The Day Rick Monday Made One of Baseball’s Most Patriotic Plays

00:00:10
Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people, coming to you from the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Up next is the story about the greatest play in baseball history. And I know what you’re thinking: that perfect game pitched way back when in Yankee Stadium, or maybe that great catch by Willie Mays, or the Hank Aaron home run that broke the Major League Baseball home run record. That’s none of those. Here to tell the story of the greatest play ever made in a baseball stadium is Blake Stillwell, our regular contributor. Take it away, Blake.

00:00:58
Speaker 2: On April twenty-fifth, seventy-six, amid the national pride of America’s Bicentennial year, one of Major League Baseball’s most unforgettable moments unfolded at Dodger Stadium. Not in the form of a dramatic home run or a game-winning pitch, but through an act of patriotism. Rick Monday’s name may not ring a bell for younger MLB fans, but it’s a guarantee your elders know who he is.

00:01:27
Speaker 1: That ball is on a here and a home run for Rick Monday, and the Dodger bench players. They congratulate Rick.

00:01:35
Speaker 2: Besides being the top prospect for the nineteen sixty-five Major League Baseball Draft and playing for the Athletics, Cubs, and Dodgers over nineteen seasons and winning a World Series with Los Angeles, Monday is actually best known for defending the American flag in the middle of a baseball game. On that fateful day, the Cubs were facing off against the Dodgers in a closely contested matchup. At the bottom of the fourth inning, two strangely dressed hippies made their way out on the baseball field and crouched down in left center of the outfield. There they began dousing an American flag in kerosene, preparing to set Old Glory ablaze. It was supposed to be an active protest, filmed on live TV right there in front of Dodger Stadium, the United States, and the world. But after the batter in play hit a pop fly, Monday noticed the commotion. As a former U.S. Marine Corps Reserve member and a man with deep respect for the flag and the country it represents, Monday did not hesitate. He sprinted towards the men and snatched the flag from the ground just in time.

00:02:43
Speaker 3: All! I’m not sure what he’s doing out there. It looks like he’s going to burn a flag, and Rick thanks away from it!

00:02:56
Speaker 2: The crowd erupted in applause and shears as he seized the flag and continued running with it toward the dugout.

00:03:04
Speaker 3: Well, I got to lose him on Monday. When he realized what he was going to do, Rick Monday took the flag away from him.

00:03:14
Speaker 2: The act was met with an overwhelming emotional response from fans. After the inning ended, the stadium spontaneously broke into a rendition of ‘God Bless America.’ Then, as Monday stepped up to bat in the top of the fifth inning, the Dodger Stadium scoreboard lit up with a message of gratitude and admiration: ‘Rick Monday, you made a great play.’ ‘If you’re going to burn the flag, don’t do it around me,’ he said. ‘I’ve been to too many veterans hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who tried to protect it.’

00:03:51
Speaker 4: It’s the way I was brought up to respect it, and those that really carried the rights and freedoms that all of us have, if we exercise those, reinforced by six years serving in the Marine Reserves while I was playing Major League Baseball.

00:04:05
Speaker 2: Monday received the flag as a gift after it was no longer evidence in a criminal case.

00:04:10
Speaker 4: But the ivory of it is taking the flag away from those two guys that Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. My wife and I have that flag, and we take it around the country and raise money. Helped raise money for military charities. And that’s important because we are where we are, and it needs to be improved, and we’re the ones that can improve it. But a lot of people represented the rights and freedoms that that flag represents, and some paid the ultimate price that affected a lot of families.

00:04:44
Speaker 2: In twenty sixteen, on the fortieth anniversary of the event, Monday said: ‘The very symbol that represents the rights and freedoms for all of us in this country is the flag. The very flag that two guys were trying to desecrate on this field forty years ago has helped raise money for military charities. It continues to live long after I’m gone. This is something my family will continue to do. We’ve had a great response all around this country.’ Rick Monday’s actions that day continue to be celebrated not only as a proud moment in sports history, but as a rare instance when athletic instinct aligned perfectly with personal conviction and national values. And a year devoted to commemorating America’s founding, a simple, decisive act by a ballplayer reminded the country that patriotism can show itself in unexpected places, even in the middle of a baseball game.

00:05:47
Speaker 1: And a terrific job where the production, editing, and storytelling by Iron Monty Montgomery and Reagan Habib, and a special thanks to Blake Stillwell, who writes for ‘We Are the Mighty.’ And there was a former Air Force worse combat videographer and journalist, and what a story he told! That was the two hundredth anniversary. And if something like that happened today on a baseball field, we can only hope that a ballplayer would do the same thing. There are times and places for protests. Burning the American flag in front of a guy who served six years in the Marine Corps? Well, that just wasn’t going to fly. And by the way, Monday did more than that. He then took that flag and, well, went around the country raising money for veterans because so many people remembered that great play. And again, we started off with a teaser: the greatest play in baseball history. And folks, there’s no other play like it. Go to YouTube and watch it! The speed with which Monday made that move! Within seconds, that flag would have been ablaze. The story of the day Rick Monday saved the flag from being burned by a couple of hippies at Dodgers. Here on Our American Stories, Lee Habib here, and I’m inviting you to help Our American Stories celebrate this country’s two hundred-and-fiftieth birthday, only a short time away. If you want to help inspire countless others to love America like we do, and want to help us bring the inspiring and important stories told ear to millions for years to come, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot; any amount helps. Go to OurAmericanStories.com and give.