On this date: Monday saves the flag
by Mark Langill (Article sent by Mark Waldeland.)
by Mark Langill
A Major League career that spanned 19 seasons is still defined by the 10 seconds that Rick Monday still can’t remember with great detail.
On April 25, 1976, Monday was a member of the Chicago Cubs on a Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Chicago right-hander Ken Crosby was facing leadoff hitter Ted Sizemore. In the corner of his eye from his position in center field, Monday noticed two fans had run onto the field.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” said Monday, who had spent six years in the Marine Corp reserve. “But I knew what they were doing was wrong.”
The pair was attempting to set fire to an American flag after dousing it with lighter fluid. But the matches kept blowing out in the breeze, giving Monday a chance to sprint and snatch the cloth. Monday handed the flag to Dodger pitcher Doug Rau, who was not in the game.
In the press box, Dodger Vice President of Marketing Fred Claire instructed operators of the stadium’s left field message board to type: “Rick Monday … You Made A Great Play.” A spontaneous chorus of “God Bless America” resonated from the crowd of 25,167.
“If you’re going to burn the flag, don’t do it around me,” Monday said after the game, won by the Dodgers 5–4 in 10 innings. “I’ve been to too many veterans’ hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who tried to protect it.”
Monday’s heroics, captured in a Pulitzer Prize nominated image by Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographer James Roark, became the symbol of the country’s bicentennial celebration in 1976. Dodger general manager Al Campanis presented Monday with the flag the next time the Dodgers were in Chicago.
Although sporting a road uniform in 1976, Monday was a Southern California native and very familiar with Dodger Stadium. Monday, a 1962 graduate of Santa Monica High School, nearly signed a contract with Dodger scout Tom Lasorda. But Monday’s mother wanted her son to attend college. After leading Arizona State to the College World Series title in 1965, Monday was the first overall selection by the Kansas City Athletics in the inaugural First-Year Player Draft.
Monday made his Kansas City debut in 1966, and he was traded to the Cubs after the 1971 season in exchange for pitcher Ken Holtzman. After a banner season in 1976 in which Monday batted .272 with 32 home runs and 77 RBI, the Dodgers acquired Monday and pitcher Mike Garman from Chicago in exchange for outfielder Bill Buckner and infielder Ivan DeJesus.
During his Los Angeles tenure from 1977 to 1984, Monday’s biggest highlight in a Dodger uniform was a tie-breaking ninth-inning home run in the deciding Game 5 of the 1981 NL Championship Series at Montreal that gave Los Angeles a 2–1 victory.
During his last season as a player, Monday had a meeting at Universal Studios to discuss broadcasting Dodger games on cable when he retired as a player. One of the movie studio executives mentioned there was a 16-millimeter film of the flag incident, something Monday didn’t know existed. A copy was sent by messenger to his house that evening.
“Rick still hears about the flag every day during the season,” said Dodger broadcaster Charley Steiner, Monday’s partner in the radio booth since 2005. “It doesn’t matter which city we visit, the list of fans who want to say ‘thank you’ range from a veterans group that fought in a war to an elementary school student who wasn’t even born at the time Rick was a player. Rick accepts the attention with modesty and grace. He says anyone would’ve done the same thing if they were in that situation. But not everyone is going to have the same reaction or be able to react in such a quick manner. He was the right person for the job.”
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