For the past couple of years, there’s been a distracting trend in American sports: kneeling or not standing for the national anthem. Thankfully, one Major League Baseball team is stopping all of that.
As USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported on Friday, the San Francisco Giants team has largely followed the trend, allowing players to stand, sit, kneel, whatever they want during the national anthem, which is still sung at the start of every game.
However, this policy is now going away, thanks to new team manager Bob Melvin.
Now, the entire team will be required to come out of the dugout, onto the field, and stand for the singing of our national anthem.
And no, the new rule has nothing to do with politics. Hell, it doesn’t even have to do with patriotism, according to Melvin.
Instead, as he told Nightengale, it has to do with a united team and being “ready to play.”
“You want your team ready to play and I want the other team to notice it too. It’s as simple as that. They’re embracing it.”
To be sure, he has a point. There is nothing quite so disappointing to see your favorite team start the game just sitting in the dugout. I mean, this should be when the team is at its highest point, eager to go, ready to play, to show off their best.
And yet, for years, they’ve just sat there… Like I said, it doesn’t exactly inspire.
So Melvin wants to change that.
“I want the guys here ready to go. There’s a personality to that. It has nothing to do with whatever happened in the past or whatever, it’s just something I embrace.”
And by the looks of social media responses, most of the fans and crowds will embrace it, too.
About time this is such a distraction to the game. Just play baseball
— Gianni, Spokeperson for None of These (@giannipov) March 4, 2024
@StevenACohen2 needs to make this Mets policy. Last couple games I went to in September only 5-10 players could be bothered to come out of the clubhouse for the anthem. Change the culture.
— Sean (@SLCDmac98) March 4, 2024
As it should be, ohmigosh.
— Randi Novak (@rnovak1111) March 4, 2024
Now, let’s hope other teams decide to adopt the same strategy.
