The year was 1976. It was our country's
bicentennial - we had been a free nation for exactly 200
years. It was April 25 and our baseball season was in
full swing. That day one of the many games going on was
between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers
playing at Dodger Stadium. Playing center field for the
Cubs was lefty Rick Monday. According to Rick, this is
what happened in the fourth inning. He says, “I was in
center field. I don't know if I heard the crowd first or
saw the guys first, but two guys ran on the field.” He
said, “When people run on the field, you don’t know
what’s going to happen. Is it because they had too much
to drink? Are they trying to win a bet?” They just don’t
know.
But as Rick Monday watched the whole scene play out, he
knew something wasn't right. One of the guys was
carrying something, and then he noticed it was an
American flag. And when they got to shallow left field,
they unfurled the flag as if it was a picnic blanket.
They knelt beside it, not to honor it, but to douse it
with lighter fluid. The players and the crowd at the
stadium could not believe what they were witnessing.
These two guys were about to burn the American flag!
Rick Monday remembers thinking, “What these guys were
doing was wrong. It was wrong in 1976 and it’s wrong
now.” He thought about all the friends he had lost while
protecting the rights and freedoms that flag represented
– and he was mad.
So Rick Monday started to run. He says, “To this day, I
can’t tell you what was going through my mind, except I
was mad and I was angry”. When the two men lit that
first match, the wind blew it out. As Monday ran toward
them he remembers thinking, that in itself was strange
because there was hardly ever any wind at Dodger
Stadium.
Then, the second match was lit. Monday says, “I saw them
go and put the match down to the flag. But they can’t
light it if they don’t have it”. So Chicago Cub Rick
Monday scooped up that flag and took off running. To his
amazement, it had never been lit on fire!
As Monday ran to the dugout with the flag, Dodger
third-base coach, Tommy Lasorda, made his way to the two
men and asked them to take just one swing so that he
could give these guys what the 50,000 people wanted them
to get – a good licking! But, by now, they had been lead
off the field by security.
Today, over 30 years later, now retired ballplayer, Rick
Monday, still gets letters from all over the country.
But one of the most moving letters was from a Vietnam
vet. In his letter this Vietnam vet wrote that during
his two tours of duty in Vietnam he kept two things with
him. The first was a picture of his wife. The second was
a small American flag folded neatly in the left breast
pocket of his uniform. He said he would be in the mud
for weeks and months at a time, and these two things
were what he looked at to keeping him connected with
reality. He wrote in his letter, “Thanks for protecting
what those of us who were in Vietnam held so dearly”.
Rick Monday ends his story with these simple, yet
powerful words. He says, “That wasn't just a flag on the
field. It was a flag that people look at with respect.
We have a lot of rights and freedoms. But we also have
the option, if we don't like something, to make it
better. Or you also have the option, if you don't like
it, to pack up and leave. But don't come onto the field
and burn an American flag”.
Photographer James Roark was at the stadium that day and
he snapped the photo just as Monday snatched the flag
from the protesters. The photo was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize. Later that year Dodger general manager,
Al Campanis, presented that flag to Rick Monday and
today it hangs proudly in his home in Vero Beach,
Florida.
And one last piece to the story. That day after Monday
saved that flag from being burned and the protestors
were taken off the field; there was quite a buzz in the
stands. People were shocked by what they had just
experienced. But then, without any prompting or
direction by anyone, the 50,000 fans stood and began to
sing “God Bless America”. 50,000 voices, people who were
moved by what they had seen, and they turned to God.
“God bless America, my home sweet home”.
Oh may every day be a day that as a nation we turn to
God.
May God bless America
May God bless you
Jerry Stewart
P.S. email me with your own thoughts and ideas
regarding our America at
stewartreport@onemomentinamerica.com
JS
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