30 years ago

Good Job Rick!

Don't forget to play Vince Scully's radio call

 

You can be sure they won't be hearing from the two idiots who tried to burn the flag.

 

Was JOCO living out their at that time? Anybody else? Jiffy, you're an old time Dodger fan...were you there?

 

Gosh it doesn't seem like its been thirty years. Thanks for the reminder. It gave me goosebumps reading the article and listening to Vince Scully's description of it.

PJ in Jersey

 

Thanks for posting that, AJ. God love Rick Monday.

 

:!:
Rick Monday is talking about the incident right now on the radio behind me as part of the Dodgers post-game show. I was listening to Vinny on the radio as it happened 30 years ago and it was pretty dramatic. Whoever those two punks were, they got away cheaply enough. They were lucky the crowd didn't kill them.

Lasorda wasn't kidding about wanting to beat their arses that day either. When I was standing in line to get his autograph a few years back, he refused to autograph an American flag for the woman in front of me. She tried to explain that she was a deputy sheriff, but he countered that she should know better if she really was a cop and again refused to write on the flag saying, "I will never write anything on my flag: forget it."

Rick Monday was a SoCal legend as a kid. Dave Francis' dad Ralph used to tell us a good horror story about coaching against him in the early 60's. Ralph was coaching Chino's American Legion baseball team in the playoffs against El Segundo, but lost when Monday hit what Ralph described as "The longest home run I ever saw on any level; I don't think its come down yet."

The flag saving incident made Rick Monday an instant patriotic hero to the people of SoCal. He joined the Dodgers the next year by popular demand. Its the only time that I can remember that the locals actually demanded that a local pro sports team go out and obtain a particular player. There were letters written, radio and TV call-in shows were deluged. There might have been a revolution if the Dodgers hadn't aquired him. The very idea of cheering against Rick Monday had become impossible...and he's still here.

............JO'Co

 

I'd forgotten about that, thanks!

 

The USA today had an article about this yesterday. The two people involved were a 34-year-old man and his 11-year-old son. They were unable to locate the father to interview him.

 

Really? The younger guy in the photo looks much older than 11. No matter how old he is, if that's true, what father would do something like that to his son? Once again, it proves that there are an awful lot of idiots in this world of ours. Reminds me of the father-son incident at the White Sox-Royals game a few years back.

 

Sid wrote:

That is exactly what popped through my mind when I read Bobda's note. I am wondering if the USA Today is crossing wires on this one.