Former two-time Major League Baseball All-Star Rick Monday was the guest speaker recently at the Claremore Diamond Dinner. I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with him about his stellar 19-year career.

Monday, an outfielder at Arizona State, was named college baseball player of the year in 1965, and became the first player taken in the first ever MLB draft. I asked what it was like to be the first ever.

“We knew they would go in ascending order, and [the first pick] would go to the Kansas City A’s because they had the worst record the year before, and then go back and forth to try to get some sort of a balance of talent throughout baseball in both leagues,” Monday said. “The night of the draft, we were in the College World Series. We were in uniform, seated down the rightfield line at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, waiting for a game to complete. Here comes these reporters, and our coach Bobby Winkles had told us ahead of time he didn’t want this to be a distraction. When the reporters came down, he told them, ‘Look, talk to them after the game,’ because we were about to play the biggest game, on the biggest stage, we’ve ever played on in our lives, but nobody knew exactly how [the draft] would happen.”

Monday spent six seasons with the A’s, and moved with the team to Oakland in 1968, before being traded to the Chicago Cubs in 1972, where he played five seasons, and then was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977, wrapping up his career in 1984.

One of the most famous incidents involving Monday occurred in 1976, when he was playing centerfield for the Cubs against the Dodgers.

“There already had been a pitch made in the bottom of the fourth inning, on a bright sunshiny Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium,” Monday explained. “Ted Sizemore was the hitter for the Dodgers, I’m in center field, and I heard something off to my right and I looked over and there’s two guys coming onto the field. I could see that one of them had something under his arm, but I couldn’t discern exactly what it was. They ran past Jose Cardenal, who was playing in left field for the Cubs that day, and they went into shallow left-center field and they spread out what proved to be an American flag. I could see something reflecting the sun; it turned out to be one of those jumbo cans of lighter fluid, and I could see them dowsing this flag and I was mad, I was irritated. It was more than just irritating, as I was just five years removed from serving six years in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. I have great respect for the flag and the people who have protected the rights and freedoms we have in this country.

 “The wind blew the first match out, and the second match was struck, and a gentleman by the name of James Rourke took the famous photo, and was nominated for a Pulitzer prize of the moment, as I took the flag away from them, because you can’t burn it if you don’t have it. They were fined $80 each on put on two-years’ probation, and we have that flag today. I asked for it after the court case, and fortunately we are able to take that flag around the country and raise funds for various charities.”

As a longtime Montreal Expos fan, and Monday knew this, I began to ask him about the 1981 National League playoff series between the Dodgers and the Expos.

 “Oh, here we go, this is the time I have to apologize to you,” Monday interrupted.

 “No, you don’t have to apologize to me,” I said.

 “But, I will,” he said. “That was a heck of a series though.”

The fifth and deciding game of the series was played on a Monday afternoon in Montreal, after being postponed by rain the day before. In the top of the ninth inning with the score tied at 1-1, former University of Tulsa star Steve Rogers was on the mound for the Expos, as Monday came to the plate.

 “Steve had shut us out three days before, and was a great pitcher” Monday said. “We mentioned before the game that you would have to use a bazooka to get the ball out this ballpark because it was so cold. So the second out was made, and I come to the plate, and the count went to three-and-one. Well, Steve Rogers’ best pitch was a sinker, a tremendous sinker, and he got the ball up and I hit the ball well, but something weird happened and I lost the flight of the ball for a while. I knew it was hit well, but I did not know how far it was going to go, and I thought, that’s going to dead man’s alley in right-center field. I started watching Andre Dawson, the center fielder, as I’m going down the first base line. He keeps going back, and I’m thinking, man that’s going to be off the wall. Dawson ran out of room, and I just saw the ball as it disappeared behind the fence. We still had three outs to go, and the Expos had the tying and winning runs on base in the bottom of the ninth inning, before we were able to finally close it out.”

The Dodgers advanced to play the New York Yankees in the World Series, and that’s as close as the Expos ever got to the fall classic. I forgave Monday years ago, but many fans in Montreal still refer to that day as “Blue Monday; an obvious play on words referring to “Dodger Blue,” and Monday’s last name and the day it was played.

To listen to the complete interview with Rick Monday, including a great story about how his mother turned away a contract offer from Tommy Lasorda, find the link on my twitter account.