Why Tennessee Baseball Won the National Championship and ETSU Football Was Just Dreadful the Last Two Years

Coaching, stupid. Here’s a story.

Marky Billson

It’s real easy to say this now, but I long felt the next University of Tennessee team to win a national championship would be the baseball team.

The reason is head coach Tony Vitello and the interview I had with him on my radio talk show in the Tri-Cities.

The head coach of the national champions. It was the first such title in program history.

After Vitello became Tennessee’s skipper in 2017 I booked him as a guest. We made the telephone hookup during a commercial break so there was a minute or two for small talk off the air to create a relaxed environment for the upcoming interview.

I knew Vitello had previously coached at Texas Christian, where he had coached a player who I was familiar with, Relly Mercuiro, from calling baseball play-by-play in Fort Worth for a showcase league.

So I brought up Mercurio’s name to Vitello during the break.

What followed was Vitello’s enthusiastic response to the mention of Mercurio. It was as if I had mentioned Vitello’s long lost brother or a cherished friend from his past.