An ‘Insulting’ Hire? World Series Manager Joe Maddon Rips Giants Over Vitello

Images: John Minchillo/Benjamin Fanjoy/AP

By Aidan Sidoti

Joe Maddon isn’t sold on the Giants’ bold move to hire Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello, and he certainly didn’t mince words. 

The former World Series winning manager called the hire “insulting” during an interview with KNBR in San Francisco, questioning Vitello’s lack of professional experience and the changing standards around Major League Baseball managerial roles.

“Quite frankly, I'm using the word insulting only from the perspective that it appears as though you don't have to have any kind of experience on a professional level to do this job anymore,” Maddon said. 

“When I was coming up, you had to have all that. You had to, like, go through the minor leagues. You had to ride buses. I was a scout. I started in 1981. I finally get a managerial job in 2006. I mean, there was a rite of passage, a method to get to that point. 

So to think that somebody could just jump in there and do it, you took 20-some years to be considered qualified to do, it is kind of insulting.” 

Despite the bashing of the former Tennessee head coach, Maddon did offer the smallest nod of respect for Vitello.

“Having said that, I wish (Vitello) nothing but the best,” he added. “Because I watch videos of the guy, and I could actually understand why it's perceived that he's ready to do something like this.”

It’s certainly a bold critique coming from a manager whose legacy hinges on almost entirely on one magical October in 2016.

NEWS FLASH JOE: Without that Cubs World Series run, your résumé would be the most embarrassing in MLB history.

Let’s not forget, YOU went 157-177 with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on the same roster.

That’s pretty fucking insulting if you ask me.

Somebody put this man in a resting home.