Gabe Kapler: MLB’s liberal jock in America’s most conservative league

They were teammates on the curse-busting 2004 Boston Red Sox: Curt Schilling, the brilliant and brave pitcher, and Gabe Kapler, a journeyman outfielder who boasted the physique of Charles Atlas yet was somehow never a home run threat.

Schilling became a far-right pundit-provocateur in retirement, a man as committed to owning the libs as he once was to beating the New York Yankees. The Donald Trump supporter has considered running for Congress and his Twitter feed was a predictable festival of Fox News-grade fatuity following the Uvalde massacre (because it is clear America will slide into autocracy if teenagers can’t buy AR-15s).

Kapler, meanwhile, was hired as the San Francisco Giants’ manager in late 2019 after a stint in charge of the Philadelphia Phillies. Rather than resort to memes, insults and straw-man arguments after 19 children and two teachers were killed at a Texan elementary school, he posted a 700-word essay on his blog explaining his decision to stop standing on the field for the pregame national anthem.

“I’m often struck before our games by the lack of delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents,” he wrote. “Every time I place my hand over my heart and remove my hat, I’m participating in a self-congratulatory glorification of the ONLY country where these mass shootings take place.”

The 46-year-old added: “I am not OK with the state of this country … when you’re dissatisfied with your country, you let it be known through protest. The home of the brave should encourage this.”

His move, coming after the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays used their social media channels last Thursday to post facts about gun violence rather than game updates, catapulted America’s most staid major sports league, and