The sports world has called the Bay Area home this week for Super Bowl LX. But there has been plenty of San Francisco Giants talk.
Giants players, coaches and personalities have made their way down Radio Row this week, the legendary epicenter of Super Bowl talk in the days leading up to the game. In a perfect world, the San Francisco 49ers would play in the game. But the Seattle Seahawks will represent the NFC against the New England Patriots on Sunday.
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Dave Flemming, who is one of the Giants’ television and radio play-by-play announcers, visited Radio Row on Thursday and talked with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, who covers the 49ers. The topic was new manager Tony Vitello and whether he could manage at the MLB level. Flemming is confident he can and made a comparison that 49ers and Giants fans can appreciate.
A Tony Vitello-Kyle Shanahan Comparison
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
Flemming said that he believes Vitello shares one key trait with Shanahan, one that will serve the new manager well as he embarks on his new job.
“The players I’ve talked to are really excited to have him. He’s a talented evaluator,” Flemming said. “I’ve always thought one thing that Kyle [Shanahan] does so well as a head coach, I think Kyle is a great talent evaluator, and it helps him, like, ‘what do I have?’, ‘what does the opponent have?’, ‘what does this guy do well?’, ‘Where can we attack a team?’, and I think Tony has that.”
Shanahan is 82-67 in nine seasons with the 49ers, which includes five playoff appearances, three division titles, four appearances in the NFC Championship game and two appearances in the Super Bowl. The only thing he’s missing is a title.
Vitello is attempting something that has no modern equal in baseball. A college head coach has never taken up an MLB managerial career with no experience in pro baseball as a player, coach or minor league manager. The closest parallel is Dick Howser.
He was the head coach at Florida State in 1979 before taking over as New York Yankees manager in 1980. But Howser was a Major League player and was a pro coach — and a Yankees interim manager — in the decades prior to going to FSU. He eventually led the Kansas City Royals to the 1985 World Series crown.
Vitello takes over the Giants after spending eight seasons at Tennessee, where he spent eight seasons rebuilding the Volunteers into one of the best baseball programs in NCAA Division I. That reached a zenith in 2024 when he guided Tennessee to 60 wins and the Men’s College World Series championship in 2024. He also took the program to the MCWS in 2021 and 2023. He also led the program to two SEC regular-season and tournament championships.