Rick Monday is a retired baseball player, more specifically a left fielder who batted left and threw left, who was voted an All Star twice, and who played in two World Series Championships during his 19 seasons. But the best play Monday ever made, the one he is famous for, happened during warm ups between the fourth and the fifth inning.
Forty-two years ago today, Monday sprinted from deep left to stop two protesters who had jumped the fence and who had planned to burn the American flag in the middle of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
“When these two guys ran on the field, something wasn’t right. And it wasn’t right from the standpoint that one of them had something cradled under his arm. It turned out to be an American flag,” Monday, who was playing for the Cubs at the time, remembered 30 years alter in an interview with Major League Baseball.
One of the protesters doused the flag with lighter fluid. Another held the matches. The wind blew out the first. The second caught fire. Monday grabbed the flag, balled it up, and hustled all the way from left field to the home team’s dugout. The home crowd broke into God Bless America.
“What they were doing was wrong then, in 1976. In my mind, it’s wrong now, in 2006. It’s the way I was raised. My thoughts were reinforced with my six years in the Marine Corp Reserves. It was also reinforced by a lot of friends who lost their lives protecting the rights and freedoms that flag represented.”
At his next plate appearance, Dodgers fans gave the Cubs left fielder, who would go 3-for-5 that day, a standing ovation. The electronic scoreboard in center field read out: “RICK MONDAY … YOU MADE A GREAT PLAY.” It defined his career.
The Baseball Hall of Fame would later vote the play that happened between innings as one of the 100 classic moments in the history of the game. All these years later, it’s worth watching the video.
Baseball is our nation’s pastime, a manifestation of our democracy. At least in the National League, it’s still a democracy that doesn’t allow for hyperspecialization, only unity. On the field, every player has to throw, field, and bat. And on the field, the sport showcases some of the greatest moments in our history. Think former President George W. Bush and the first pitch after 9/11. Think Jackie Robinson and breaking the MLB color barrier. Think Rick Monday and the flag.
Football has eclipsed baseball as the nation’s more violent, more popular pastime. Watching NFL players kneel and watching NFL fans subsequently shriek, it’s easy to believe this sort of thing wouldn’t happen today. But that thinking is defeatist—ignorant even. Monday made his play two years after Watergate and three years after the end of Vietnam, events more divisive than anything we face today by several orders of magnitude.
Things can get better. Little moments of unity are possible. It only takes one big play.
