Former Arizona State baseball star Rick Monday is no stranger to making history.
After all, he was the first player to ever be selected by a team in the MLB Draft when he was chosen first overall by the then-Kansas City Athletics in the 1965 Draft. That same season, he and fellow college baseball legend Sal Bando led the Sun Devils to the first national championship in school history.
On April 25, 1976, he made the most notable play of his career. Then an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs, he spotted a pair of protestors attempting to set an American flag on fire. He ripped the flag away and saved it, forever going down as one of the most memorable plays in Major League Baseball history.
The Sun Devils honored Monday on the 40th anniversary of the play Tuesday night before the team’s game against the Arizona Wildcats. Monday threw out the first pitch, joined by Bando and others from that 1965 championship team.
“I never did anything that was extraordinary that Sunday afternoon,” Monday said of the play. “I happened to be chosen to be close enough to do something about it. I’ve always believed that it does not take a long thought process to decide between right and wrong. What those two people were attempting to do that day in my mind in 1976 and as we sit here and talk today is wrong.”
Also in attendance was the coach of the 1965 team, Bobby Winkles, who Monday referred to as a father figure. After being raised by a single mother, Monday was discovered by Winkles as a 17-year-old in California. Winkles brought him to Tempe, and the rest was history.
“In our lives, there are moments and there are people where you say, ‘Thank goodness they were in my life,’,” Monday said. “(Winkles) was more than just a coach. He was a tutor, a disciplinarian and for many of us a father figure. I have the greatest respect for that person to this day. If I am anything at this point, coach Winkles has a lot (to do with it).”
Monday, Winkles and Bando will all be members of the College Baseball Hall of Fame come July, though Monday was steadfast in saying the honor reflects more on the accomplishments of the 1965 championship team and not his individual performance.
After initially setting up to throw a few feet in front of the mound, Monday was surrounded by former teammates who ushered him back on the hill.
“There are some things that don’t change,” Monday said. “Characters on the college championship team that beat Ohio State back at Rosenblatt Stadium all those years ago, particularly a catcher by the name of Tony Alesci who said, ‘No, you’re throwing it from 60 feet, six inches.’ I’m only geared for about 25 to 30 feet at the present time.”
Monday, who currently worked as a broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers, bounced the throw to current ASU catcher RJ Ybarra.
Before throwing the first pitch, Monday spoke briefly to the current Sun Devils, giving his thoughts not only on the relationships being built on a college baseball team but also reiterating the “special place” that is ASU.
“I knew that behind me were some teammates who I knew had played here, and I had not seen in a number of years,” Monday said. “That tugs at your heart because those are important relationships that you have that last for a lifetime. It’s not just for nine innings or for your schedule for a season, it lasts for a lifetime.”
He also demonstrated the flag, which while undergoing significant repairs still holds a strong connection for Monday.
“It’s a fragile piece of cloth, but there’s nothing fragile about what it represents,” he said.
Tuesday night also offered Monday the opportunity to return to Phoenix Municipal Stadium, the current home of the Sun Devils and the home of several of Monday’s regional games and games against Arizona in the past.
“To come back here and see what Arizona State has done to this stadium, to the facilities, is mind-boggling,” Monday said. “This is absolutely first-class, from a training standpoint, from the locker room to the facilities to a study room…This is from A to Z, this is what many of us have envisioned from the Arizona State baseball program to evolve into.”
Monday has been active in talking with current ASU coach Tracy Smith, who he said he believes has the program back on the right track to national prominence.
“There’s a wonderful resource out there of former players that would love to be involved in the program and help spread the word about Arizona State University,” Monday said. “We want to get it back on the right track, and to say I have been impressed with coach Smith and his staff is an understatement.”
Monday said he sees a way for ASU, who is renowned for its rich baseball history, to go back to the ways of the past. The foundation is set, he said, and the key is to continue to blend both the past and the present at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
