We remember President James Monroe (1758-1831)

We remember President James Monroe who was born on this day in 1758.  My guess is that most people have heard about The Monroe Doctrine.   Yet, I would argue that very few people know about President Monroe who served 2 successful terms, 1817-25.

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April 25, 1976: Rick Monday saved the US flag

We remember Rick Monday, a pretty good outfielder who played for the A’s, Cubs, and Dodgers.

His best years were with the Cubs (1972-76), when he hit 106 home runs and was a very tough out.    Later he moved to the LA Dodgers and hit a 9th-inning HR to beat Montreal in the 1981 NLCS.

However, his greatest baseball moment had nothing to do with hits or home runs.

It happened on April 25, 1976.

You may remember that it was the Bicentennial year, and Watergate and Vietnam were behind us.  The economy was a bit sluggish, but people were looking forward to July 4 and all of the patriotic parades and celebrations.

On an April afternoon at Wrigley Field, Monday took his position in center field and was playing catch with José Cardenal, his Cuban teammate.

Rick saw a couple of guys trying to burn the U.S. flag; he ran and grabbed it before they could light the match. The two idiots were arrested, and Monday gave the flag to one of the security guards.

This is what he told The Washington Post in 2006 about the incident:

“I was angry when I saw them start to do something to the flag, and I’m glad that I happened to be geographically close enough to do something about it,” said Monday, now in his 13th season as a Dodgers broadcaster.

“What those people were doing, and their concept of what they were trying to do was wrong. That feeling was very strongly reinforced by six years in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. I still think it’s wrong to do that.”

It was wrong and we salute Rick Monday after all of these years later..

By the way, Rick was with the 1981 LA Dodgers that won the World Series.    He wrote about his time in LA in a very entertaining book:

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We remember Queen Elizabeth (1926-2022)

We remember Queen Elizabeth who was born on this day in 1926.  She died on September 8, 2022.

She became Queen when her father died in 1952 and is the only British monarch that most us have ever known.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't like monarchs.    It makes little sense although the pageantry is interesting to watch.

During her reign, the UK has declined in many ways although I am not blaming her for that.   Let's blame the UK's political class for that collapse.  

Also, she had to endure her family's problems in public and fight daily newspapers always hungry for more juicy information.   It was not easy!

God bless the Queen and thank you for her service.

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1976: The year that Reggie Jackson was an Oriole

On April 2, 1976, the Orioles and A's swapped some big name players:   Reggie Jackson & Ken Holtzman to Baltimore and Don Baylor & Mike Torrez to Oakland.   It was big!

Reggie had a good season but the Orioles fell short in the AL East:  .277, 27 HR, 82 RBI & 28 stolen bases.      After the season, Jackson signed a big contract with the Yankees and you know the rest of the story.

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