San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello talks about returning home to St. Louis and his many memories as a Cardinals fan as a child.
To try and guard against getting emotional when his SanFrancisco Giants faced the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night,Tony Vitello jogged over to the Busch Stadium much earlier in the day and tookseveral laps around the concourse, out near the bleachers and close to the spotwhere David Freese’s walk-off homer landed in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series.
With every step that Vitello – a St. Louis native, agraduate of nearby DeSmet High School and a boyhood Cardinals fan – took, a memory from his childhoodflooded back to him. Even though many of those remembrances happened at BuschStadium II – the predecessor to the Cardinals’ current digs – Vitello had emotionsfilling his heart and maybe some moisture welling around his eyes.
Vitello, 47, thought about the time him and his buddieswere sitting in the right field bleachers and because they were short on funds,they dug into the nachos that a fan sitting in front of them left behind. Herecalled being “20 yards” away from where Mark McGwire’s No. 62 low linerlanded before reaching the seats. And he thought back to all those Opening Daysof seeing Ozzie Smith’s summersaults and the Budweiser Clydesdales circling thewarning track. Despite smiling as he thought back to those memories, Vitellowas left with one regret.
“I’m upset that I don’t get to see Jack Buck here, listento his voice and get to meet him,” Vitello said before his Giants faced offagainst the Cardinals on Monday in the first of a three-game series.
“I’m kind of wowed by the Whitey (Herzog) photo that’s inthe manager’s office, I’m excited to see friends and teammates here and I’mexcited that my mom only has to drive instead of having to fly all the way outto San Francisco. So, there’s a lot going on, but it’s good to be back in thispark. It’s been a big part of my buildup as a player, coach and being from acity that’s known as being a phenomenal baseball city.”
Vitello, a national championship winning manager at theUniversity of Tennessee, likely wouldn’t describe his first year as an MLBmanager as memorable. His Giants have been beset by injuries all season andthey limped into St. Louis on Monday at 62-88, fourth in the NL West and ridinga three-game losing streak. San Francisco has been solid at home (36-39), but itis tied for MLB’s second-worst road record (26-49) and it has been outscored by77 runs on the season.
That certainly hasn’t been easy on the fiery, first-yearcoach, who still hits ground balls to his players during infield practice. Vitello,and former Giants star and GM Buster Posey, have come under fire for thefranchise spending gobs of cash each of the past two offseasons only to falterbadly. Having already lost many of their veteran regulars to injuries, theGiants shut down star slugger Rafael Devers on Sunday with a core muscle injurythat will require surgery in the coming days.
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The trip back to St. Louis is a nice diversion from thestruggles of a long season admitted Vitello, who will stay in his hometown forThursday’s off day rather than flying back with the Giants to Los Angeles for Friday’sgame against the Dodgers. He said many of the reasons he fell in love withbaseball and ultimately became a highly successful manager is because of hisroots in baseball-loving St. Louis.
“It’s just a different vibe of appreciation for goodbaseball,” said Vitello, who noted that one of his favorite things to do inelementary school was tear sheets off the calendar as a countdown to OpeningDay. “A guy like (former Cardinal Mike) Laga, (Tom) Lawless or (David) Ecksteincan be put on as big of a pedestal as (Mark) McGwire and Ozzie Smith. I thinkSan Francisco has that same vibe, and you get louder cheers for a sac bunt thanyou do for a home run at times. But it’s nice to be around people that reallyknow the game and appreciate when it’s played the right way.
“So many of us, whether it’s thinking about it daily or youhave to talk to a shrink about it, so many of our roots go back to ourchildhood experiences and (baseball) was so important every day. It’s good tobe here in the fall in September because for me that was a time when my dad wascoaching soccer and the Cardinals were building up probably toward a playoffrun and then the playoffs and World Series. It had a certain vibe to it.”
Vitello said he had no clue how many friends, family andformer baseball teammates will be in attendance over the next three daysbecause few have hit him up for free tickets. “Maybe they think I’m cheap,” hecracked.
As for him arriving at Busch Stadium earlier in the day tosoak in the stadium and revel in the memories the run sparked, Vitello said hewill likely have a smile plastered across his face this week regardless of howhis youth-filled Giants lineup fares against the Cards.
“I came earlier andrun and got it all out of my system, so that hopefully I can do a decent jobtonight,” Vitello said. “But (during his run) I looked over and remembered ahigh school guy eating leftover nachos, and thought, ‘He probably doesn’tbelong in this (managerial) spot.”
