Rick Monday Saved the Flag 30 Years Ago

Courtesy of the Statesman.com

By JOE RESNICK
For The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Rick Monday never tires of answering questions about that memorable day 30 years ago, when he performed his own Patriot Act and unwittingly became an icon to millions of American war heroes and their loved ones.

Monday was playing center field for the Chicago Cubs on April 25, 1976, at Dodger Stadium when he noticed two protesters kneeling on the grass in left-center, intending to burn the American flag. He immediately bolted toward them and snatched it away.

"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."

The Dodgers will acknowledge the event before the finale of a nine-game homestand on Sunday, two days before the actual anniversary of it. A video tribute will be shown before the game and Monday will throw out a ceremonial first pitch. On Tuesday, the Houston Astros will honor him as well when the Dodgers play the middle game of a three-game series.

Back in '76, Monday was presented with the flag in a ceremony at Wrigley Field by Dodgers executive Al Campanis. It hung in his home in Vero Beach, Fla., until a couple of years ago, when the house sustained severe damage from a hurricane. Now it's in a safety deposit box.

Monday wouldn't say how much the flag is insured for, but "you'd have to add a lot of zeros. People have offered an outrageous amount of money for it — not that it's for sale."

The Baseball Hall of Fame recently named Monday's quick-thinking act as one of the 100 Classic Moments in the history of the game.

"Whatever their protest was about, what they were attempting to do to the flag — which represents a lot of rights and freedoms that we all have — was wrong for a lot of reasons," Monday said. "Not only does it desecrate the flag, but it also desecrates the effort and the lives that have been laid down to protect those rights and freedoms for all of us."

In Peter Golenbock's 1996 book, "Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs," former Cubs reliever Darold Knowles recalled what happened in the aftermath of Monday's flag-saving effort.

"That put Rick on the map," said Knowles, a teammate of Monday's for two seasons in Chicago and one in Oakland. "Rick got more recognition out of the flag incident than he got as a player. He was getting letters from all over the country, all the time — from VFWs (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and American Legions organizations. Every place we'd go, somebody would honor him with a plaque. He let us read some of the letters (from) people thanking him."

Along with the flag, Monday has a copy of the 16-mm footage taken by a fan who was at the game, as well as Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully's play-by-play of the incident. Also among his souvenirs is a copy of the now-famous photo by James Roarke of Monday just as he grabbed the flag.

Monday hit a career-high 32 home runs that season before the Dodgers acquired him from the Cubs with reliever Mike Garman, in exchange for outfielder Bill Buckner and backup shortstop Ivan DeJesus. Monday spent the final eight seasons of his career with Los Angeles, helping the Dodgers win three pennants in a five-year span.

He was the first player chosen in the very first draft back in 1965 after leading Arizona State to a College World Series title. The two-time All-Star put up some impressive numbers during his 19 major league seasons. His ninth-inning home run in the fifth and deciding game of the 1981 NL Championship Series at Montreal catapulted the Dodgers into the World Series, where they beat the Yankees in six games.

But all of that pales in comparison to Monday's most famous achievement in a baseball uniform.
"I know the people were very pleased to see Monday take the flag away from those guys," recalled Manny Mota, Monday's teammate that season and now a Dodgers coach. "I know Rick has done a lot of good things as a player and as a person. But what he did for his country, he will be remembered for the rest of his life as an American hero."

Courtesy of the Statesman.com

From Russia With Glove

Courtesy of the L.A. Times

by Bill Plaschke
April 21, 2006

For the first 10 years of her life, she didn't know she had a first name.

Now, baseball has given her several."Let's go, Tash!" … "Get 'em Nat!" … "All yours, Pony Tail!""They call me lots of things," Natasha Smith said. "I never get tired of hearing any of them."

For the first 10 years of her life, she didn't experience a loving touch.

Now, baseball surrounds her with dozens. Her teammates smack her glove. She punches their arms. They grab her shoulders. She slaps high fives."I used to feel unwanted," she said. "But people like me now."

