After seven years as head coach of Tennessee baseball, Tony Vitello accepted an offer to become the San Francisco Giants' next manager. But he won't soon forget the run he went on with the Volunteers.
Over those seven years, the Volunteers went 341-131, winning the program's first national championship in 2024. Before Vitello departs for the Giants, he wanted to send one last message to the Tennessee program and their fans, via Ben McKee of 247Sports.
“First off, just people saying bye and everything like that, I'm not going anywhere,” Vitello said. “So real estate people quit texting me. I'll figure out what I want to do. But whether it's football games, basketball games, supporting these guys in some form or fashion, I'm not going anywhere. I don't know if this will get me in trouble, but in my mind, a goal is to come back to Tennessee in some capacity. Whether it's part-time living or some other job way down the road or maybe I go back to Nashville and become a country singer or something like that. But that's something that stuck out in my head because obviously I feel like this was a great place for me.”
Vitello's full statement explained how he considers himself a Volunteer for life. He spoke above how the program has grown from the people to infrastructure. Furthermore, he discussed why the state of Tennessee and University overall matter so much to him. Put bluntly, Vitello explained exactly why this wasn't an easy decision to make.
However, the manager will be making history. He is the first person to make the jump directly from college to MLB. Furthermore, the Giants gave him a contract worth upwards of $3 million, a significant raise from his time at Tennessee, via Chris Low of On3.
The pressure will now be on for Vitello to prove he is the real deal. But he knew that before he signed his name on the dotted line. But before taking on his new venture, Vitello had to show Volunteer Nation just how much Tennessee meant to him.
