The Greatest Play in Baseball History?

Today is the 40th anniversary of the greatest play in baseball history: Chicago Cubs outfielder Rick Monday snatching away an American flag from two hooligans determined to set it afire at Dodger stadium in Los Angeles. Scott reviewed this episode here on Power Line back in 2005 (and maybe Paul has, too, but I missed it in my archival search). But here’s the video of the episode with Monday’s recent comments about it at the end.  Pay close attention to the narration by the great Vin Scully at the very beginning (this year being Scully’s last in the broadcast booth for the Dodgers). You can hear him say, “And wait a minute—there’s an animal loose. . .”  Truer words have seldom been spoken!

The Dodgers traded for Monday the following year, and he bought a house not far down the road from where my parents lived in San Marino. I used to see him out walking the family dog or washing his Corvette in the driveway—my regular running and biking route took me right by his Monterey Road house—and he was always very friendly and quick to chat. He was especially popular in town after his late inning home run in the 1981 playoffs against the Montreal Expos put the Dodgers in the World Series against some lowlife team from New York.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses