LOS ANGELES — It was one of the most iconic moments of the bicenntenial year. On April 25, 1976 at Dodger Stadium, two trespassers ran into left-center field during a game between the Chicago Cubs and the Dodgers, spread an American flag on the grass, and poured lighter fluid on it. Before anyone could fully process what was happening, outfielder Rick Monday sprinted in from center, scooped the flag up with his right hand, and ran it to safety.
Now that same flag is about to get a high profile public showcase. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced today that Monday is loaning the flag to the museum, where it will be exhibited from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend as part of the Hall’s summer programming around America’s 250th birthday in 2026.
If you grew up with Dodger baseball — or even if you just know the highlights — you’ve seen the photo: Monday in motion, the flag bundled up in his arms, the would-be arsonist sprawled behind him in the outfield. It’s one of those snapshots that doesn’t need context, but the details still hit hard.
According to the Hall of Fame, the Dodger Stadium crowd of 25,167 stood and roared, and when Monday came up to bat an inning later, the message board saluted him with: “Rick Monday…You made a great play.”
Monday’s reaction wasn’t staged, and he didn’t treat it like a grand gesture afterward. In the Hall’s release, he described it as “my spontaneous reaction,” and admitted he had no idea “how profound those few seconds would be for so many Americans.”
That moment followed him, too. The Hall notes that Monday received a call from Gerald Ford after the game thanking him, and that decades later the U.S. Senate issued a proclamation of appreciation — with a copy preserved at the museum.
For Dodgers fans, there’s also a little extra connective tissue: Monday later became a Dodger himself, and he’s been part of the organization’s orbit for years in the broadcast and alumni world. But even before that chapter, what happened in 1976 always felt like a Dodger Stadium story. The setting matters. The crowd mattered. The way the ballpark reacted mattered.
Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch framed it in exactly those terms, calling the flag “a national treasure” and saying the museum is honored to share it with visitors throughout the summer.
The flag hasn’t just sat in storage, either. The Hall says Monday has used it for years in fundraising efforts supporting veterans and their families, often alongside his wife Barbaralee Monday. She spoke in the release about what it means to have the flag displayed during America 250, tying it to Monday’s military service and to what the flag represents for people who’ve served.
And if you’re the type who plans a summer baseball pilgrimage, here’s another date worth circling: Monday is scheduled to be in Cooperstown on May 23 at Doubleday Field for the Hall of Fame Military Classic, a seven-inning legends game that the Hall says will highlight its America 250 events.
Fifty years later, the play still lands the same way it did in the moment: fast, instinctive, and unmistakably human. No scoreboard message can really top it, but Cooperstown giving that flag a home for the summer comes pretty close.
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