San Francisco Giants manager: 'I don't plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country'

By Kevin Dotson, CNN

Updated 0007 GMT (0807 HKT) May 28, 2022

Gabe Kapler, San Francisco Giants manager.

(CNN)San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters ahead of his team's Friday game against the Cincinnati Reds that he intends to forgo the pregame US national anthem moving forward.

Speaking in the dugout of the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kapler said, «I don't plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country.»The 2021 National League Manager of the Year's comments were accompanied by a written statement on his website sharing his thoughts after 19 children and two adults were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by a lone, 18-year-old gunman.In a blog post, Kapler questioned whether the country's leadership is committed to representing its people's best interests and whether the United States is truly «the land of the free and the home of the brave.»Live Updates: 21 killed in Texas school massacreRead More«We weren't given bravery, and we aren't free. The police on the scene put a mother in handcuffs as she begged them to go in and save her children. They blocked parents trying to organize to charge in to stop the shooter, including a father who learned his daughter was murdered while he argued with the cops. We aren't free when politicians decide that the lobbyist and gun industries are more important than our children's freedom to go to school without needing bulletproof backpacks and active shooter drills,» Kapler wrote.Later, Kapler wrote about his disillusionment with what he called «the lack of delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents.»«I am not okay with the state of this country. I wish I hadn't