Rick Monday | |
---|---|
Center fielder | |
Born: Batesville, Arkansas, U.S. | November 20, 1945|
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |
MLB debut | |
September 3, 1966, for the Kansas City Athletics | |
Last MLB appearance | |
June 20, 1984, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .264 |
Home runs | 241 |
Runs batted in | 775 |
Teams | |
Career highlights and awards | |
|
Robert James "Rick" Monday Jr. (born November 20,1945) is an American former professional baseball player who now serves as a broadcaster. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a center fielder from 1966 to 1984,most notably as a member of the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers with whom he won a World Series championship in 1981.
A two-time All-Star,Monday played 19 seasons for the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics (1966–71),Chicago Cubs (1972–76) and Los Angeles Dodgers (1977–84). He was the first player selected in the inaugural 1965 Major League Baseball draft. He also received attention for a 1976 incident in which he prevented the American flag from being burned on the field at Dodger Stadium. [1] After his playing career,he went on to serve as a Dodgers broadcaster on television and radio.
Monday was born in Batesville,Arkansas,and earned league honors in baseball at Santa Monica High School in Southern California. [2] After graduating from high school,Monday considered whether to accept a scholarship to play college baseball or to play professional baseball. He was offered a $20,000 signing bonus by Tommy Lasorda,who was a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers at the time;however,he was convinced to accept a scholarship to play for Arizona State University,after Sun Devils coach Bobby Winkles,an Arkansas native himself,drew upon their shared roots and promised Monday's Arkansas-born mother that he would take care of her son. [2] [3]
Monday joined the Arizona State Sun Devils team that included future major league players Sal Bando and Duffy Dyer. Reggie Jackson was allowed to practice with the team,but could not join the squad because the NCAA had a rule forbidding the use of freshman players. During his sophomore year,Monday became the team leader,posting a .359 batting average along with 34 extra-base hits to earn All-American honors. [3] He led the Sun Devils to the 1965 College World Series championship (over Ohio State) and earned College Player of the Year honors. [2]
Monday was the first overall selection in the inaugural Major League First-Year Player Draft in 1965 by the Kansas City Athletics. [3] Monday signed with the A's for a $104,000 bonus on June 15. [4] [5] He began his professional career in the Single-A Northwest League with the Lewiston Broncs in Lewiston,Idaho. He singled in his professional debut on June 29 at Bethel Park in Eugene,Oregon, [6] and played his first home game two nights later at Bengal Field in Lewiston. [7] After the season,he and Bronc teammate Dave Duncan entered boot camp with the U.S. Marine Corps in San Diego in September,serving actively in the Reserve for six months before the beginning of spring training. [8] [9]
Monday played the 1966 season with the Mobile As of the Double-A Southern League in Mobile,Alabama. Mobile won the league title and five of its players were called up to the major league club in early September,including Monday,Sal Bando,and Rene Lachemann. [10]
Following his major league debut in September 1966,Monday began the next season in the majors,the A's last year in Kansas City. The team moved west to Oakland prior to the 1968 season,his first as an All-Star. Monday was with the A's through 1971,their first as American League West champions. He was traded for pitcher Ken Holtzman that November, [11] and spent five productive seasons with the Chicago Cubs. In January 1977,Monday was traded in a five-player deal to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Bill Buckner and Iván DeJesús. [12] [13] The Dodgers won the National League pennant in 1977 and 1978.
Monday's best season in the major leagues came in 1976,his last with the Cubs. Batting in the leadoff position,he hit .272,establishing career highs in home runs (32),runs (107),RBI (77),total bases (271),slugging percentage (.507),and OPS (.853). He also finished 18th in the Most Valuable Player voting.
On May 16,1972,Monday hit three home runs as a member of the Cubs against the Phillies in an 8–1 victory at Veterans Stadium.
Perhaps the most outstanding accomplishment in his playing career was his domination over pitcher Tom Seaver,arguably the best of his generation. Monday hit eleven home runs against Seaver,more than any other player,and batted .349 (30 hits in 86 at bats).
At Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on April 25,1976,two protesters from Eldon,Missouri,ran into left-center field and tried to set fire to an American flag after the start of the bottom of the 4th inning. [14] [15] Monday,the Cubs center fielder,had been tossing a practice ball with left fielder JoséCardenal before the incident happened. After Ken Crosby of the Cubs threw a pitch that made Ted Sizemore pop out,Monday dashed over and grabbed the flag to thunderous cheers. Monday ran through the outfield with the flag and while walking towards the Dodgers dugout,met and handed the flag over to Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau. When Monday came to bat in the top half of the 5th inning,he got a standing ovation from the crowd and the scoreboard behind the left-field bleachers in the stadium flashed the message,"Rick Monday... You Made A Great Play..." He later said, "If you're going to burn the flag, don't do it around me. I've been to too many veterans' hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who tried to protect it." [16] Monday had served, while playing Major League Baseball, a six-year commitment with the United States Marine Corps Reserve as part of his ROTC obligation after leaving Arizona State. He received a congratulatory phone call from President Gerald Ford after the game, and was later invited to the White House. [17]
On August 25, 2008, Monday was presented with an American flag flown over Valley Forge National Historical Park in honor of his 1976 bicentennial flag rescue. [18]
During a game at Dodger Stadium on September 2, 2008, Monday was presented with a Peace On Earth Medallion and a medallion lapel pin by Patricia Kennedy, founder of the non-profit organization Step Up 4 Vets, for his actions. [19] [20]
In the deciding Game 5 of the 1981 NLCS at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Monday hit a two-out ninth-inning home run off the Expos' Steve Rogers. The Dodgers won 2–1. Heartbroken Expos fans have referred to the day as "Blue Monday." [21] [22] Monday and Steve Yeager were asked to leave a restaurant in Montreal in 1982 because, according to the manager, six of the patrons wanted to fight with Monday. [23]
Soon after his retirement as a player, Monday became a broadcaster for the Dodgers. He began in 1985 by hosting the pre-game show and calling play-by-play on cable TV. From 1989 to 1992, Monday moved farther south to call San Diego Padres games alongside Jerry Coleman, replacing outgoing announcer Dave Campbell. He was also a sports anchor at KTTV for a time in the 1980s. In addition, he served as a color commentator for CBS-TV at the College World Series championship game in 1988. Monday rejoined the Dodgers in 1993, replacing Don Drysdale who died from a heart attack in his hotel room on a Dodger road trip in Montreal. [24] [25]
From 2005 to 2008, Monday mostly handled the analyst role, with Charley Steiner handling most of the play-by-play, except during road trips outside of the National League West division, during which Steiner broadcast the games on television (because until Vin Scully's retirement at the end of the 2016 season Vin Scully limited his broadcasting to all home games and road games involving either the NL West or AL West, [26] ) and Monday handled the radio play-by-play, usually with Jerry Reuss as his analyst.[ citation needed ]
In 2009, Steiner (play-by-play) and Monday (analysis) began covering all games on radio, with Eric Collins doing TV play-by-play for games not covered by Scully. [27] When Steiner replaced Collins on the road TV broadcasts in 2014, Monday switched over to the play-by-play duties alongside Nomar Garciaparra. [28]
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. Founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York, the team joined the NL in 1890 as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and used other monikers before settling as the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1932. From the 1940s through the mid-1950s, the Dodgers developed a fierce crosstown rivalry with the New York Yankees as the two clubs faced each other in the World Series seven times, with the Dodgers losing the first five matchups before defeating them to win the franchise's first title in 1955. The Dodgers made history by breaking the baseball color line in 1947 with the debut of Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play in the Major Leagues since 1884. Another major milestone was reached in 1956 when Don Newcombe became the first player ever to win both the Cy Young Award and the NL MVP in the same season.
Donald Scott Drysdale, nicknamed "Big D", was an American professional baseball pitcher and broadcaster who played in Major League Baseball. He spent his entire 14-year career with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. Known for being a fierce competitor, Drysdale won the Cy Young Award in 1962 and was a three-time World Series champion during his playing career.
Vincent Edward Scully was an American sportscaster, best known for his broadcast work in Major League Baseball. Scully was the play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers for sixty-seven years, beginning in 1950 and ending in 2016. He is considered by many to be the greatest sports broadcaster of all time.
