Fifty years ago on Saturday, an innocuous fourth inning at Dodger Stadium gave way to an indelible moment in baseball -- and American -- history.
On April 25, 1976, the Dodgers hosted the Cubs in the rubber match of a three-game series. In the bottom of the fourth inning, two fans jumped the left-center field fence and hurried onto the outfield grass. Chicago center fielder Rick Monday noted a sound that didn’t match the rhythm of the game. He glanced to his right and saw the trespassers huddled over, unfurling an American flag.
“I can see the guy pull out something real shiny,” Monday told the LA Times in a story published last Sunday. “It turned out to be one of those gigantic cans of lighter fluid. They were dousing it.”
Monday, who spent six years in the U.S. Marine Reserves during his 19-year MLB career, ran toward them.
“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.”
He prevented the American flag from being burned.
“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 in 2016, ahead of the 40th anniversary of his heroic act. “He threw the can of lighter fluid at me, but he didn’t have a good enough arm to hit me.”
As Monday remembers it, the crowd at Dodger Stadium began to sing “God Bless America.” The trespassers were escorted off the field, with then-Dodgers third base coach Tommy Lasorda hurling expletives their way.
When Monday came to bat an inning later, the Dodger Stadium scoreboard read: “Rick Monday … You made a great play.”
The moment is etched into history, and it still resonates all these years later. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the event, Monday is loaning the flag to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. It will be on display from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend as part of the museum’s exhibit celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
“It still catches a glimmer of attention for our country,” Monday told the LA Times. “Not for me. I was just a spokesman that afternoon for thousands and thousands, if not millions, of people in this country.”
Per his request, Monday received the flag in the aftermath of the incident, once the court proceedings were finished. In 2016, Monday told reporters that he and his wife, Barbaralee, had carried the flag across the country, raising more than $500,000 for military charities.
He told the LA Times that he still gets letters every week.
“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.”