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# His greatest save Baseball legend recalls 30-year-old glory day
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/his-greatest-save-baseball-legend-recalls-30-year-old-glory-day/
- Published: 2006-04-26T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:39:43.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Sports, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Monday traces roots to SM*

HOUSTON — It’s hard to get a hold of Rick Monday these days.

Not only is the former Dodgers outfielder, World Series champion and current broadcaster for the boys in blue constantly traveling now that the season is in full swing, he’s also being hounded by major media outlets for interviews regarding the 30th anniversary of Monday’s famous save.

It was April 25, 1976\. Monday, a Santa Monica High School alum playing for the Chicago Cubs at the time, was in center field at Dodgers Stadium when he noticed two protesters kneeling on the grass in left-center, dowsing an American flag with lighter fluid in an attempt to burn it.

Without thinking, Monday bolted toward the two men and snatched the flag away, sending the crowd into a patriotic frenzy as it spontaneously sang “God Bless America.”

“What they were trying to do was wrong,” Monday said Tuesday of the protesters during a phone interview from Houston, where he was to receive a commemorative Louisville Slugger baseball bat and take part in a ceremony in his honor before the start of the Dodgers- Astros game. “I was raised in Santa Monica by a mother who instilled in me values that said what these guys were trying to do was wrong. I felt that way in 1976, and I still feel that way now.” Monday said the six years he spent in the U.S. Army Corps Reserves might have also played a role.

Either way, Monday finds himself at the center of attention every year around this time — this year more than others due to the 30th anniversary.

“To be honest with you, it’s nice to be recognized, but I’m embarrassed by all the attention it has brought me,” Monday said. “It all comes down to receiving such an outpouring of letters over the years from servicemen, in particular those from Vietnam. One soldier wrote to me that the one thing that kept him going through the war was a small American flag he kept folded up in his breast pocket along with a picture of his wife.

“Yeah, it’s just a piece of cloth, red, white and blue to some, but for me it represents the lives a lot of people have given and the lives those families have given over the years to allow us to have the rights and freedoms we cherish today.”

Monday is in the process of compiling those letters into a book, which he plans to sell and donate the proceeds to children’s charities. Monday said the book is the least he can do for all of the great memories and support he has received over the years, including the days before he made it to the big leagues.

“Everything I have relates to growing up in Santa Monica,” Monday said. “I say ‘thank you’ to every parent and coach who has ever given a child a reason to dream and the courage to chase it, because my mother provided me with that. My Pony League coach, Joe Misbrenner, who I played with at John Adams (Middle School), and my old high school coach, Ruben Navarro, provided me with that.”

Asked whether he would rather be known for some of his other accomplishments in baseball, such as being a two-time All-Star or hitting a game-saving home run to help the Dodgers to a World Series title, Monday said, “Records really have nothing to do with it. It’s the people who really count. Records are just ink written on a page.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 26, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042606.pdf?ref=smdp.com)