The Most Patriotic Moment in MLB History
Few things in this world are, literally and figuratively, as incendiary as the burning of the American flag.
It’s despicable, disrespectful and one of the lowest thing an American could ever do.
Having said that, if there’s the slimmest of silver linings when someone tries to burn the flag, it’s that good and decent people have the opportunity to rise up and stop them.
One such good and decent person? Former MLB center fielder Rick Monday.
Monday had a storied MLB career that spanned 19 seasons. He was a two-time All Star and a member of the 1981 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Monday hit the game-winning home run in the decisive Game 5 of the NLCS that year.
He also has the distinction of being the first player to be drafted in the first MLB amateur draft.
And yet many baseball fans will remember Monday more for his heroics on April 25, 1976, than for any of the incredible things he accomplished on a baseball diamond.
Monday was a member of the Chicago Cubs on that fateful day as they visited Los Angeles to play the Dodgers. What should’ve been a celebration of America’s pastime during the country’s bicentennial quickly went sideways in the fourth inning.
That’s when Monday noticed a pair of hooligans who had jumped the fence and ran into the outfield.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. Is it because they had too much to drink. Did they have a bet?” Monday told MLB.com. “All you know is something isn’t right. Then I saw one of them had something cradled under his arm, which was the American flag.”
From there, the pair unfurled an American flag and doused it in oil. It didn’t take long for Monday to make his move.
“What I knew was what they were doing was wrong then, and it’s wrong today,” Monday said. “I had a lot of friends who lost their lives protecting the rights and freedoms that flag represented. I’m not sure what I was thinking, except I was angry and I started to run after them.”
Fortunately for decent people everywhere, a wind blew out the match on the first attempt to burn the flag. By the time the second match was lit, Monday was able to reach them.
“They were going to put the match to the flag, and it was soaked in lighter fluid,” remember Monday. “My attitude was if they don’t have it, they can’t light it, so I scooped the flag up and kept running. I didn’t know if it was on fire or not, but I did know one of the guys was not a [baseball prospect]. He threw the can of lighter fluid at me, but he didn’t have a good enough arm to hit me.”
The entire ordeal was an iconic moment that Monday has used as a platform to aid various charities he holds dear.
“The irony is the flag that they attempted to desecrate that afternoon is something my wife and I have taken across the country and have used to raise more than $500,000 for military charities,” Monday said.
The moment was iconic enough that the Dodgers celebrate the event despite Monday’s not having been a Dodger yet at the time of the incident.
First Look: Rick Monday "Flag Saving" Bobblehead: https://t.co/80xF9Wi6eD
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 16, 2013
Monday, 72, retired in 1984 and has been a Dodgers broadcaster for 25 years.
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