By Brian Murphy
Poor Tony V.
Man.
I mean, not really *poor* Tony Vitello. He’s handsomely compensated. He willingly took this Giants manager job. Being a manager in the big leagues means there will be scrutiny and second-guessing and hearing those who wish him to fail. Nobody ever said it was a warm, safe world. It’s more like cold and cruel.
That said, poor Tony V.
First off, his team is playing terrible baseball. How much of that is on him, we can debate. Surely, there are plenty of decisions and issues — freezing out his bench in the first two months, never resting veterans, curating a culture where pitchers issue walks and hitters fail to draw them, a total lack of comeback brimstone and fire, pressing wrong bullpen buttons over and over, for starters.
Geez, that list got long. Could have kept going, too.
But Wednesday in Kansas City, Mo., in a game between two bottom-feeders in Major League Baseball, a late July weekday matinee that registered about a “1” on the buzz scale, he endured more humiliation from MLB umpires, and that’s just got to stop.
When Tony V leaves the dugout to argue, MLB umps respond like I do when my kids say they don’t feel like taking the garbage bins up the driveway. There is, shall we say, a lack of respect that is quite evident, particularly when second base umpire Mike Eastabrook dismissed Vitello’s request for a replay on the Willy Adames/Vinny Pasquantino tag as if the request were a fly on a picnic roast. Eastabrook shooed him away.
To make it worse, on the way off the diamond, third base ump Lance Barrett shouted at Vitello and ejected him.
On one level, boilerplate stuff. Managers and umps have been oil and water since the dawn of time, as I was just saying to a pile of dirt Earl Weaver kicked on various American League umps throughout the 1970s.
But this isn’t the first time a Vitello field venture has been dismissed outright. Earlier this year, Vitello told reporters that one umpire made reference to “pom pons” and other derisive verbiage that suggested that Tony V the Tennessee Volunteer had not earned his stripes in The Show.
Again, on one level, fair enough. Nobody is looking for a cookie or a belly rub. But when your team is 42-60, umpire disrespect hits different. It leaves you feeling for a guy. Like, Tony V needs a break. Or, he needs to make his own break.
Unsolicited advice: time for Tony V to let it rip, both in the dugout, out of the dugout and in managing his team.
We were told that the guy from college would bring vinegar and competitive juice, not lukewarm tap water. Tony V, get into the spice cabinet. Make some bold statements to the media about your team. Hit and run more. Squeeze more. Go up and in on hitters. Hold players accountable when they wag a finger at you, or forget how many outs there are, or forget to cover a bag.
The only way you’re going to earn respect is to demand it.
And when you take the field to engage in beef with blue, let ‘em have it. The only way you fight back on a bully is to . . . well, fight back.
None of us knows how this thing is going to turn out. The Giants could collapse further in the final 60 games, lose 40 of ‘em and wear 100 losses for only the second time in franchise history. That would be bad, one might say. At that point, we may have to re-assess whether to just pull the plug on the whole thing and start over in 2027.
Or, Tony V could use August and September to start leaving his fingerprints on the squad. Let us see some flavor and some influence. And get cathartic on those umps — if only to blow off some steam for all of us, skip.
