(Reuters) – San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler decided that in honor of the Memorial Day holiday on Monday he would pause his plan to sit out the national anthem in protest against what he views as U.S. government inaction on gun violence.
Kapler stopped taking the field for the pre-game playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” last Friday, three days after the massacre of 19 children and two teachers in the deadliest U.S. school shooting in nearly a decade.
But Kapler took the field on Monday when his team opened a three-game series against the host Philadelphia Phillies given that the U.S. Memorial Day holiday honors the country’s fallen soldiers.
“Today, I’ll be standing for the anthem,” Kapler wrote in a blog post ahead of the game.
“While I believe strongly in the right to protest and the importance of doing so, I also believe strongly in honoring and mourning our country’s service men and women who fought and died for that right.
“Those who serve in our military, and especially those who have paid the ultimate price for our rights and freedoms, deserve that acknowledgment and respect, and I am honored to stand on the line today to show mine.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)
