NBC Hall of Famer Rick Monday
Rick Monday
Born November 20, 1945
Fairbanks (AK) Goldpanners 1964
Inducted 1991
Rick Monday is joyfully remembered in the United States for saving the American flag, painfully remembered in parts of Canada for “Blue Monday”, and he is currently creating memories nightly for Los Angeles Dodgers fans everywhere as one of their broadcasters. One thing few have recollection of him for, however, is his time associated with the NBC.
Born in Batesville, Arkansas, in 1945, his family moved to southern California while he was young, and he starting playing baseball at 8 years old. He pitched, played outfield and first base through high school, hitting .357 his senior year. That summer he attended a Dodgers tryout camp ran by their scout and future manager Tommy Lasorda who offered him a contract. Other teams including the Pittsburgh Pirates pursued him as well, and his mother told them and Lasorda that they could sign him only after her son attended two years of college. The Pirates responded by connecting Monday with Arizona State University (ASU) where he would wind up fulfilling his mother’s wishes.
Following his freshman year of 1964, he was sent to Fairbanks to play with the Goldpanners of the Alaska Baseball League, which were one of the few NCAA sanctioned summer teams in the country. The team also featured Tom Seaver and Graig Nettles, and they won the North of the Range area with a 20-10 record earning them a spot in the Alaska NBC State Championship best-of-three series with a berth in the National on the line. The South of the Range champion Fort Richardson Pioneers were their opponent for the third straight year, and had there been an MVP of the series, Monday likely would’ve been chosen as the recipient. In Game 1, Monday was 1-3 at the plate while throwing out a runner at third from centerfield in the first inning. No other Pioneer would even make it to second base the rest of that game as the Goldpanners won 5-0. The following day, Monday was involved in all three innings that Fairbanks scored. The Goldpanners had already scored two runs to tie the game in the bottom of the third when Monday singled and gave them the lead for good as the centerfielder misplayed his hit allowing the third run to score. In his next at-bat, Monday tripled and scored on a home run increasing the lead to 5-2, and finally he singled and scored the Goldpanners last run in the seventh as they swept the Pioneers by winning the second game 6-3. Monday led all hitters in the series with a .571 average (4-7) and was named to the Alaska All-State team.
With the challenges of playing in such a remote location, the Alaska NBC State Championship was held over three weeks before the National and during that time, the Goldpanners continued to play nearly every day mostly on the road in Washington and Colorado as they slowly made their way to Wichita. The final roster spot for the NBC tournament was still up for grabs on the road trip and it came down to Nettles and Monday. Monday homered twice in the final weekend before the NBC, but perhaps because Nettles had 3 hits in the finale, Nettles got the nod. Even though Monday was not on the active roster, he served as a coach during the tournament and was the designated alternate should an injury occur to another player. The opportunity to play never came, though, and Monday watched the entire tournament from the dugout as the Goldpanners went 6-2 losing in the championship game to the Wichita Glassmen.
In his sophomore season back at ASU, he had an extraordinary year being named NCAA Player of the Year as he hit .359 and led the Sun Devils to their first College World Series title. The Kansas City A’s made him the first overall draft pick in the very first Major League draft during that College World Series and he debuted for them the following season.
On April 25, 1976, while with the Chicago Cubs he was warming up between innings in centerfield in Dodger Stadium when two men ran past him and started pouring lighter fluid on an American flag they were carrying. Monday raced over and grabbed it before they could set it on fire and received a rousing ovation by Dodger fans, and even the scoreboard when he came up in his next at-bat said “Rick Monday…You Made A Great Play”. Monday, who had also spent time in the Marine Corps Reserves, said after the game, “If he’s going to burn a flag, he better do it in front of somebody who doesn’t appreciate it. I’ve visited enough veterans’ hospitals and seen enough guys with their legs blown off defending the flag.” He commented on the fans response as well saying, “The way people reacted was fantastic, but I felt they were cheering for what the flag meant.” Monday still has the flag in his home to this day.
Five years later, now with the Dodgers, they were in Montreal for the decisive game of the 1981 NLCS, and tied at 1 in the 9th when Monday came to the plate. Over the course of his career, he would appear in the postseason six times accumulating 95 plate appearances, but his only October home run would occur in this at-bat, on a Monday, and it gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. Monday said when the ball came off his bat that it was the only time he ever lost sight of a home run he hit, and thought he had popped out until centerfielder Andre Dawson reached the wall. The solo home run held up and sent the Dodgers to the World Series where Monday would get his one World Series ring as they won in 6 games over the New York Yankees. Expos fans had no idea that their team would never again make it to the playoffs in Montreal, and still refer to this event as “Blue Monday”.
Monday had a solid career over 19 seasons primarily as a centerfielder with the A’s, Cubs and Dodgers finishing with a .264 average, 241 HRs and 775 RBIs. He went into broadcasting after retirement, and has spent the last 31 years with the Dodgers currently calling their games on the radio with Charley Steiner. He was inducted into the ASU Hall of Fame in 1975 and the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.