Posted on 04/25/2018 9:30:28 AM PDT by DFG
Forty years ago, a man and a child tried to burn a flag on the field at Dodger Stadium, and were thwarted by an ex-Marine outfielder. It's not as simple as it looks.
On April 25, 1976, on a hazy Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs were playing the final game of a meaningless early-season series at Dodger Stadium when, quite suddenly, one person and then another ran onto the field. It was the bottom of the fourth inning, and Ted Sizemore was at bat.
Cubs centerfielder Rick Monday had experience dealing with streakers, drunks, and other intruders in the outfield, but he sensed something was different and otherwise awry. The pair just gave off "a vibe," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.vice.com ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrV8QPQAhxo
I didn’t see the “child.”
If that were to happen today, he’d (Monday) be booed by half the stadium
Rick Monday years later w/flag
Though the act just as morally significant.
No way. Baseball fans are almost all patriotic.
Mind you, he broke my 11 year old heart in October 1981 with that home run against the Montreal Expos (with Steve Rogers on the mound)that won the NL pennant for the Dodgers, lol.
Rick Monday
great play
I was at a Dodger game a few years ago on July 4th where they honored Rick Monday for rescuing the flag. It was awesome. The crowd went wild.
All-American and College Baseball Player of the Year as a sophomore. Led the Sun Devils to the College World Series Championship in 1965.
Rick introduced me to Reggie Jackson between classes one day. He took Monday's place on the Sun Devil squad in center field when Monday became the first player ever selected for the Major Baseball League draft.
Great guys in school. But none of us knew how far their baseball careers would take them. They made the Sun Devils proud.
I still say it was the 1994 strike that killed baseball in Montreal. You would have won the World Series with that team.
Bttt.
5.56mm
The article is all but sympathetic to the would-be flag burners; “Tommy LaSorda screamed curses at them”, “they were called all kinds of names & threats were made”, “He was calling attention to his wife’s plight”, yadda yadda yadda.
We patriotic yahoos didn’t know `the rest of the story’ until now, the writer implies.
No wonder Rick Monday is still furious. But he still has the flag he rescued.
That was one of the greatest moments in sports history, and emblematic of why baseball is America’s game. Compare and contrast with the Ninnies, Felons and Losers.
Maybe at an NFL game but not a MLB baseball game.
I remember Monday being the overall No. 1 pick
But I guess had forgotten that it was the first draft ever
Monday, Bando, Jackson . . . all KC A’s
I meant that for a joke, certainly I would not hold that or have anything personal against him. What’s kind of funny as well is that after Montreal moved to DC to become the Nationals, I began cheering for the Chicago Cubs and soon afterward was Steve Bartman catching the foul ball.
A little before my time, but those guys were on the great Oakland teams that I grew up with.
The A’s had it going on back then.
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