Matt Lively shares why he thinks Tony Vitello will succeed

Hey sports fans, it's Murf here for my friends at Bigelow T. Every season is Bigelow T season.

And that's why Bigelow is the number one T in the Bay Area. One of the first things I do

each day is reach for a mug full of English breakfast to get me going. I'll have all the Bigelow's

different flavor options and it's perfect for someone who makes his living behind a microphone.

You want to know what keeps me going? Look, no further than my cup of Bigelow T next to me

in the studio. So grab a mug full of your favorite Bigelow T and T proudly. Welcome back to

Sportsphone KBR with Bill Lasky. I'm really happy to bring him my guest today. Of course he works

for CBS TV channel five along with Vern Glenn. Let's welcome in Matt Lively. Matt, how are you today?

I'm well, Bill. Thanks so much for having me. This feels like a real honor to be joining you.

Well, it's an honor for me and it's honor for the audience to get to know you a little bit and

that Vern Glenn, when I reached out, to Vern to talk about you, rave reviews from Vern.

You know, some of the things he said, he was eager. He was ready to go. He never had a time where

he didn't want to work. You know, when you hear that from here's a guy that's been in a business

over 25 years. That's an honor for him. I mean, a great guy to look up to in talking about wanting

to work. You know, that's that's Vern and you step into that sports department from day one and

you kind of understand that's the motto around there and you can't be in this business if you

don't want to work because everything is is curious. Everything is interesting and we work in one

of the best sports markets in the world. So why wouldn't you want to be at the ballpark or at the

football field every single day? Well, Matt, let's learn a little bit about you. You grew up in

Southern Florida, youngest of three boys. How about that? Yes, he brothers you and two other

ones. How entertaining was that in your house? Intertaining is a word to describe a painful painful

might be another word that you could describe being the youngest of the three brothers. I mean,

ton of fun. I think my love for sports, my love for competition comes from the way that I was raised

and and having two older brothers to, you know, be in the backyard with and occasionally take a

beating from. You know how it goes, but I grew up in South Florida and then I mean, I just love

sports from day one. And I remember I was watching sports center one day and I thought, God,

that'd be a cool job. Like what, what, what is there better than to be on TV talking sports if,

you know, if you're not good enough to play them, which is my case, I went through high school,

played baseball, played a bunch of different sports and then my focus became journalism and

this, this path that it's taking me down. Well, Matt, I read where you were entertaining your

times where you muted the TV and you became a broadcaster doing the games, calling the games.

Is this something you really wanted to do as a youngster? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I just thought,

gosh, this is one of the best jobs you could have. I grew up, you know, I'll tilt my hand here a

little bit. I grew up with Big Red Sox fan and I was, I fell in love with Don Ursula who now works

for the Padres, but was the Nesson broadcaster along with Jerry Rimmy. And I remember sort of the

joy that Don Ursula and Jerry would bring my house every night. That was a, for me, watching the

Red Sox with my family at the dinner table, especially during the summer months like that was so

important to us and like truly the soundtrack of our house. And I thought, man, that what like,

what a cool career to connect with people, so many different people that you might not know,

but you play a role in their lives. I thought that is really interesting to me. And so that's,

that's part of the inspiration in getting into this. Well, Matt, when you went to high school,

you started your own sports show. How did you do that? How did you become aware of what you were doing?

And the next thing you knew, you were winning awards. Tell me a little bit about your high school

adventure. You know, I got really lucky. My one of my older brothers was kind of the pioneer of

the high school TV production that we had. And I never actually crossed paths with him in high school

who's too old, five years older than me, but he kind of laid this foundation for this great TV

production class. And there was a great teacher by the name of what young love. And when I got there,

he thought I was going to be my brother who was a director and a producer and he did all the

stuff behind the scenes. And I said, no, no, no, I want to be on TV. I want to do it, you know,

in front of the camera. And, you know, after a couple years of him letting me toy around with

stuff, I said, man, we got to have a sports program here. We got such great sports teams.

I was on the baseball team. We had a state championship winning basketball team and our football

team was guys that we got to cover some of our athletes here. Can I do a sports show? And he was

all open to it. And I mean, that was probably the best thing I could have done. I got to run my own

sports center in a way while I was in high school. And that's what gave me my first taste.

That voice you hear in sports phone KMBR is Matt and lively. Of course, he's the sports anchor

for Channel 5 CBS. You moved on to ASU. And from there, you went to Walter Cronkite School of

Journalism. Those things are big movements for you, things that you are achieving and wanting to

go a little further. What did you want to achieve when you went to college?

