All-Star Rick Monday to Coach at White House

    WASHINGTON, July 15 /EMWNews/ -- As Major League greats

line up today for one final All-Star Game in legendary Yankee Stadium, one

former All-Star is headed to an even more historical venue -- the White

House.



    Former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Rick Monday, and two-time major

league All-Star, and his wife, Barbaralee Casciari Monday, will be joining

President Bush and the First Lady at the White House, as part of the

"Salute to Baseball - America's Pastime." Rick will be coaching third base

during an all-star youth Tee Ball game on the White House lawn tomorrow

afternoon, following which they will be guests of The President and Mrs.

Bush at a dinner at the White House and entertainment in the Rose Garden

later that evening.



    Monday, a Dodgers broadcaster, is a veteran of the Marine Corps Reserve

and a member of American Legion Post 211 in Woodward, Iowa. Although he had

a solid major league career and won a World Series with the 1981 Dodgers,

Monday will be forever linked with an incident that occurred on April 25,

1976, while he was playing for the Chicago Cubs. When two protestors

attempted to burn the U.S. flag on the field at Dodger Stadium in the

middle of a game, Monday swiped the flag before they were successful - an

act that motivated the crowd of more than 30,000 to break into a

spontaneous rendition of "God Bless America." The scoreboard lit up with

the message, "Rick Monday, you made a great play," for the visiting player

and future Dodger. The Baseball Hall of Fame selected the incident as one

of the 100 greatest moments in baseball history. Monday has also been

honored with a Senate Resolution for the rescue.



    "The final honor our country bestows upon the family of a fallen

soldier, is to present them with the flag that draped their coffin.

Accompanied with the words, 'On behalf of a grateful nation', we as

Americans must never allow that symbol -- of both our country and their

loved one, to be desecrated," Monday told The American Legion at its 2007

National Convention. "In my mind, what the protestors were trying to do was

wrong. It was wrong 31 years ago and it is still wrong today. There is no

place for it."



    Monday is currently a board member of the Citizens Flag Alliance, a

coalition of 149 organizations that are dedicated to adding a flag

protection amendment to the U.S. Constitution.



    Monday said that he and Barbaralee are committed to the cause.

"Barbaralee and I have visited the wounded troops at Walter Reed and Brooke

Army Medical Center. Our nation's flag represents all the rights and

freedoms protected by the sacrifices of our heroes. People have died

fighting under that flag and it should never be desecrated."



    Rick and Barbaralee have a son-in-law currently serving with the U.S.

Army in Iraq. The Mondays still possess the flag that Rick saved from the

protestors 32 years ago and plan to show it to President Bush.



    Video of Rick Monday's flag-saving play can be seen at

http://www.legion.org/vision/currentevents.



    CONTACT: American Legion National Headquarters, 317-630-1253