{"id":544192,"date":"2026-01-26T13:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T13:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/544192\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T13:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T13:56:17","slug":"sf-giants-manager-tony-vitello-has-hall-of-fame-mentor-tony-la-russa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/544192\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Giants manager Tony Vitello has Hall of Fame mentor: Tony La Russa"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the coolest perks so far of being a big-league manager, Tony Vitello<\/a> likes to show off to friends from back home, in St. Louis. It\u2019s Tony La Russa\u2019s<\/a> phone number.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s put it to use often.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the course of the time that I\u2019ve been hired, you could average it out to once every couple of weeks I\u2019ve heard from him,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cAnd it hasn\u2019t been surface-level, stereotypical conversations or just broad comments; it\u2019s been very in-depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hall-of-Fame manager was one of many to reach out to Vitello in the days and weeks following his unprecedented hiring from the college ranks<\/a> to be the Giants\u2019 next skipper.<\/p>\n

Most of the calls were short messages wishing him congratulations, but Vitello quickly learned La Russa intended this connection to be more than that. He scrambled to find something, anything, to scribble down notes, and settled on a paper plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the one thing I could find,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I\u2019ll frame it, but I know I still have that. I did actually put it into a computer, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The relationship, which Vitello described as \u201csincere and almost sweet,\u201d has only grown from there. Multiple phone calls. Text messages back and forth. Besides Bruce Bochy<\/a> and Dusty Baker, who are both employed by the Giants, Vitello said La Russa has taught him the ropes more than anyone in his transition from the University of Tennessee to a major-league dugout.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see he\u2019s got a feel for the game and he\u2019s a natural winner, but there\u2019s a relationship aspect there, how much people appreciate how he impacts their lives. I never thought I\u2019d be one of those guys,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cJust that personal connection he has with people. Because he\u2019s gone well out of his way to help me.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Russa, a World Series champion in St. Louis, said the idea sprouted when he was talking with Buster Posey. San Francisco\u2019s president of baseball operations gave him Vitello\u2019s information.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Tony\u2019s from St. Louis, right?\u201d La Russa said. \u201cSo it was an easy connection to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time La Russa arrived in St. Louis, Vitello had begun his climb through the college coaching ranks. But he was a childhood fan of La Russa\u2019s Bash Brothers era Oakland A\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Having La Russa as a resource, Vitello said, has been \u201cmind-boggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider the math: A combined 2,884 wins, three World Series rings and 35 years of major-league managerial experience. Oh, wait, that\u2019s all La Russa.<\/p>\n

Vitello, 47, faces the unique challenge of winning the respect of a clubhouse full of major leaguers having never played or coached at any professional level himself.<\/p>\n

La Russa, now 81, was 34 when he got his first managing gig with the White Sox in 1979. He had his own challenge managing the big personalities of those 1980s A\u2019s teams. His words of advice: It\u2019s only the circumstances that are different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care who you are, especially in a team sport, you start at zero and you have to earn the respect and trust of your team,\u201d said La Russa, currently employed as a special advisor by the White Sox. \u201cEven when you\u2019ve been the manager the year before, each year you start at zero. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his case, the uniqueness of him coming out of college will get their attention. \u2026 You\u2019ve gotta pat \u2018em on the back when they need it and sometimes you\u2019ve gotta pop \u2018em in the butt if that\u2019s necessary. But you\u2019re honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wisdom is a product of a slightly more organized version of Vitello\u2019s paper plate. La Russa jotted it down in a notepad over lunch one offseason with John Madden.<\/p>\n

During his 10 years with the A\u2019s, La Russa made a ritual of meeting up with his contemporaries in the area at the time. He would sit down for meals every winter with Madden, Bill Walsh and even Bob Ladouceur, the architect of the De La Salle football powerhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always had a pad and I would write things down \u2026 Those are advantages that kept refreshing the approach that I had and our coaching staff had,\u201d La Russa said. \u201cWell, Tony is going to spend the spring with Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker. That\u2019s as good as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitello amassed a 341-131 record and won the College World Series at the University of Tennessee, but the extent of his experience outside the collegiate ranks amounts to a single summer in his early 20s with a since-defunct independent ballclub in Salinas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In between globetrotting to Korea with Jung Hoo Lee and building out a coaching staff that has still yet to be finalized, Vitello said the nearly four months since his hiring have been his best attempt to \u201cget a master\u2019s degree as quick as possible on what is the difference\u201d between college baseball and the pros.<\/p>\n

Who better to ask than Pat Murphy, the former Arizona State coach turned Milwaukee Brewers manager? Vitello sought out \u201cprobably half\u201d of MLB\u2019s managers at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, but his conversation \u201cin detail\u201d with Murphy stuck out.<\/p>\n

(It wasn\u2019t the former college coaches\u2019 first meeting: They were in opposite dugouts for a couple games between Murphy\u2019s Sun Devils and Missouri, where Vitello was a pitching coach. One particularly \u201cepic\u201d matchup, according to Vitello, featured Mike Leake vs. Kyle Gibson.)<\/p>\n

Murphy, who climbed the ladder in professional baseball for more than a decade after his time in college, told Vitello the game isn\u2019t that different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt obviously has a different tagline, it\u2019s the best players in the world,\u201d Vitello recalled from the conversation. \u201cBut don\u2019t think you have to completely change either your mindset or yourself when it comes to moving up to the major-league level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitello added another five decades of major-league experience to draw on when he made Ron Washington one of the first hires on his coaching staff. The hiring process, a collaborative effort with Posey, general manager Zack Minasian and the rest of the front office, has acted as another sort of crash course on the responsibilities of an MLB manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of debates, too,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cIt\u2019s been kind of fun arguing or cracking jokes or making fun of each other on the phone. That\u2019s allowed for a lot of those things to happen organically, to learn more about this position, or you have to do this to prepare for a game. Because I know the people better, I think it\u2019s helped me understand the game better.\u201d<\/p>\n

All in all, it has amounted to a whirlwind past few months for Vitello, who said getting to know La Russa was just one of \u201cmany surreal moments\u201d since he was hired.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s gotten answers to a lot of questions. Now, with spring training around the corner, it\u2019s about time he begins to answer an important one: Can this all work?<\/p>\n

Consider La Russa a believer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the time that I\u2019ve spoken with him and texted with him,\u201d he said, \u201cI would bet on it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the coolest perks so far of being a big-league manager, Tony Vitello likes to show off…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":544193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[591,15173,1582,276,239749,1362,2961,1370,224,5337,1266,15178,2750,15180,1275,62],"class_list":{"0":"post-544192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-giants-alert","13":"tag-inside-sports","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-peninsula","20":"tag-san-francisco","21":"tag-san-francisco-county","22":"tag-san-francisco-giants","23":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115961750130658192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}