You know, when I was in high school, it sounds so nerdy now. I went to a sports journalism

camp at ASU when I was about to become a senior in high school because I knew I wanted to get

serious with this. And I went to Arizona State. I went to this boot camp and I got to interview

Larry Fitzgerald. And I remember thinking, wow, if they're letting high school do this,

what are they going to let the kid that's actually paying tuition do when they get here?

And so I got there and I from day one, I just thought, I'm going to soak up everything.

I'm going to say yes to every opportunity that's presented my way. And I'm going to find out,

you know, do I want to do play by play? Do I want to become a reporter and an anchor?

Do I want to become a writer? And so I tried everything. And it was just the great, honestly,

the probably the best decision I've made in my life up until this point was choosing to go to

school there and getting my feet wet and all these different, you know, things. And I fell in

love with storytelling and really learning the best storytellers and sports and in news TV

and how powerful that message is. And I think today when media is in a really bizarre world,

I think I could say storytelling still reigns supreme. And so I think if you can tell a good story,

you can connect with an audience. And that's what I really learned at ASU and tried, have tried

to take that with me the rest of the way. Well, Matt, you started getting into work now. You

ended up going to Waco, Texas. You covered Baylor University, the final fours, the Sugar Bowl,

big 12 championships. You were on your way. And Waco, Texas, there was a lot of things going on

in Texas. But I think you hit it right on the head. Football is a huge sport down there.

What was one of the things you wanted to accomplish as you learned about, you know,

Baylor University, cover and football, because not just college football, you were intrigued in

high school football. Oh, yeah. I mean, I really wanted to immerse myself in something that was

much bigger than sport in my mind. I wanted to experience a ravaged fan base, you know, whether

that be Baylor and what I really learned to be high school football in Texas. I mean, you know,

there shows, there's movies, there are books about the cult that is high school football. And so

jumping head into that, I wanted to experience what that was like. And I definitely did. And it

taught me a lot, you know, I kind of joke now. It's easy to show up to an NFL stadium or an MLB

ballpark and tell a story because these guys are professional athletes. They've been covered for

the last 10, 15 years of their lives. When you have to show up to a high school football field in

nowhere, Texas and interview a sophomore, you got to find his story. You got to you got to figure

out, you know, what's that story? And so it was such a good basis and principle to learn great

storytelling in Texas. And I got to just experience the sheer passion that people had for sport

which really stuck with me. I mean, I had a coach that asked if he could propose to his wife

on live TV after they wanted a football game. Like that's how much it meant to them to win a game

that he wanted to take the moment after that on TV to propose. And so, you know, I just,

I learned so much in Texas and everything that I set out to learn and accomplish there, I felt

like I certainly did. Matt Lively, joining me on Sportsphone K and B.R. Course, you could watch him

on Channel 5, works along with Vern Glenn, two great guys working together and covering sports.

So now you come out to San Francisco, get the opportunity to join Channel 5. You start covering

the 49ers and just recently you went down to Scottsdale, Arizona and covered the Giants.

What did you do when you first met Tony Vittella? What were some of the thoughts you wanted to bring out?

Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I didn't have an opportunity to be at his introductory press conference

back in October. I just happened to be at a town. And so I was excited to do one meet Tony and I

had done a ton of research and I had watched what felt like about every interview he's ever done

on camera before. And I just, I wanted to kind of get a sense of who, who is this guy going to be?

And, you know, so much has been made of can somebody really make the jump from a college locker room

to a major league baseball clubhouse? And I, you know, I think that's still going to be seen.

That's tough to to gauge and just, you know, a couple of days. But I want to get a sense for

his personality. How we interacted with the media? How is put, you know, for me, it was what do

these guys think about him? And his play, you know, his players have rave reviews. He seems like

someone who can connect with a group really quickly. From what it sounds like he's got this great

rental house at Scottsdale or whatever it is. And he's having guys over to the house and they're

bonding. And I think that's really positive. I mean, I just, I came away impressed with Tony

Vitel and I know a lot's been made about, you know, there was sort of a unprompted rant or whatever

you may have about Tennessee. But I think that just goes to show that this guy loves his roots,

loves where he came from. And he's going to get his feet wet and something new. And I think, you

know, his love for the giants will become very evident as we go on throughout the season.

Oh, I totally agree with you and the misconception of a college coach coming into being a big league

manager. Sure, there's a lot of question marks and a lot of different thoughts from all the media.

But you got to give the guy a chance. And I think what he's done is making a winning attitude out

of the clubhouse. You had a chance to walk in that clubhouse. You had a chance to look at the older

guys and the younger guys. How is that mixture working out? It seems great so far. I looked at,

you know, like a great example of this is well after those practices in Scottsdale had ended.

