Mr. President, the baseball field has been the setting for some of the most meaningful moments in American history. It was on a baseball field that the great slugger Lou Gehrig, shortly after…
Mr. President, the baseball field has been the setting for some of the most meaningful moments in American history. It was on a baseball field that the great slugger Lou Gehrig, shortly after learning he was suffering from a fatal disease, delivered his poignantly stirring farewell speech, in which he declared himself to be ``the luckiest man on the face of the earth.'' It was on a baseball field that Jackie Robinson broke the color line that had prevented African Americans from competing in the Major Leagues, thus triggering not only integration in professional baseball but the removal of racial barriers throughout American society as well. And it was on a baseball field 30 years ago that another significant moment took place, one that continues to resonate in the minds of millions of Americans.
On April 25, 1976, the Chicago Cubs were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers in an afternoon game at Dodger Stadium. It was early in the season; thus, not much was riding on the game's outcome. Both teams were under .500 at the time. So for the fans in attendance, there was little reason to believe at the outset that the game ultimately would be anything more than pleasantly forgettable.
That all changed during the bottom of the game's fourth inning. The Dodgers were at bat when two protestors ran out onto the outfield grass carrying an American flag. These two proceeded to spread the flag on the ground, douse it with lighter fluid, and pull out some matches. Playing centerfield for the Cubs that day was Rick Monday. As soon as he recognized that these individuals were about to burn the American flag, Monday charged towards them. As Monday--a former Marine Corps reservist--would later describe, ``I was mad. What they were trying to do was wrong. It was wrong in 1976, and I still think it's wrong today. . . . That flag represents all the rights and freedoms that we have in this country. If you desecrate the flag, you desecrate the efforts of all the people who fought and died to protect those rights and freedoms.'' Just as one of the protestors was about to put a lit match to the American flag, Monday--while running at full speed--grabbed the flag away.
The legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully did the radio play- by-play for the Dodgers that day. His real-time description of the incident was as follows:
There's 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!. . . . I think a guy
was going to set fire to an American flag, can you imagine
that? Monday, when he realized what [the protestor] was going
to do, raced over and took the flag away from him. . . . This
guy was going to try and perform the indignity of setting
fire to the American flag. . . . It looked like a piece of
cloth but you couldn't really tell from here what it was. But
Monday, from his angle, took one look and realized it was a
flag. And the fellow evidently was all set to set fire to
it when Monday realized it.
And Rick will get an ovation and properly so. So Rick
Monday--his alertness and quick thinking--gets a round of
applause in center field. And on the message board, it just
says, ``Rick Monday--You Made a Great Play.'' And Monday is
getting another ovation, and well he should. And now a lot of
the folks are standing, and now the whole ballpark. And he's
going to get a standing ovation.
Rick Monday's courageous and patriotic act of saving the American flag from public desecration then inspired the crowd at Dodger Stadium to spontaneously begin singing ``God Bless America.'' As Monday remembers it, ``It moved the entire crowd. I don't remember if we won or lost the game, but I'll never forget the people singing.''
Rick Monday soon began receiving thousands of letters from people all across the country thanking him for rescuing the flag. His heroic act was especially inspiring to those men and women who were serving in the military or were war veterans. For instance, Monday received a letter from a Vietnam veteran who, as Monday described:
wrote that there were two things that he had with him in two
tours of Vietnam. These two things kept him in check with
reality. One was a small picture of his wife. The other was a
small American flag that was neatly folded. The picture was
folded inside the flag and in the left breast pocket of his
uniform. He would be in mud for weeks and months at a time.
Those two things were what he looked at to connect him with
reality, other than his buddies, and some of them were lost
in battle. He wrote in the letter, ``Thanks for protecting
what those of us who were in Vietnam held onto dearly.''
More recently, Monday was visiting the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Hawaii when a survivor of Pearl Harbor walked up to him. When Monday went to shake his hand, the veteran--with tears in his eyes--raised his arm and saluted Monday. He then told Monday, ``What you did reaffirmed everything we did as members of the Armed Services.''
To fully appreciate what Rick Monday did 30 years ago, one must remember what the country was going through at that time. The Vietnam War and Watergate had left our country bitterly divided, and America was
struggling to regain its confidence in the tumultuous aftermath. In saving the American flag from those who sought to desecrate it, Monday conveyed through his actions that the country the flag represents, as well as the liberty and justice the flag symbolizes, are precious and worth defending. Monday's rescue of the flag thus helped rejuvenate American patriotism throughout the country. For this reason, the Baseball Hall of Fame recognizes the actions taken by Monday when he saved the American Flag as one of the 100 Classic Moments in the history of baseball.
Because of the courage and patriotism demonstrated on a baseball field by Rick Monday 30 years ago, I am pleased to introduce a resolution commemorating the 30th anniversary of the date that Rick Monday heroically rescued the American flag from being desecrated. It is a fitting way to honor a historic act performed by a man who not only was a great ballplayer but who is a great American as well.
