“Rick Monday … You Made a Great Play!”

“Rick Monday … you made a great play!”

That’s how the scoreboard at Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium immortalized the single greatest play in baseball history on April 25, 1976.

Most of us already know the story of how Monday, then playing center field for the Cubs, saved the American flag from being burned in protest in the middle of an early season game in Los Angeles.

But it never hurts to be reminded of the beautiful, unifying act of Monday racing across the field to save the Stars and Stripes from danger.

There is no irony in the fact that 1976 was the Bicentennial year and America was still healing from the trauma of the Vietnam war.

Not all heroes wear capes. Sometimes they wear ballcaps. Interestingly, Monday was traded to the Dodgers in the off-season and spent the remainder of his career in Los Angeles playing on the very field where his actions had become the stuff of legends.

So hats off and flags up for Rick Monday – one of our true sports heroes.