Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Gabe Kapler, whose head must be swimming with a team on a six-game hot streak as he tries to keep the engine going, has noticed the world outside his bubble.
A manager who has knelt during the national anthem since the death of George Floyd saw the viral video of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot seven times Sunday from behind by police in Kenosha, Wis.
Blake’s father reportedly has said Blake is paralyzed from the waist down. Another round of protests has begun in a country dealing with a reckoning over how minorities are treated, particularly in cases of police brutality.
For Kapler, this is more justification for why he takes a knee to shine more light on “systemic racism and racial inequality.”
“When George Floyd was murdered, many spoke up and said that our outrage couldn’t simply be a thing of the moment, but should be sustained, and we should have a push for real change,” the Giants manager said before Tuesday’s series opener with the Dodgers at Oracle Park. “And what happened to Jacob Blake is just another reminder that systemic racism and racial inequality don’t go away simply because we lose our focus or because we get tired. And we have to keep fighting for the most equal and just society because change is not coming without us speaking up and taking action.”
Several Giants have spoken up and taken action, a handful taking the same knee Kapler takes in a movement started by Colin Kaepernick. Mike Yastrzemski, Mauricio Dubon, Austin Slater and first-base coach Antoan Richardson are among those who regularly protest during “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Kapler has pledged he will not keep social issues outside the clubhouse and said Blake, whom police were attempting to arrest during a domestic dispute in which he tried to enter a car that his children were in, was brought up in a coaches meeting Tuesday.
“We continue to think that it’s as important to discuss as any other topic, including baseball,” said Kapler, whose parents were civil rights activists. “It came up today in our advanced meeting and it’s something that we wanted to bring to the forefront.”