The greatest play in
baseball history took place 40 years ago on April 25, 1976 #Flag
#greatestplayinbaseball #baseball #semperfi
The greatest play in
baseball history took place 40 years ago on April 25, 1976
Chicago Cubs Outfielder
Rick Monday who served in the US Marine Corps saved the flag on April 25, 1976
Flag-saving moment still winning salutes
Updated 4/25/2006 2:49 AM ET By
Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY
The hand was trembling, the voice was quivering, and tears
were running down his face.
The World War II soldier, who survived the Pearl Harbor
attack, looked Rick Monday in the eyes, slowly raised his right arm, and
saluted him.
"Thank you," Monday recalls the soldier telling
him last year. "And thank you from all of my shipmates."
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.
Read much more here:
*****
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