Giants manager Gabe Kapler suspends protest, stands for anthem on Memorial Day
PHILADELPHIA -- Days after announcing he would not participate in game-day national anthem ceremonies to protest the nation's gun policies, San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler came out to stand for the anthem on Memorial Day before the Giants game against Philadelphia.
The Giants were playing the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia Monday afternoon and Kapler was on the field for a pregame ceremony honoring fallen servicemembers along with the national anthem. In a blog post Monday, Kapler said for Memorial Day, he would suspend his protest which he announced following the massacre of children at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
"While I believe strongly in the right to protest and the importance of doing so, I also believe strongly in honoring and mourning our country's service men and women who fought and died for that right," Kapler wrote. "Those who serve in our military, and especially those who have paid the ultimate price for our rights and freedoms, deserve that acknowledgment and respect, and I am honored to stand on the line today to show mine."
Kapler also said for Memorial Day he would donating to two organizations: Everytown for Gun Safety, which is dedicated to ending gun violence, along with Heart & Armor, a group devoted to veterans' health.
On Monday, the Giants and other Major League Baseball teams sported a uniform patch of a red poppy with a caption saying "Lest We Forget" to mark Memorial Day 2022.
Today we honor and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. #MemorialDay | #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/rEgjfNMMDr
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 30, 2022
Following the Texas school mass shooting, Kapler said he wanted to take a knee during the national anthem ceremony but decided not to call attention to himself and take away from the victims or their families. He said he later felt like a coward for not kneeling or walking back inside the clubhouse, and later announced going forward he would not come outside for the national anthem "until I feel better about the direction of our country."
In 2020, Kapler and other Giants players knelt during the national anthem before a number of games to protest systemic racism in the country.