You made a great play, Rick

Rurik sent me this link from Hot Air, and I couldn’t help but post it. I never saw it happen, and this is the first I’ve ever heard of it – I missed a lot of the 70s and 80s being an infantryman. This happened 32 years ago;

Some context from Ed Morrisey;

In a year-long bicentennial celebration, many wondered if the economic stagnation that had lasted all decade meant that America’s best years were in the rear-view mirror. The commercialized bicentennial festivities felt forced and false. It seemed that pride in our country had dissipated into cynicism and retreat.

The unprompted, extemporaneous response to Monday’s heroics is the often untold story of that day. Over 40,000 baseball fans saw Monday risk his career by grabbing what could easily have been a fireball to rescue the American flag from a couple of asshats, and suddenly it recalled the real patriotism and passion for America that had been missing in 1976.

The story from a two-year-old USA Today article;

Thirty years ago today, Monday became an American hero.

It was the day he saved the American flag.

“It was the greatest heroic act that’s ever happened on a baseball field,” Hall of Fame manager Tom Lasorda said. “He protected the symbol of everything that we live for. And the symbol that we live in the greatest country in the world.”

The Hall of Fame recently voted Monday’s act as one of the 100 classic moments in the history of the game. Monday, who spent 19 years in the major leagues and is a Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster, will be honored tonight with a video tribute at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

They’ll replay a grainy videotape that was discovered in 1984 showing two people jumping over the railing in left field and spreading the American flag onto the Dodger Stadium turf. One man dousing the flag with lighter fluid. The other lighting a match. And Monday, playing for the Chicago Cubs, running in from center field, grabbing the flag and carrying it to safety.

They’ll play Vin Scully’s voice from the radio broadcast: “Wait a minute, there’s an animal loose. Two of them! I’m not sure what he’s doing out there. It looks like he’s going to burn a flag. …

“And Rick Monday runs and takes it away from him!”

And perhaps the crowd will duplicate the same reaction as 30 years ago: sitting in stunned silence, then standing, cheering and spontaneously singing God Bless America.

“It moved the entire crowd,” Monday said. “I don’t remember if we won or lost the game, but I’ll never forget the people singing.”

Category: Historical, Society