Saving flag was Rick Monday’s best play in the outfield

When I woke up Saturday, there was only one text message from a Cubs fan on my cellphone. It had nothing to do with Kris Bryant, or Chicago’s 7-3 victory in 11 innings over the Reds on Friday night, though Bryant went 2-for-4 to raise his batting average to .379.

It was from my pal Dan Kaz. He wanted me to know it had been 39 years since Vin Scully said on the radio — although I’m sure Dan would have been watching on WGN — “there’s an animal loose, two of ’em, so all right, and I’m not sure what he’s doing out there — it looks like he’s going to burn the flag …”

“ … and Rick Monday runs and TAKES IT AWAY FROM HIM!”

Vin’s voice raises when he says that last part, because that’s the thing about Vin Scully, he knows a great play when he sees one, even when a guy on the other team — Monday was with the Cubs then — makes it.

“ … and so Monday — I think some guy was going to set fire to the American flag …” Scully said, the surprise in his voice now turning to disdain and disgust. “Can you imagine that?”

Because it has been 39 years since Rick Monday saved the flag and handed it to a Dodgers relief pitcher named Doug Rau, there wasn’t much hubbub about it on Saturday morning.

There was no “ESPN Films: 30 for 30” piece. It’ll probably be another 11 years before that happens. But on the 50th anniversary of Rick Monday saving the flag, he’ll be 80 years old, if he should live that long. And Vin Scully will be 98, and Clayton Kershaw will be 38 and may or may not be warming up in the bullpen, depending on how his Tommy John surgery went.

And Tommy John will be 82. So it’s good to remember these things while we can.

A man named Ben Platt wrote a nice story about Rick Monday saving the flag on the 30th anniversary, in 2006.

All the details are in Monday’s words: How he remembered warming up with Jose Cardenal in left field before the bottom of the fourth started, and how one out later two guys ran onto the field, and how he immediately surmised something wasn’t right, or at least that these two guys had been drinking heavily.

Monday said they unfurled the flag as if it were a picnic blanket.

And then he smelled the lighter fluid.

Instinctively, he started to run toward these two men and the flag, as if Steve Garvey had just lined a pitch into short left-center field and he had to make a shoestring catch to save a run.

He saved much more than a run.

He saved that flag, and the next time he came to bat, they flashed a message on the scoreboard looming large over the left-field bleachers at Dodger Stadium. It said: “RICK MONDAY … YOU MADE A GREAT PLAY …”

Later that season, Al Campanis, the Dodgers’ general manager, presented Monday with that flag. The ballplayer still has it displayed at his home in Florida. He reportedly has been offered $1 million for that flag, but I doubt very much you’ll ever find it listed on eBay, or find somebody standing in line with it at the Gold and Silver Pawn shop downtown.

Ben Platt’s story was comprehensive — about the only thing it didn’t mention was the final score of that game. Not that it mattered. The Dodgers won 5-4 in 10 innings when Ted Sizemore reached on an error by Andre Thornton, advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by John Hale, and after Garvey was walked intentionally, came around on Ron Cey’s single to center off Mike Garman.

That was how the Dodgers’ winning rally was listed on Retrosheet.org.

This is how the bottom of the fourth was listed:

Sizemore popped to second; Rick Monday saved an American flag from being burned by protesters; Hale lined to right; Garvey singled to left; Garvey stole second; Cey walked; Cruz homered (Garvey scored, Cey scored); Yeager singled to left; Yeager stole second; Russell singled to center (Yeager scored, Russell to second (on throw to home)); Rhoden was called out on strikes; 4 R, 4 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Cubs 1, Dodgers 4.

So it was an eventful inning. But the only thing about it you probably remember, unless you were Henry Cruz, who hit only eight major league home runs, so he probably would have recalled that one with crystal clarity, was the part in bold letters.

At the bottom of the story about Rick Monday saving the flag 39 years ago, in the little disclaimer, it said Ben Platt was a national correspondent for MLB.com, but that his story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

I have a feeling that if it ever came to a vote, Major League Baseball and its clubs would not have a problem with it.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.