The 1965 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1965 season. The 62nd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers against the American League champion Minnesota Twins. The Dodgers won in seven games.
The following are the baseball events of the year 2000 throughout the world.
Robert Herbert Forsch was an American professional baseball player who spent most of his sixteen years in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the St. Louis Cardinals (1974–1988) before finishing his playing career with the Houston Astros (1988–1989). He was a member of the 1982 World Series Champions and National League (NL) pennant winners in 1985 and 1987.
Donald Robert "Duffy" Dyer is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1968 to 1981, most prominently as a member of the New York Mets team that won two National League pennants and won the World Series in 1969. He also played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Montreal Expos, and the Detroit Tigers. After his playing career, Dyer coached with several major league organizations and served as a minor league manager.
On September 9, 1965, Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitched a perfect game in the National League against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium.
The Lewiston Broncs were a minor league baseball team in the northwest United States, based in Lewiston, Idaho, and played from 1952 through 1974. Locally, the team was known as "Lewis-Clark" to include the adjacent twin city of Clarkston, Washington. The team's ballpark was Bengal Field, a few blocks southeast of the high school.
The 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers season got off to a strong start when rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela pitched a shutout on opening day, starting the craze that came to be known as "Fernandomania." Fernando went on to win both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards.
The 1978 season ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning their second straight National League pennant and losing to the New York Yankees in the World Series again. Dodger coach Jim Gilliam died at the end of the season and his uniform number, 19, was retired by the team prior to Game 1 of the World Series; the team also wore a black memorial patch with Gilliam's number during the World Series. Unlike the previous Dodger team, no member of the team hit 30 home runs after seeing four members hit that mark the previous season.
Michael Douglas Garman is an American former professional baseball player. A relief pitcher, he played for five different teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1969 and 1978. He was a first-round draft selection of the Boston Red Sox in the 1967 MLB draft. Listed at 6 feet 3 inches (191 cm) and 215 pounds (98 kg), he threw and batted right-handed.
The 1977 Los Angeles Dodgers season saw Tommy Lasorda in his first full season at the helm of the Dodgers, replacing longtime manager Walter Alston as manager of the team near the end of the previous season. The Dodgers won the National League West by 10 games and defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in four games in the NLCS, then lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series. This edition of the Dodgers featured the first quartet of teammates that hit 30 or more home runs: Steve Garvey with 33, Reggie Smith with 32, and Dusty Baker and Ron Cey, who both hit 30. The Dodgers duplicated this feat again 20 years later in 1997.
The 1976 Chicago Cubs season was the 105th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 101st in the National League and the 61st at Wrigley Field. The Cubs finished fourth in the National League East with a record of 75–87.
The 1991 Major League Baseball season saw the Minnesota Twins defeat the Atlanta Braves for the World Series title, in a series where every game was won by the home team.
The 1981 Major League Baseball season culminated with the Los Angeles Dodgers defeating the New York Yankees in the World Series, capturing the franchise's fifth World Series title. The season had a players' strike, which lasted from June 12 to July 31, and split the season into two halves. Teams that won their division in each half of the season advanced to the playoffs. This was the first split season in American League history, and second for the National League, which had played a split season in 1892.
The 1965 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 12 to October 14, 1965. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins were the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The Dodgers then defeated the Twins in the World Series, four games to three.
The 1976 Major League Baseball season ended with the Cincinnati Reds winning their second consecutive World Series championship.
The Los Angeles Dodgers Radio Network is a network that consists of 27 radio stations that air Major League Baseball games of the Los Angeles Dodgers in parts of seven states and one U.S. territory and in three languages. As of June 2012, 20 stations broadcast games in English, while another six broadcast them in Spanish. In 2013, Korean broadcasts were added, making it the only tri-lingual network in Major League Baseball.
Baseball legend Rick Monday, who served six years in the United States Marine Corps Reserves while playing Major League Baseball, will share his story of stopping two would-be protesters from setting an American flag on fire during a game at Dodger Stadium in April 1976 while playing for the Chicago Cubs.