Monday's 'rescue' relived

Rick Monday doesn't remember the score, or who won the game. He can't tell you how many hits he got that day at Dodger Stadium.
The other details of a Sunday afternoon 30 years ago, though, are forever seared into his memory.
The commotion from left field in the bottom of the fourth inning. The sight of two men carrying something running toward left center field.
A glint of sunlight off a can. Someone striking a match.
And, finally, fans standing as one to sing "God Bless America."
"I had goose bumps upon goose bumps 30 years ago when I did it, and I still get them when I recap the story 30 years later," Monday says.
Became heroon that day
What Monday did was race in from behind and snatch an American flag carried by the men just as they were about to burn it in protest on the pristine grass of the outfield.
Had it been another time, it might quickly have been forgotten. But it was the year of the Bicentennial, and the country was trying to come together and heal after the long war in Vietnam and the Watergate crisis that brought down a president.
Now, three decades later, Monday's running grab lives on as not only one of the greatest saves in baseball history, but an iconic moment that transcends the sport itself.
The same flag returns to Dodger Stadium today for the first time since Monday carried it off the field on April 25, 1976. The Fourth of July celebration is the culmination of a trip across the country with a group of some 200 motorcyclists called the Patriot Guard Riders spearheaded by Monday's wife, Barbaralee.
Pre-game ceremonyin his honor
There will be a pre-game ceremony honoring Monday's rescue, which was recently named one of the 100 greatest moments in the game by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and likely some grainy video of the incident on the scoreboard for fans to enjoy.
If they're really lucky, they will hear Vin Scully's call of the moment.
"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," Scully says.
"And Rick Monday runs and takes it away from him!"
The day Monday became more than just a baseball player began like many in the young season that would be yet another exercise in futility for Monday's team, the Chicago Cubs. Monday was playing center field and leading off for the Cubs, who were leading 1-0 when they took the field in the bottom of the fourth.
Ken Crosby had just thrown the first pitch of the inning when Monday heard something coming from the left-field corner.
"When you're around stadiums every day they begin to breathe in a certain sequence, something happens and people react," Monday said. "There wasn't anything happening yet, the stadium began to breathe out of sequence. So I looked over and here comes two guys onto the field."
The two, later identified as a father and son, were holding something, but Monday was not sure what it was. They stopped in front of the 370 sign in left center, put it down and started soaking it with a can of lighter fluid.
By then, Monday had figured out what they were doing. He began running at the men, whose backs were turned to him, and as he got closer watched as one lit a match.
"I thought, they can't light it if they don't have it," Monday recalled. "I reached down and took it away from them. It happened so quick they were putting the match on what they thought was the flag on the ground."
Monday ran toward the third-base line with the flag doused in lighter fluid billowing about him. One of the men tossed the can of lighter fluid at him, but it missed.
Crowd reactedto heroic feat
The crowd started applauding, a section at a time rising. Then, as the two men were being led off the field by security, many of the 25,167 in attendance that day began singing "God Bless America."
"That's what is right about protecting the rights and freedoms of that flag," Monday said.
Some may argue that Monday may be trying to infringe on those very rights by lending his name and the flag to a recent campaign for a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. He went to Washington a few weeks ago to argue for the amendment, which fell one vote short in the U.S. Senate.
There's also an argument to be made that baseball and politics shouldn't mix.
Monday, who served six years in the Marine Reserves, wants no part of it.
That may be because of his upbringing. Or it may be the fact his life was forever changed -- and forever linked to the flag -- by one moment that defined both his 19-year baseball career and his life afterward.
Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlbergap.org
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