And, you know, these guys are, you know, free to go home. However you want to phrase it,

Harrison Bader and Drew Gilbert, you know, who are on opposite ends of the spectrum, right? Like a

guy that is going to really get me, maybe his first true rookie since this year after just come

up for a little bit last year and Drew Gilbert. And then Harrison Bader, a guy who is a bonafide

MLB vet. Right. They were, they were in the outfield after practice,

shagging balls together. Tony Vitella was hitting them outfield grounders. You know, so that's

that's a veteran taking a young guy under his wing under the watchful eye of their manager.

And I think that was a really cool thing to see. It was like, okay, everybody's invested in

the same thing here. You know, you have, you have Bryce Eldridge working with Raphael Devers at

first base. And, and Ron Washington going as far to say that Rafi has really taken Bryce under

his wing. I think there's a really good mix of veteran leadership and young guys who are hungry.

And, and that's what the giants need. They need that healthy balance and, and to strike something

there with a new era while also capitalizing on the fact that you've just paid guys like Matt

Chapman and Willie Adamus and Devers to lead the way. Matt Lively joined me for a few more minutes

on sports phone KNBR, a young talented player, Bo Davidson. You kind of paralleled him to

Barry Bonds. And his, his physique is unbelievable. How he swings a bat remarkable speed. Everything

that he has is one of the top prospects. What can you tell me a little bit about Bo Davidson?

And why do you think he could be another Barry Bonds? Yeah, you know, I was doing my prep to go

out to Scottsdale and who are the guys that I really wanted to talk to? And, you know, it's not my

comparison to Barry Bonds. This was, you know, scouts, you know, one one scout in particular said,

oh my god, I think I'm watching the next Barry Bonds and the giants came down and they signed him.

He impressed me so much. You know, one, his story is phenomenal. He told me, you know, he's a kid

that comes from a poverty area and that guys like him don't really have success stories. And so

the fact that he has the opportunity that he has was amazing to him. The way he swings the bat,

you know, when you're at the driving range bill and you can tell when there's a 20 handy cap

and then there's a scratch player and you can hear the difference. That like that's how I

described Bo Davidson, the way that the ball sounded coming off of his back was an explosion.

And he was on that backfield in Scottsdale while the main starters were on the main stadium.

And I walked into that backfield and I thought that's interesting. Here's Buster Posey.

Here's Hack Manassian. Here's Randy Wynn. Here's all the really prominent members of the front

office and they're sitting there watching Bo Davidson. And I thought that's, you know, that's

pretty good sign of things to come for a guy when he's got that much interest from really key

members of the giants front office. And he's just got a great head on his shoulders. It seems

and he's very close with Bryce Eldridge. They've played together in the minor leagues and Bryce

told me that he's, you know, both of them have manifested the stream where they're playing together

at Oracle Park. And so I think he's going to be one of the most exciting guys to watch come

through the system. Well, Matt, as we finish up here, I'm glad you threw the golf lesson in here

because I understand you always wanted to be a pro golfer and you're pretty damn good on the

range. And on the course, tell me a little bit about your thoughts about being a golfer.

I mean, for someone that doesn't play sports professionally, is there anything better

than being on a golf course on a beautiful day? Yeah, I've been so busy since moving to St.

When I lived in Texas, I lived across from a golf course. I could walk there and I grew up

in a golf family. And I was raining it in in Texas and honestly, since being in San Francisco,

I'm just so busy. There's hardly a time to get out to the course. So it's been ugly for the

last few times I've been out there. But we have so many amazing courses and so many amazing venues

for golf in Northern California. I've been trying to, you know, check them off the list. And so

I'll continue doing that even if the balls aren't flying straight. Well, Matt, it was a pleasure

getting to know you. I'm glad the audience has finally listened to a little about your story and

how you got here. And I just want to wish you all the luck. And it's a pleasure pleasure. I

keep saying this, but it was fun talking to you today. Thank you so much, Bill. I appreciate

you having me on. That was Matt Lively on sports phone KBR more coming up right here on the sports

leader. Hey sports fans. It's Murf here from my friends at Bigelow T. Every season is Bigelow T

season. And that's why Bigelow is the number one T in the Bay Area. One of the first things I do

each day is reach for a mug full of English breakfast to get me going. I'll have all the Bigelows

different flavor options and it's perfect for someone who makes his living behind a microphone.

You want to know what keeps me going? Look, no further than my cup of Bigelow T next to me

in the studio. So grab a mug full of your favorite Bigelow T and T proudly.