# Rick Monday and the Greatest Play in Baseball
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Tags:** baseball-mlb
**Created:** [June 12, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376 "2023-06-12T17:16:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@19USMC69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19USMC69)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/1 "2023-06-12T17:16:56Z")
Many of you recall Rick Monday stopping the two guys from burning the American flag at Dodger Stadium. He ran in from the outfield and grabbed the fluid-soaked flag before they could light it. This was April 1976.
Does anyone know the names, whereabouts and or whatever happened to them? Did they try to get some attention based on their notoriety? I assume they would be in their 60’s by now.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/2 "2023-06-12T18:08:11Z")
> **[When Rick Monday Saved The American Flag From Being Burned At Dodger Stadium](https://www.vice.com/en/article/3dgq4b/when-rick-monday-saved-the-american-flag-from-being-burned-at-dodger-stadium)**
>
> Forty years ago, a man and a child tried to burn a flag on the field at Dodger Stadium, and were thwarted by an ex-Marine outfielder. It's not as simple as it looks.
> William Errol Thomas was 37 years old, unemployed, and from Eldon, Missouri. Several sources mentioned that he was a Native American. The other person on the field was his son, who was all of 11. Thomas was attempting to attract “attention to what he claims is his wife’s imprisonment against her will in a Missouri mental institution,” according to LAPD investigator George Renty.
> **In recent years, usually around the anniversary of the incident,** journalists have tried to contact William Errol Thomas and his son without success. They have never been quoted or interviewed, and have remained hidden from public view even in the age of social media.
(bolding theirs)
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### Author:  [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/3 "2023-06-12T18:08:59Z")
The two were a father and son, William Errol Thomas and his unnamed juvenile son. They have never been quoted or interviewed, so their motives are mysterious. According to the LAPD, Thomas was attempting to attract “attention to what he claims is his wife’s imprisonment against her will in a Missouri mental institution.” They made no attempt to gain attention.
This article from a few years ago gives some context. The reporter tracked down the younger Thomas, who refused to discuss the incident.
> **[When Rick Monday Saved The American Flag From Being Burned At Dodger Stadium](https://www.vice.com/en/article/3dgq4b/when-rick-monday-saved-the-american-flag-from-being-burned-at-dodger-stadium)**
>
> Forty years ago, a man and a child tried to burn a flag on the field at Dodger Stadium, and were thwarted by an ex-Marine outfielder. It's not as simple as it looks.
ETA: ninja’d
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### Author:  [@19USMC69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19USMC69)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2023, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/4 "2023-06-13T12:33:13Z")
Thanks
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2023, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/5 "2023-06-13T12:38:10Z")
If they’d managed to set the flag on fire and Rick Monday grabbed it and extinguished the flames, would he have been awarded a putout?
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2023, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/6 "2023-06-14T11:19:59Z")
Are we sure this is in the right forum?
Given that next to nothing would have been different afterwards if Rick had tripped over his feet on the way into the infield (either a piece of cloth would have burned or it wouldn’t have), it was certainly an inconsequential play.
Unless, of course, one regards the American flag as a sacred relic, which seems to be the basis for the thread title. And I’d think that threads that are primarily about the sacredness (or lack thereof) of the American flag don’t really belong in this forum.
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2023, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/7 "2023-06-14T12:31:55Z")
I agree with RTF- he saved a piece of cloth. If that’s the greatest play in baseball, then baseball isn’t worth watching.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2023, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/8 "2023-06-14T12:37:11Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> If they’d managed to set the flag on fire and Rick Monday grabbed it and extinguished the flames, would he have been awarded a putout?
Didn’t there used to be an award for closers called Fireman of the Year?
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### Author:  [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2023, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/9 "2023-06-14T16:50:14Z")
Brought to you by Rolaids, IIRC.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2023, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/10 "2023-06-15T13:09:24Z")
[Moderating]
I hadn’t opened this thread before, because I had assumed that it was about a baseball play, which is a topic of relatively little interest to me (but would be appropriate for this forum). Now that I’ve seen it, I see that it doesn’t actually have anything to do with baseball. Moving to IMHO.
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2023, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/11 "2023-06-15T14:03:04Z")
I never really got the hubbub about burning a flag. It’s not like you can’t find other ones out there if yours lights on fire. And, the appropriate way to dispose of an old or tattered flag is actually to burn it.
There’s obviously the free-speech issue too.
I don’t understand why Congress didn’t just pass a law mandating that all flags be made of fire resistant materials, and call it a day.
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### Author:  [@19USMC69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/19USMC69)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/12 "2023-06-16T19:52:52Z")
The event holds more significance for those of us who experienced the turmoil of the day.
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### Author:  [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2023, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/13 "2023-06-16T21:54:42Z")
I experienced ‘the turmoil of the day’ and couldn’t give a rat’s ass.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2023, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/14 "2023-06-16T22:20:09Z")
I also experienced ‘the turmoil of the day’.
This was a stunt and a pretty stupid stunt. At the same time, the literal war criminals in power over the past decade had disgraced America and therefore the flag beyond all redemption.
Fifty years later we somehow managed to forget that and America and therefore the flag are being disgraced again.
BTW, is it OK to burn a confederate flag?
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### Author:  [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2023, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/15 "2023-06-17T00:42:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> At the same time, the literal war criminals in power over the past decade had disgraced America and therefore the flag beyond all redemption.
>
> Fifty years later we somehow managed to forget that and America and therefore the flag are being disgraced again.
Well put.
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### Author:  [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2023, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-monday-and-the-greatest-play-in-baseball/985376/16 "2023-06-19T05:29:08Z")
not in the South