𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.– It’s among the more pleasant surprises that Tony Vitello has encountered in his first week in uniform as the San Francisco Giants’ manager: Whether it’s in casual conversations or in the explanation of a drill or a team meeting that drags a bit, professional athletes seem to have far better attention spans than college players.

During his session with reporters Monday morning, though, Vitello was the one who appeared plenty distracted.

“Got a question for you guys,” said Vitello, as he took a dugout seat in front of the notepads and cameras. “When did you first think I was taking this job?”

Vitello proceeded to launch into an unprompted and oddly timed blow-by-blow of the days leading up to his decision to leave Knoxville and the reporting that preceded that decision. It was unclear whether his goal Monday morning was to set the record straight or air grievances, and if it was the latter, he did not call out specific reporters or media outlets for putting out premature information. But it was a strange and perhaps revealing deviation for a manager in his first professional baseball job at a time when all the focus should be on the upcoming season.

Clearly, Vitello was not ready to move past his exit from Knoxville. He made the clear contention that some reporters jumped the gun. As a result, it scrambled the order of operations as he sought to make a clear-headed decision while getting bombarded with messages from players, coaches and recruits. And it caused what might have been avoidable consternation in a program and with people that meant the world to him.

The Athletic reported on October 18 that the Giants were “closing in” on Vitello as their choice to manage, citing league and industry sources, but did not report that he had accepted the position or even that he had a formal offer in hand. Other media outlets ran with the story under the assumption that Vitello would accept the job. Eventually, he did accept, but not before four emotionally fraught days.

“You know, somebody decides they think they’ve got the information (but) the final blow was about four days later,” Vitello said. “I needed confirmation from the coaches that I worked with that helped boost my status that they were OK with what was going to go on, and they were going to be OK with their jobs. That staff had always been built like the next man up, and all of a sudden that was being threatened. It’s kind of hard to do something for yourself, and your teammates get left behind.

“But, yeah, (the time between accepting the job and its announcement) was not four days, for what it’s worth, that was not the case at all. If you would have seen me in my condo (in Knoxville), you would have agreed.”

Tony Vitello was Tennessee’s head baseball coach for eight seasons before making the jump to MLB. (Angelina Alcantar / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

“Shrink-wise, I did a really damn good job at keeping that away from our team, our recruiting, and it was not a distraction,” Vitello said of the interview process with the Giants. “And then all of a sudden, in the middle of practice, I see our first and third base coach freaking out, and they freaked out on me, too — and for no reason, because at that point nothing was going to happen, but somebody decided that it was going to happen. And then the whole world starts spinning real, real quick, and I had to address the team.”

“Everybody wanted to know what was going on and for good reason. The locker room got a little testy, and I … just sat and had pizza and drank a beer and watched football for a little bit. … Pretty excited to watch the Alabama-Tennessee football game, as is everybody else in the state. But when your name is on the ticker, that kind of causes you to turn on ‘Seinfeld’ or whatever the hell I put on.

“I’ll never forget the day. I’ll never forget the date. And then there was a lot of stuff sandwiched between that and October 22.”

Even if Vitello’s misgivings stem from the love and loyalty he has to people in the Tennessee program, which he built into a national powerhouse, the timing for a rehashing of events was odd as he prepared to conduct the Giants’ second full-squad workout of the spring. Prior to Monday’s session with reporters, Vitello had just finished an on-camera interview for Fox Sports with Ken Rosenthal, who co-authored the Oct. 18 report in The Athletic that the Giants were coalescing around him as their top choice.

“I’m not throwing this water bottle at anybody,” said Vitello, asked if any specific report bothered him. “I mean, one name was thrown out at me, but I didn’t read any and I still haven’t read any of it.”

Does that mean that Vitello failed to appreciate the distinction between a job being offered and accepted? Or that he failed to understand that distinction? Either way, for someone seeking to prove that they can make the transition from an amateur background, his rearview focus on Monday probably wasn’t the most professional look.

He said cryptically that “it might have changed the course of history if I know who (leaked information), to be honest with you.”

Vitello’s first week of media interviews has included copious references to his former players at Tennessee, or to players he met on the recruiting trail, or to the challenges he faced as he climbed the coaching ladder from an assistant at Missouri and Texas Christian and Arkansas. That’s understandable.

Prior to being offered the job to manage the Giants, Vitello had never played or coached at the professional level. He has plenty of connections within the pro game, but no real frame of reference. So much decision-making in baseball, whether it’s writing a scouting report or having a gut feeling about a pitching change, comes down to familiarity and pattern recognition. The Giants knew they were hiring a manager who lacked that frame of reference, but they viewed Vitello as a quick study and a vigorous communicator who would get up to speed when surrounded with the right support staff.

Part of Vitello’s strength as a communicator, according to those who have spent time around him, is his ability to be relatable. And that means drawing from examples from his own life as part of the conversation. It’s not his fault that those baseball examples are almost exclusively from the college game. But even he appeared to recognize on Monday that there comes a point when talking too much about the Vols could make him sound wistful instead of nostalgic. And it’s probably not a good thing to invite any doubt about whether he truly wanted to leave Knoxville for San Francisco.

Vitello said it was “probably time, after today, to divide the line in the sand.”

“If someone’s watching it, they might be like, ‘Hey, let’s make sure you know what shade of orange you’re wearing there.’”