PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Former Phillies Manager Gabe Kapler, now skipper of the San Francisco Giants, took a knee during the national anthem before Monday's exhibition at the Oakland Athletics.
"I wanted (our players) to know that I wasn't pleased with the way our country has handled police brutality, 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," he said.
In addition to Kapler, right fielder Jaylin Davis, who is African American, and first base coach Antoan Richardson, who is Black and from the Bahamas, kneeled as well. Shortstop Brandon Crawford put a hand on each of their shoulders. Davis held his right hand over his heart. Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski kneeled as well.
Kapler said their coaching staff and players had a lot of discussions about the anthem in the prior 72 hours. He also shared that a lot of them reached out to people in other organizations about how they could help.
"I told them that I wanted to use my platform to demonstrate my dissatisfaction with the way we've handled racism in our country," Kapler said. "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."
The former Phils manager said he told his players on Monday that the Giants' coaching staff and organization would not pass any judgement for the decision they made, whether it be kneeling or standing.
"I wanted them to feel safe in speaking up, and so we had these kind of discussions for the last several days," he said.
Kapler said those discussions will continue.
While President Donald Trump didn't directly mention Kapler in a Tuesday morning Tweet, he again posted his displeasure with kneeling during the anthem.
Giants President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi released a statement saying, in part, "We're proud of our players and staff for continuing to participate in the national conversation about racial injustice."
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
