San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters prior to his team’s Friday night game against the Cincinnati Reds that he will not be taking the field for the national anthem and will not be doing so until he feels better about the direction of the country in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting that occurred earlier this week.
Journalist Andrew Baggerly tweeted, “Gabe Kapler told reporters in Cincinnati that he doesn’t plan on coming out for the national anthem and that will be his plan going forward ‘until I feel better about the direction of our country.’”
Kapler, who has been the Giants’ manager since 2019, also published an online essay explaining his decision Friday afternoon.
“When I was the same age as the children in Uvalde, my father taught me to stand for the pledge of allegiance when I believed my country was representing its people well or to protest and stay seated when it wasn’t,” Kapler explained. “I don’t believe it is representing us well right now.”
On Tuesday, a gunman killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, at Robb Elementary School. Kapler noted that he wanted to protest the anthem on Wednesday evening, but didn’t.
“On Wednesday, I walked out onto the field, I listened to the announcement as we honored the victims in Uvalde. I bowed my head. I stood for the national anthem. Metallica riffed on City Connect guitars,” he explained.
“My brain said drop to a knee; my body didn’t listen,” Kapler continued. “I wanted to walk back inside; instead I froze. I felt like a coward. I didn’t want to call attention to myself. I didn’t want to take away from the victims or their families. There was a baseball game, a rock band, the lights, the pageantry. I ... (Read more)
Tweets mentioned:
Submitted 670 days ago
Latest News