do have an environment that is entertaining, welcoming and fun, you tend to want to spend more time in that environment.
Even Max Scherzer, who pitched at a future first-ballot hall of famer heaped praise on the Giants’ new skipper. Vitello was Scherzer’s pitching coach at the University of Missouri, and even played a role in developing Scherzer into the hall of famer that he became.
When asked by John Shea how games would be managed, Posey was mum on how that would go, and said that he and Vitello would work in tandem.
Vitello will now get to work assembling his coaching staff, and as the 2025 World Series and Season near their end, Posey will soon get to work building the team for next season.
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