LOS ANGELES, United States —
San Francisco
Giants manager Gabe Kapler stood on the field for the pre-game national anthem
Sunday, suspending his protest of US gun violence for the Memorial Day holiday.
اضافة اعلان
Kapler, also a former Phillies skipper, said over
the weekend he wouldn’t take the field for the anthem following the shooting
deaths of 19 children and two teachers last week at a
Uvalde, Texas elementary
school.
But on his personal blog he explained Monday that he
would make an exception for Memorial Day, when the Giants played in
Philadelphia.
“Today, I’ll be standing for the anthem,” Kapler
wrote.
“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 servicemen and women who fought and died for that right,”
he added.
“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.”
On Friday, Kapler said he would stay in the
clubhouse during the anthem performance “until I feel better about the
direction of our country.”
Kapler wrote that he knew the decision would be
divisive, with many preferring sports to offer a respite from “the horrors of
the world.”
“But I am not OK with the state of this country,” he
wrote. “I learned from my dad, that when you’re dissatisfied with your country,
you let it be known through protest. The home of the brave should encourage
this.”
Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa disagreed
with that stance, but others in baseball, including New York Mets manager Buck
Showalter,
Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward, and Boston Red Sox manager
Alex Cora said they supported him.
Steve Kerr, coach of the
NBA’s Golden State
Warriors, said peaceful protest such as Kapler’s was “what our country is
founded on.”
Kerr had used his basketball team’s pre-game press
conference Tuesday to make a powerful plea for gun control just hours after the
shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School.
Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka kept the matter at
the forefront Sunday night, even as his team celebrated a victory over the
Miami Heat to reach the NBA Finals.
As he took questions about the game and his team’s
championship prospects, Udoka interjected remarks saying it was too soon to let
the Uvalde shooting slip from the mind.
“We talk about this game that we love and put all
our passion into, and it’s not life or death,” Udoka said. “We win or we lose,
we go home and kiss our kids, and you move on either way.
“But you sit back and think about 19 children and two adults
that don’t get that. That’s life or death. That’s real,” he said.
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