Tony Vitello sent a stern message to the rest of MLB, and it'll be interesting to see how the league responds

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Former Tennessee Volunteers baseball coach Tony Vitello is in his first season as the manager of the San Francisco Giants, and he’s already dealt with a couple of tense moments.

Former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello is a month into his gig as a big league manager, and he’s already had to deal with a couple of tense moments.

Vitello, who was hired as the manager of the San Francisco Giants last fall, saw his team nearly scuffle with the Cincinnati Reds in a series earlier this month, for example.

Vitello joined KNBR this week and suggested that there need to be repercussions when his team isn’t being respected.

“You have to command respect from your opponent,” said Vitello. “It doesn’t mean hitting guys or sliding into guys spikes up or anything like that, but if you’re not respected, then there’s got to be some sort of repercussions to that. Otherwise it’s not going to change.

“And we certainly dealt with that my first year at Tennessee, and we were kind of a doormat of the SEC. And first you have to respect yourself, and then you’ve got to command respect from others. And there’s a lot of things that go into that. So for me, if I was going to pick a point, and I’m being honest, I’m not on the field, so I’m not in the battle as much as these guys are. I can observe and see and I hear some things, but I don’t know them all. You know, the Orioles game was where I was most frustrated, when (Luis) Arraez got ran into.”

The play with Arraez that Vitello referenced happened earlier this month when the Giants second baseman was kicked by Orioles outfielder Dylan Beavers during a routine play.