Several Giants, including Gabe Kapler, knelt for the national anthem. pic.twitter.com/qMIkwOaFOn
— KNBR (@KNBR) July 21, 2020
The majority of the in-person eyes that were fixed on Gabe Kapler were cardboard, dummies “watching” from the stands. A few media members were on hand, but the players greatly outnumbered them. Some cadres of security guards idled, everything about the scene screaming minor league. Screaming obscurity.
It was under these conditions, as the Giants are set to embark on a bizarre, 60-game season, played during a pandemic, that Gabe Kapler and several of his coaches and players stepped — or knelt — into a conversation they would not be left out of.
The manager, hitting coach Justin Viele, first-base coach Antoan Richardson and outfielders Jaylin Davis, Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Slater were spotted kneeling on the same field Bruce Maxwell once knelt, in the same region Colin Kaepernick spearheaded the movement to protest police brutality against minorities. Brandon Crawford stood between Davis and Richardson, his hands resting on a shoulder of each in support. Other Giants stood — not because they were, by rote, supposed to stand during the national anthem but because they chose to stand during the national anthem.
After his first non-Cactus League victory as manager of the Giants, a 6-2 exhibition win over the A’s whose result was rendered especially meaningless, Kapler said he was “extremely proud” of the club. And not just those who matched his eye level.
The Giants had talked as a team for days leading up to the first playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” conversing among themselves what personal decision each would make. Kapler said many, himself included, reached out to different organizations to decide the best route of expressing outrage in the face of systemic racism.
“I spoke to the group today, and I gave them essentially two messages: The first message was our coaching staff and our organization would support any statement that they wanted to make. If they kneeled for the anthem, we would support that,” Kapler said on a Zoom call following the game. “If they stood for the anthem, we would support that, too. And we wouldn’t pass judgment on them for making any statement or standing up for what they believe in or expressing themselves.”
His second message was personal: his own plans for a person whose parents were involved in the civil rights movement.
“I wanted them to know that I wasn’t pleased with the way our country has handled police brutality,” said Kapler, who has supported Black Lives Matter and been vocally furious after the death of George Floyd in police custody. “And I told them that I wanted to amplify their voices. And I wanted to amplify the voice of the Black community and marginalized communities as well. And so, I told them that I wanted to use my platform to demonstrate my dissatisfaction with the way we’ve handled racism in our country.
“I wanted to demonstrate my dissatisfaction with our clear systemic racism in our country, and I wanted them to know that they get to make their own decisions, and we would respect and support those decisions. I wanted them to feel safe in speaking up.”
They talked, and they talked, and they talked. And they aren’t going to stop talking. There are 60 games in the regular season, Kapler said, meaning there are 60 decisions for each person to make. He had promised he would bring “difficult” conversations into the Giants’ clubhouse. He will keep them there.
Kapler called it a “good start,” and he did not mean the nine pitchers who stymied A’s bats or Austin Slater driving in five runs.
“I thought everybody in our clubhouse, everybody on the field tonight, everybody in the dugout, every member of the Giants organization that was in this ballpark was very thoughtful about their choice,” Kapler said. “And I’m proud of them.”
He had been thinking about whether he wanted to kneel for a long while; he has been speaking out on social media since Floyd’s death went viral. He would not predict whether he or others would continue to kneel, but insisted they would remain together regardless of a player’s choice.
“I can say unequivocally that whatever they choose to do, they’re going to have my full support and the support of our organization,” Kapler said on a day Alyssa Nakken became the first female first-base coach in Major League Baseball history.
Kapler knelt, his first real step as Giants manager.