In the history of baseball, on April 25, 1976, center fielder, Rick Monday of the Chicago Cubs who were playing at Dodger Stadium stopped two Muslims from attempting to burn the American flag in the middle of the playing field. This was an outstanding example of American Patriotism and a distrbing and memorable, but maybe forgotten, fine moment in baseball history.

Monday, noticed the two men, a man and his son, had placed the flag on the ground and were fumbling with matches and lighter fluid; he then ran over and grabbed the flag from the ground to thunderous cheers. He handed the flag to Dodgers' pitcher Doug Rau, after which the ballpark police officers arrested the two intruders. When the major league baseball player came up to bat in the next half-inning, he got a standing ovation from the crowd and the big message board 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."