Sports has shaped the identity of America, and has protected her integrity as well. Fifty years ago, Chicago Cubs center-fielder Rick Monday wove the symbol of the United States into the fabric of sports history.
On April 25, 1976, the LA Dodgers played the Chicago Cubs in Los Angeles. In the bottom of the fourth inning, two people hopped over the left-center field wall and scampered onto the outfield grass. Chicago center-fielder Rick Monday heard a noise that offset the pulse of the ballgame; he turned toward the perpetrators and saw them encircled together, spreading an American flag over the manicured lawn.
Monday, who at the time had been a reservist in the U.S. Marines for six years while enjoying a 19 year career as a professional baseball player, darted towards the demonstrators.
“In retrospect, I may have been thinking about bowling them over,” Monday said. “But if they don’t have the flag, they cannot burn it. So I scooped down and got the flag.”
MLB News reported in taking custody of the flag, Rick Monday thwarted an attempt to burn it.
“I didn’t know if it was on fire or not, but I did know one of the guys was not a [baseball player],” Monday said ten years earlier, just before the 40th anniversary of the incident. “He threw the can of lighter fluid at me, but he didn’t have a good enough arm to hit me.”
Monday said he remembered the crowd at Dodger Stadium began to sing “God Bless America.” As the flag-burners were apprehended, then-Dodgers third base coach Tommy Lasorda shouted profane remarks their way.
The Dodger Stadium scoreboard read: “Rick Monday…You made a great play,” when Monday came to bat during the next inning.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incident, Monday lent the flag to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. It is on display from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend as Cooperstown celebrates America’s 250th birthday.
“It still catches a glimmer of attention for our country,” Monday told the LA Times.
Monday humbly deferred from his importance in the event, saying that he was, “just a spokesman that afternoon for thousands and thousands, if not millions, of people in this country.”
Monday was awarded permanent ownership of the flag once the court proceedings of the case were completed. In 2016, Monday told reporters that he and his wife Barbaralee have raised more than $500,000 for military charities by showcasing the flag across the country.
He told the LA Times that he still gets letters every week thanking him for his actions.
“A great number of the letters are from people that were not even born at the time, which to me is encouraging,” Monday said. “I’m also embarrassed by the attention that has been put upon me because I don’t know anyone that would not have done the same thing.”