Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, the national pastime is getting a national disgrace.
San Francisco Giants Manager Gabe Kapler has decided to take a stand against gun violence by refusing to stand on the field for the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and some of his professional peers are backing him up.
But a Hall of Famer who’s still in the game isn’t buying it at all.
Kapler’s players aren’t exactly setting off fireworks on the field so far this season — a third-place team, three games over .500 — but the manager made headlines last week when he announced he would no longer take the field for the national anthem because of Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Kapler announced his disillusionment with the anthem in a blog post on Thursday, then followed through with it on Friday by walking off the field for the pre-game anthem before the Giants played the Reds in Cincinnati, according to The Washington Post.
“I don’t plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel, like … I feel better about the direction of our country,” Kapler told reporters Wednesday.
“I don’t expect it to move the needle necessarily. It’s just something that I feel strongly enough about to take that step.”
Being as Kapler’s team is in San Francisco, the manager will probably get plenty of liberal, home-town love for his stand not to stand — and making it on the weekend of a holiday the country dedicates to American war dead is the kind of loathsome touch the left swoons for.
Even some of Kapler’s fellow managers are supporting the decision, according to CBS News, with Texas Rangers Manager Chris Woodward calling it “brave.”
(Note to Woodward, “brave” is the Border Patrol agent who killed the gunman in Robb Elementary School. “Brave” is wearing the uniform of military service and accepting all that that implies. “Brave” is not some sap of a West Coast baseball hack taking a position virtually guaranteed to be supported by the mainstream media, liberal politicians and all the Beautiful People from San Francisco to Southern California and beyond.)
Fortunately for the sanity of the country, there is still some sanity left in Major League Baseball.
Chicago White Sox Manager Tony La Russa acknowledged Kapler had a right to his opinion — as does every American — but said the baseball diamond, while the national anthem is being played, is not the place or time to express it.
“Where I disagree is that the flag and the anthem are not appropriate places to try to voice your objections,” La Russa said Saturday, according to USA Today.
La Russa said it wasn’t just a question of Kapler disrespecting the flag. It’s a matter of showing respect for the men and women wearing the uniform of the country’s military service now — knowing full well the potential they might lose their lives doing so.
“Some of their courage comes from what the flag means to them and when they hear the anthem,” La Russa said, according to USA Today.
At 77, a baseball legend who has already been inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, the famously old-school La Russa is an acknowledged master of the game. But his fellow managers could also learn a lot from him about love of country.
“You need to understand — maybe just because I’m older. And I’ve been around veterans more than the average person,” he told reporters, according to USA Today. “You need to understand what the veterans think when they hear the anthem or see they see the flag. And the cost they paid and their families paid.
“And if you truly understand that, I think it’s impossible not to salute the flag and listen to the anthem.”
Do you agree with Tona LaRussa?
Clearly, Kapler and his crew don’t understand that. And if they’re not getting it on Memorial Day Weekend, they’re not really not getting it — and the chances are, they won’t be any time soon.
Naturally, Twitter was full of lefties who loved Kapler’s move. But plenty of social media users felt the same way as La Russa:
Tony La Russa is correct. If Gabe wants to protest, get a sign and stand on the street corner. YOU STAND FOR THE NATIONAL ANTHEM AND THE FLAG!https://t.co/mYQ7bcliF1
— Ron Stoddard (@Stoddard1776) May 29, 2022
LaRussa is right. @gabekapler makes big money, yet bashes a country that enables him to earn such wealth over a game.
Kapler’s protest is just away to inject his far-left-wing politics publicly.
He is ignorant on the facts. @WhitlockJason @ClayTravis https://t.co/GScZ0J1wQ5
— Steve Spingola (@MilwSpinny) May 29, 2022
Exactly. Kapler is an empty suit entitled never been who has no clue what bravery, service and sacrifice is. White Sox’s Tony La Russa calls Giants’ Gabe Kapler’s national anthem protest ‘not appropriate’ https://t.co/Bi616eOmI2 #FoxNews
— Paul Vincent Hockey (@PV_Hockey) May 29, 2022
Why do these people have any platform to begin with. He’s not a nurse, he’s not a teacher, he’s not a truck driver, he makes no difference in anyones life. He’s an overpaid baseball manager. An anti American nobody. I say eff him. https://t.co/Q0McRYeWGG
— DogDadOhio (@dogdadohio) May 28, 2022
Major League Baseball has done plenty to embarrass itself recently. It caved during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 (naturally, Kapler was a kneeler then, too). It caused a national uproar with Commissioner Rob Manfred’s notorious decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in 2021 to protest a Georgia voting law that was supposed to be “voter suppression” — but resulted in record-setting turnout this year.
And now, an MLB manager is disrespecting the “The Star-Spangled Banner” for spurious reasons and getting support from his fellow managers — even on Memorial Day weekend.
National pastime? They’re a national disgrace.
