Former Tennessee baseball head coach Tony Vitello was hired by San Francisco to fill its vacant managerial position in MLB on Oct. 22.
Vitello joins Dick Howser as a college baseball head coach in going directly to MLB as a manager.
Howser was head coach at Florida State, leading the Seminoles to a 46-17-1 record during the 1979 season, and managed the Yankees in 1980 after serving as interim manager in New York for one game in 1978. In 1980, Howser led New York to the American League East Division championship, going 103-59 in his first full season as a MLB manager.
After his one season as the Yankees’ full-time manager, he went on to manage the Royals from 1981-86. His teams did not finish lower than second place and guided Kansas City to the 1985 World Series title.
Howser managed the 1986 American League All-Star team before being diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died in 1987.
Howser played shortstop at Florida State and was a two-time All-America standout. The baseball facility in Tallahassee, Florida is named in his honor.
He played in MLB for the Kansas City Athletics (1961-63), Cleveland (1963-66) and the Yankees (1967-68). Howser joined New York’s coaching staff immediately following his playing career. He was a coach in New York from 1969-78 and was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.
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