“Deserves special attention” – Giants manager Gabe Kapler likely to suspend protest during national anthem on Memorial Day

“Deserves special attention” – Giants manager Gabe Kapler likely to suspend protest during national anthem on Memorial Day

Gabe Kapler

San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler, who has not been taking the field during the national anthem as a protest following last week’s Texas school shooting, said he may suspend that decision Monday in recognition of Memorial Day. Kapler earlier took this decision to protest the nation’s political direction and continue “until he feels better about the direction of our country.”

However, the 46-year-old reckoned he wasn’t definitive about taking the field or not on Memorial Day, when his Giants play the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday. “I’m very comfortable taking it day by day,” Kapler said, as quoted by ESPN.com. “I think I’ll just decide what makes the most sense at the moment.

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“Memorial Day is an important day in our country’s history and a special day and a unique day,” he said. “I find it to be one that deserves special attention.”

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“Don’t expect it to move the needle necessarily”

Gabe Kapler
Gabe Kapler

In a blog post published earlier on his lifestyle brand website, Kapler wrote that he needs more time to consider specific actions he might suggest being taken to prevent more tragedies of this type, such as stronger gun control laws. The former baseball outfielder added that he is “not okay with the state of this country” and that he “felt like a coward” for not protesting “the lack of delivery on the promise of what our national anthem represents.”

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“I don’t expect it to move the needle necessarily,” Kapler said of his decision to not take the field for the anthem. “It’s just something that I feel strongly enough about to take that step.”

“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. I don’t believe it is representing us well right now,” Kapler wrote.

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