In just one exhibition game, the San Francisco Giants became wokest team in MLB.
Ahead of a shortened 60-game regular season, teams across the league have been partaking in exhibition games with other MLB teams. These games serve as something of a dress rehearsal for the regular season; a preview for what things will look like come Opening Day.
For the San Francisco Giants, yesterday’s exhibition game against the Oakland Athletics was an opportunity to not only work out the kinks ahead of the first game of the season, but it was also the first chance they got to show their support for the current movement fighting against social injustice in our great country.
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Taking a page out of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, several players knelt during the national anthem. It was also the first time an MLB team’s manager joined in the protest by also taking a knee.
“I wasn’t pleased with the way our country handled police brutality,” Gabe Kapler said in addressing why he knelt during the national anthem, “I wanted to amplify the voice of the black community and marginalized communities as well.”
MLB promptly showed support for the Giants by posting a video of the protest on their official twitter account:
Members of the @SFGiants kneel during the National Anthem. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/QbvAvCZiEs
— MLB (@MLB) July 21, 2020
They even went as far as responding to one user who felt that the Giants were disrespecting our military. “It has never been about the military or the flag,” MLB replied, “the players and coaches are using their platforms to peacefully protest.”
Farhan Zaidi, Giants President of Baseball Operations, also released a statement on the team’s official twitter account showing support for the players and their manager. “We’re proud of our players and staff for continuing to participate in the national conversations bout racial injustice,” Zaidi wrote.
Later in the game, the Giants made history again by replacing their first base coach with Alyssa Nakken, the first woman to coach in an on-field capacity.
Nakken, a 4x All-American softball player at Sacramento State, officially joined the Giants organization in 2014 as an intern in the Baseball Ops department. She has since been promoted and is now “developing, producing, and directing a number of the organization’s health and wellness initiatives and events,” according to ESPN.
If nothing else, the San Francisco Giants have given us another reason to be excited about the 2020 MLB season. Hopefully, more teams will follow suit.