Ron Wotus just taught SF Giants manager Tony Vitello a lesson he can't forget

If you think the SF Giants have been treated unfairly by the umpires this year, you aren’t alone. Are the umps the reason the Giants currently have a record of 55-81? Absolutely not. Do they deserve any respect from the umpires after this disgrace of a season? No. But assistant coach Ron Wotus just taught manager Tony Vitello a very important lesson that he should not soon forget.

On Friday night, Vitello got tossed by home plate umpire Alan Porter for arguing a ball that was called foul. It was a weak toss by Porter who had a truly awful night behind the plate. There were so many challenges that it probably extended the game by at least five minutes or so and he missed 21 balls-and-strikes calls according to one analysis.

The umpire crew as a whole was so bad that even Logan Webb got tossed despite the fact that he wasn’t even pitching in the game. Umpires are an incredibly thin-skinned breed, and that was proven again on Saturday ahead of the first game of a split doubleheader.

Wotus went out to give the lineup card to the umpires and started talking to Porter. One can only imagine he was taking issue with some calls made by Porter last night and to the shock of no one Wotus got ejected by Porter almost immediately in petty fashion.

Wotus continued to argue with him and in that whole exchange he taught Vitello something very important: umpires are not your friends. 

In many ways they are the natural enemies of managers. For time immemorial managers yell at umpires and vice versa. If one were to see a manager and umpire yucking it up with one another it would almost be like seeing a lion and a deer hugging one another in the wild.

One can understand why Vitello came into this season being a little gun shy when it comes to going after his own veterans and umpires. Baseball is very much a “pay your dues” institution and many in MLB probably look at Vitello as a guy who did not pay his dues coming straight from the college ranks.

Tony Vitello needs to show more fire with umpires going forward

He cannot back down meekly though and just accept mistreatment from umpires. He absolutely has to get his money’s worth. He did a better job of that on Friday but Wotus provided a reminder that you have to keep that fire going. One of the things that was talked about when the Giants hired Vitello was his energy and his fire. Perhaps he felt he had to tone it down a bit from how he was in college, but with the way this season has gone why not let loose a little bit? Heck, maybe even try to set a record for the most ejections in a single month in MLB history.

Players are going to like seeing their manager stick up for them. Blade Tidwell said he really liked seeing both Vitello and Webb have his back out there so that’s only going to help him gain the trust of his players even more.

It’s great having Wotus in the dugout to help Vitello navigate things in the big leagues, and he just led by example on Saturday. These thin-skinned umpires get to act with impunity a lot of the time so Vitello might as well get in their face and kick some dirt this last month of the year to show he’s not going to be pushed around.

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