San Francisco Giants Manager And Players Take Knee During National Anthem

America’s national pastime, professional baseball, has returned. No sooner did the sport return than the manager of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, as well as several of his players, kneel during the national anthem before their 6-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Monday. And so it begins again.

San Francisco Giants Manager, Some Players, Take Knee During Anthem

Fox News reported that Giants manager Gabe Kapler had announced plans to kneel for the anthem when he spoke to his players earlier in the day. He reportedly told them that the team would support them whether they kneeled or stood for the anthem.

Kapler said:

“I wanted them to know that I wasn’t pleased with the way our country has handled police brutality and I told them I wanted to amplify their voices and I wanted to amplify the voice of the Black community and marginalized communities as well.”

“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 got to make their own decisions and we would respect and support those decisions. I wanted them to feel safe in speaking up.”

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Players Take A Knee As Well

Other Giants players and coaches took a knee during the anthem as well, including right fielder Jaylin Davis and first base coach Antoan Richardson.

Shortstop Brandon Crawford reportedly stood between the two of them with one hand on each of their shoulders.

Kapler said that the team had engaged in many discussions about this beforehand. And, that they would continue to have these talks and to “make them a part of the fabric of our clubhouse.”

“We’ve had a lot of conversations about the anthem over the course of the last 72 hours and when I say we, I mean our coaching staff and our players,” Kapler said. “We connected with small groups of players, we connected with players individually and had meaningful conversations about this topic.”

While the coach is chatting it up with the players and having meaningful conversations, fans are taking to social media to show their thoughts on the matter:

Angels Player Kneels During Anthem

Meanwhile, in San Diego, Angels reliever Keynan Middleton took a knee with one fist in the air during the national anthem before his team beat the Padres 1-0. Angels manager Joe Maddon said that Middleton had told him ahead of time that he would be kneeling. And, Maddon was “totally supportive” of the decision.

“I’m very proud that he stood up for his beliefs tonight. I really am,” Maddon said. “It’s not easy to do that, a young man like himself, being the only one out here doing that.”

All of this nonsense can be blamed on Colin Kaepernick. He began taking a knee for the national anthem before games when he was quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.

Kneeling for the national anthem and therefore disrespecting the American flag has since become the “hip” and “woke” thing to do in all sporting events.

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It’s unfortunate that Americans can’t even tune into their favorite sports these days without seeing our country disrespected to its core in the worst way possible.