PHILADELPHIA _ In the weeks leading up to opening day 2020, the face of Black Lives Matter in Major League Baseball influenced the most prominent fellow protester to join in the most controversial of protests.
Andrew McCutchen encouraged former manager Gabe Kapler to kneel during the national anthem _ a hot-button gesture that McCutchen himself did not make.
On Thursday night in Los Angeles, Kapler, who now manages the Giants, became the first head coach or manager of a major North American professional sports team to kneel during the national anthem to protest social injustices endured by Blacks in America. It was a monumental gesture, endorsed by Cutch.
"Andrew is very influential for me," Kapler told me Friday afternoon. "I've been having a lot of conversations and doing a lot of listening, figuring out ways I can help by amplifying the voices of the Black community. Andrew shared his perspective. He's shared it consistently. It's been very helpful for me."
McCutchen and his wife, Maria, developed the pregame ceremony enacted in all ballparks, including the Phillies' opener against the Marlins on Friday night, but that ceremony did not necessarily include kneeling. McCutchen is pleased that his counsel of Kapler produced such a brave and committed ally.
"That's what we want. I'm not saying I want you to kneel; what I'm saying is I want you to understand what's happening in our nation," McCutchen said. He helped Kapler understand, and spurred Kapler to post a clear explanation on Twitter after the Giants game Thursday night _ at 4:02 a.m. Eastern time.
"Gabe, in his position, him doing what he felt ... was for him was the right thing to do. To speak out publicly and to kneel. That's something that he felt meant a lot to him," McCutchen said. "I commend him for that. I know Kapler enough to know that he's not just saying it to say it. He's going to be about it."
Make no mistake: Kapler is all-in with BLM.
"My beliefs are that Black lives matter," Kapler said about four hours before the Giants played in Los Angeles again. "My beliefs are that we need to come together as an industry in our communities nationally, and in the world, to promote diversity and inclusion. And I don't think we've done a good job of doing those things in this country for a very, very long time."
He paused, then went further: "I don't think we have, to date, done a very good job of doing those things in this country."
Would he kneel again?
Stay tuned.
"I will continue to make decisions on a daily basis," he said, and repeated the message he gives his clubhouse: "Every day is an opportunity to make a decision, and to make a difference."