For the first 10 years of her life, living in a children's home in the Russian woods, she was an orphan. Today, on the Calvary Baptist high school boys baseball team, Natasha Smith is a shortstop. Her adoptive parents hold the camera in the stands. Her date for the La Verne school's graduation banquet sits next to her on the bench. MaggieMoo's will be open for a strawberry-banana shake after a victory. Simple things, but wondrous things, for a girl who grew up without celebrating her birthday because she didn't understand the concept of birthdays."I thought kids never grew up," she said. She didn't even understand the idea of parents until she had them."I thought all the kids lived together forever," she said.

When missionaries Carol and Harry Smith brought her to La Verne a decade ago, just before she turned 10, she didn't speak a word of English. And when she did, she had difficulty understanding because of long-untreated dyslexia."I was always the dumbest," she said. "In Russia, in America, everywhere, I was the dumbest."But then she discovered the daily miracle that American adolescents have understood forever.

It is the one place in their life that does not judge. It is high school sports. The playing field does not care where you are from, as long as you keep showing up. It does not care who you are, as long as you bring it all with you. Running around her giant orphanage made her physically strong. Hiding from daily beatings made her mentally tough. Her mother took her to a church league soccer practice shortly after her arrival here, and suddenly she found a language she understood.

Said Smith: "In sports, I was even with everyone. In sports, they did not laugh."Kids never grow up? Oh, but they do, and this spring, at age 19, Natasha Smith's days are filled with balloons and frosting and light.She is not only one of the only serious female baseball players in Southern California, she is possibly the best pure player at her 35-person high school, which is not large enough to field a girls softball team.

Folks stare at the pig tails sticking out from under her blue cap, but nobody notices anything else. The playing field only cares, can you hit? Smith does, driving in 10 runs in her first 18 at-bats. Can you catch? Smith does, having committed errors in only three of nine games.Can you run? Smith had 15 stolen bases in her first 15 tries. Can you … go out on a date with the opposing pitcher? OK, in Smith's case, the playing field occasionally cares about something else."Our guys are really impressed with her as an athlete, but I hear them talking, they also think she's really cute," said David Bowman, father of an opposing Highland Hall player, Matt. "You can see them hanging out longer after the game because they want to meet her."

In one recent victory, against the California School for the Deaf, Smith stole home with the eventual game-winning run, then recorded the final out as the winning pitcher. Afterward, surrounded by congratulating teammates, heading for the ice cream parlor with her parents, Smith had one of those thoughts that often fills her eyes with tears. No crying in baseball? Not here."Sometimes during the day I just stop and cry, thinking about how lucky I am to have been chosen by these wonderful people," she said in her perfect Russian-accented English. "Chosen for this wonderful life."

Fourth inning, runner on first, one out, Highland Hall pitcher struggling, up stepped Natasha Smith.And here came the familiar cheer."You're not gonna let her get a hit off you, are you?" shouted a dad to the pitcher. At some point in every game, she hears it. And at some point in every game, after she makes a good play, it stops.This time, it stopped with a thwack. A fastball sailed into her left forearm.S he turned, winced, then dropped the bat and trotted down to first base with one noticeably absent motion. She never touched the arm." It hurt a little, but I don't show it, I never show it," she said. "You have to get used to the hurt."

She learned this after she was abandoned by her parents as an infant in St. Petersburg, Russia. She spent the next decade in orphanages where she was called only by her last name — Salieleva — and called only to work or eat."If you complained, you were hit, so I eventually learned to stop complaining," she said.

She rarely experienced a warm hug, never felt a good-night kiss, never heard a lullaby.What she did hear were the commands to wash the floors or haul the trash, followed by slaps if the jobs were not done properly."They did not care about you there," she said. "I never knew love."

When Harry and Carol Smith decided to add two children to their childless marriage, they worked through a local agency, picking Natasha out of a video."She didn't have the proper paperwork, so the agency tried to talk us into somebody else, somebody easier, but she had this certain presence, I can't explain it, we just had to have her," Carol said.

It took a year longer, and when they finally arrived to pick her up, her hair had been shoddily cut because of lice, and her body was still aching from a beating."I remember my mother put me on her lap, I had never before sat in anybody's lap, it was the happiest day of my life," Smith recalled.

She had never driven in a car, so she vomited throughout their drive to nearby St. Petersburg. She had never seen a clock, so she had no understanding of something as simple as bedtime. She had been scared during long nights in orphanage, so she refused to sleep in the dark. And when it came time to give her new parents a kiss?"She didn't even know how to kiss," Carol said. "It was more like a bite."

On her adoption application, Natasha had written that her favorite things in the world were kukla, the Russian word for dolls. So her parents showered her with dolls, leading to one of the first revelations about their daughter."I told them, I only put kukla on the application because I was told that would make it easier for me to get adopted," Smith said. "I told them, 'I hate kukla.' "

No, she loved sports, even those she didn't understand, like baseball, which she only began playing on a dare."My freshman year, my friends asked me to play, but I was afraid of the ball," she said. "When I finally decided to try it, I run to the wrong base."But try it she did, because the field, any field, was the one place she felt comfortable."

Sports was the one place in life where she felt on equal footing with everyone else," said Harry, who is now a mechanical engineer. "It was the one place she felt she could compete." In this, her senior year, she was a basketball all-star, but it is in baseball where she makes her biggest impact."When I first saw her, I had no idea she would become such a good player," said her coach, Lincoln Dial, who is also the Calvary Baptist pastor. "We play sports for the right reasons here, but we also want to win. We play her because she can help us win."

And she never ceases to amaze, such as the time she singled and stole second and briefly took off her helmet and the opposing shortstop shouted, "Hey, look! It's a chick!"

Or the time a hard-throwing pitcher threw her only lobs, which she angrily swatted away. Then there are the opposing players who compliment her during the postgame handshake, then quietly ask her teammates for her phone number" We tell them to back off," said Robert Little, a junior third baseman. "She's one of us."She's one of us. And here, Natasha Smith once thought she would never be part of anybody.

After a recent Calvary Baptist practice in which she laughed and slugged and sprinted and answered to eight different nicknames, all of them meaning "teammate," Smith told a story. "I remember once, when I was little, they took us to the beach, and I looked up and saw an airplane, and I wished I could fly in an airplane," she said. "I didn't know there were other countries, I didn't know where I would fly, I just wanted to fly."She smiled."I think, now, I fly."

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous Plaschke columns, go to latimes.com/plaschke.

I Hate Barry Bonds, But...

I hate Barry Bonds.

I hate him because he is a San Francisco Giant.
I hate him because he has always played well against the Dodgers.
I hate him because of his pirouette home run trot.
I hate him because of his monstrous home runs and all the attention.
I hate him because he treats everyone else like garbage.

But.... (boy do I hate to say this) he will be remembered as one of the most feared hitters in the history of the game and he belongs in the Hall of Fame, and on the first ballot.

Oh, sure, he hasn't done much yet this year, but wait. He will deliver. He will overcome the book scandal, the mistress allegations, the tax evasion , the perjury charges, and he will break the Hank Aaron home run record.

I gagged when I wrote this, and I thought it was acid reflux. My fingers would not allow my thoughts to reach the keyboard, betraying my baseball faith. But, how does that go, the truth will set you free?

Let's just all face it. Barry will survive and become the home run king.

And we will all just have to live with it. You know the feeling in the pit of your stomach, when you realize the home team will lose the game, but tomorrow the sun will be up at dawn, just like every other day.

But I still hate Barry Bonds.

