SAN FRANCISCO — Only one player compared to Brandon Belt in Tony Vitello‘s eyes.
“The easiest way to put it is he and Kershaw were arguably the best two lefties in the state of Texas and, therefore, at the time, the country, too, really,” the Giants manager recalled from when he recruited the Giants’ beloved first baseman to the University of Missouri.
That’s right: First baseman. And in the conversation with Kershaw.
Belt, 38, put a ribbon on a 13-year big-league career — all but one in San Francisco — with a celebration in his honor before the Giants hosted the Marlins on Saturday. He never officially announced his retirement, but he hasn’t been on a big-league roster since 2023.
Once such a hotly debated player among fans that the “Belt Wars” were coined, Belt became a core piece of two World Series clubs and a 107-win NL West champion squad, eventually logging more games at first base than anybody in the franchise’s long history besides Willie McCovey.
Before Belt became a standard bearer at first base for the Giants in the modern era, Vitello was more interested in his talents on the mound. Vitello was still rising through the collegiate coaching ranks, as an assistant at Missouri, when Belt was coming out of Hudson High in deep east Texas.
At the same time, Kershaw was dominating high school hitters in the Dallas area. The Dodgers selected the future Hall of Famer sixth overall that spring, and the rest is history.
Belt was equally “incredible” on the mound, according to Vitello. However, shoulder issues eventually put him on his path as one of the most beloved players in modern Giants history.
Back on the recruiting trail, Vitello remembered Belt being “incredibly cordial” even though his Tigers “probably had no chance of actually landing him.” He eventually picked the University of Texas.
In one conversation, Vitello remembered Belt telling him of a home run he hit.
“I joked with him … I said maybe if you come to Missouri, we’ll let you hit, too,” Vitello chuckled. “Because we were recruiting him as a pitcher. That didn’t age very, very well. He can definitely hit.”
Belt appeared in 16 games on the mound for the Longhorns with a 4.19 ERA but earned his stripes at the plate, where he batted .321 with 37 doubles and 14 home runs in 124 games across two seasons.
“He just was a doubles machine, nonstop,” Vitello said. “His at-bats were always aggravating. … He was a guy you were always annoyed with. He was a threat but also you were annoyed with him.”
Maybe Belt didn’t pan out as a pitcher, but that scouting report held up fine. Belt’s 267 career doubles rank sixth in Giants history, and few at-bats in major league history will be remembered as more aggravating than his 21-pitch battle with Angels right-hander Jaime Barria in 2018.
This story will be updated.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