Braves mark 40 years in Atlanta

Arrival in 1966 to be commemorated tonight

Wednesday, April 12, 2006
By GUY CURTRIGHT
COX NEWS SERVICE

ATLANTA -- Felipe Alou was the first batter for the Braves in their new home of Atlanta. His brother Matty had been the first batter for Pittsburgh in that 1966 National League opener at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

"The biggest thing to me was the reception that the fans gave the team," the 70-year-old San Francisco manager said when asked his memories of the arrival of major league professional sports in the Southeast.

"Coming from Milwaukee, the black and Latin players didn't know exactly what to expect. We were told to be alert, that there could be some issues. But the fans that night were great.
"They accepted the whole team. It was awesome. Atlanta was our new home, and they were our fans."

The Braves mark the 40th anniversary of their first regular-season game in Atlanta tonight by reuniting the 1966 team before the game against Philadelphia at Turner Field.

Alou, of course, is busy elsewhere, and Hank Aaron will also not be able to attend because of a prior out-of-town commitment. But more than a dozen 1966 Braves -- including Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, Opening Night starter Tony Cloninger and slugger Rico Carty -- are scheduled to take part.

Cloninger pitched all 13 innings on April 12, 1966, but lost 3-2, to the disappointment of the 50,671 fans. Hall of Fame slugger Willie Stargell gave the Pirates the victory with an extra-inning homer. The Braves' runs came on homers by current New York Yankees manager Joe Torre.

The current Braves will wear replica 1966 uniforms tonight, and chairman emeritus Bill Bartholomay, who was instrumental in bringing the Braves south from Milwaukee, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

To mark the anniversary, the Braves also are offering throwback ticket prices. Upper-reserved and upper-pavilion seats will be $2.

The former players, as well as original manager Bobby Bragan, are scheduled to take part in an autograph and question-and-answer session.

During pregame ceremonies, there will be a moment of silence for Billy Hitchcock, who replaced Bragan and led the Braves to a 33-18 finish in 1966. Hitchcock died Sunday at age 89.

Alou looks back on his first season in Atlanta fondly. Playing center field, he had the best average (.327) and home run total (31) of his career while making the All-Star Game. His final season with the Braves was in 1969, when they won the NL West title.

"I really liked playing in Atlanta," Alou said. "It was great for me."

© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Baseball Urban Legends - True or False?

Check out these baseball urban legends at snopes.com

1. Brooklyn Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen played a mean-spirited trick on second-string outfielder Cal Abrams.
2. The Baby Ruth candy bar was named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter, not Babe Ruth.
3. The 1989 film Back to the Future II correctly predicted that the Florida Marlins would win the 1997 World Series.
4. Future Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was once given a tryout by the Washington Senators baseball team.
5. Actor Kevin Costner was caught in bed with the wife of Orioles infielder Cal Ripken, Jr., forcing the Orioles to cancel a game so that the distraught Ripken's consecutive-game streak would not be in jeopardy.
6. Cleveland Indians second baseman Joe Gordon deliberately struck out to prevent rookie Larry Doby from looking bad during his first at-bat.
7. The Los Angeles Dodgers of the Koufax/Drysdale era often won 1-0 games in which Maury Wills scoring the winning run.
8. Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis hurled a no-hitter while under the influence of LSD.
9. New York Mets outfielder Kevin Mitchell killed his girlfriend's cat by cutting off its head with a knife.
10. Yankee second baseman Tony Lazzeri once pulled an on-field practical joke using a doctored baseball.
11. Baseball player protests a fine by paying in pennies.
12. Pitcher Gaylord Perry's manager once said, "They'll put a man on the moon before he hits a home run," and years later Perry hit his first home run minutes after Apollo 11 landed on the lunar surface.
13. The New York Yankees invented pinstriped uniforms in an effort to disguise Babe Ruth's girth.
14. Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak began when the Yankees' regular first baseman, Wally Pipp, sat out a game with a headache.
15. Bill Ripken's 1989 Fleer baseball card includes a hidden obscenity.
16. Comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
17. Baseball's championship is known as the "World Series" because it was originally sponsored by the New York World newspaper.

Courtesy of snopes.com