LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers marked the 50th anniversary of Rick Monday rescuing the American flag from being burned in a 1976 game against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.
Monday and his wife, Barbaralee, held up the preserved flag on the field to a standing ovation.
Monday was playing center field for the Cubs on April 25, 1976, against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. In the fourth inning, two men came on the field, spread the flag on the left-center field grass and doused it with lighter fluid.
Monday ran over and snatched the flag with his right hand and sprinted away before giving it to Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau. The crowd responded with a standing ovation.
When Monday came to bat an inning later, the stadium message board read: “Rick Monday...You made a great play.”
A six-year veteran of the Marine Corps reserves, Monday received a bronze sculpture of him running with the flag from Marine Corps members Saturday.
“I had no idea they were going to be here or present me with an honor. Very humbled,” Monday said later on the radio broadcast of the game.
The Cubs and the Dodgers lined up on each baseline for the national anthem, sung by “Phantom of the Opera” star Davis Gaines.
Monday joined the Dodgers the following year, when Tommy Lasorda began his long run as manager. Monday was part of the team's 1981 World Series championship. He has worked as a Dodgers broadcaster on and off since 1985.
The rescued flag will be on exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, beginning Memorial Day weekend. Monday has preserved the flag and is loaning it to the museum.
“What’s very nice is that flag they were trying to desecrate still has a life,” Monday said.
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The U.S. flag that Cubs outfielder Rick Monday saved from being burned during a game at Dodger Stadium on April 25, 1976, is displayed on the 50th anniversary along with a bronze sculpture of Monday's rescue that was presented to him Saturday April, 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Beth Harris) Sent from my iPhone
FILE - Outfielder Rick Monday of the Chicago Cubs dashes between two men in the Dodger Stadium Outfield in Los Angeles, in this April 25, 1976 photo, snatching an American flag the men were about to burn. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Herald Examiner, James Roark,File)
Donald Trump's attendance at Saturday's annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington for his first time as president is putting his administration's often-contentious relationship with the press on full public display.
Trump arrived Saturday night to an event where the leaders of a nation at war mingled with celebrities, journalists and even a puppet — Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — in a dinner that typically generates debate about whether the relationship between journalists and their sources should include socializing together and putting aside sometimes adversarial relationships.
Trump was being watched closely at the event held by the organization of reporters who cover him and his administration. Past presidents who have attended have generally spoken about the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, adding in some light roasts about individual journalists.
The Republican president did not attend during his first term or the first year of his second. He came as a guest in 2011, sitting in the audience as President Barack Obama, a Democrat, made some jokes about the New York real estate developer. Trump also attended as a private citizen in 2015.
Trump entered the subterranean banquet hall of the Washington Hilton to the strains of “Hail to the Chief” and greeted prominent journalists on the dais, also pausing to laud White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt with a cheerful pointing of his finger.
Past dinners have also featured comedians who poke at presidents. This year, the group opted to hire mentalist Oz Pearlman as the featured entertainment.
Trump’s appearance is rekindling a longer running debate about the dinner and events like it — in particular, whether it is poor form for journalists to be seen socializing with the people they cover. The New York Times, for example, stopped attending the dinner more than a decade ago for that reason.
“What was once (a fairly long time ago) a well-intended night of fundraising and camaraderie among professional adversaries is now simply a bad look,” wrote Kelly McBride, ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.
Between berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like the Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press in court and restricting press access to the Pentagon, the administration’s animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump’s second term.
On the eve of the dinner, nearly 500 retired journalists signed a petition calling on the association "to forcefully demonstrate opposition to President Trump’s efforts to trample freedom of the press.”
The WHCA president, CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang, said the organization was fighting for all different forms of the press that have a line in to the American people. “I don't think people realize how closely we are working with the White House,” she said on CSPAN before the dinner convened. “The relationship is important. It can be complicated. It can be intense. But it is robust.”
Welcoming guests, Jiang alluded to the contentious relationship in thanking Leavitt “for everything your team does to work with us every day, whether you like it or not.”
Veteran reporter Manu Raju of CNN, as he entered the Washington Hilton for the dinner, said it was not his role to express his opinion on Trump's relationship with the press. “I'm not an activist,” he said. “My job is not to protest.”
A few dozen protesters stood across the hotel in the runup to the event. One was dressed in a prison uniform, wearing a Pete Hegseth mask and red gloves. Another carried a sign saying “Journalism is dead.”
Many reporters who attend consider it a valuable opportunity to get story ideas and establish personal connections with those in government, one that may pay dividends with returned telephone calls in the future.
Journalists often invite sources as guests at the dinner. It will be noticed Saturday whether administration officials who have also expressed hostility to the press will attend, and with whom they will be sitting. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was invited by the New York Post; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were NBC guests.
The Associated Press invited a former Trump official that it sued last year. Taylor Budowich, a former White House deputy chief of staff who crafted communications policy, was a named defendant last year when the AP sued the administration after it reduced its access to the president because the news outlet did not follow Trump's lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
“We maintain professional relationships with people across the political spectrum because we are nonpartisan by design — focused on reporting the facts in the public's interest,” AP spokesman Patrick Maks said.
The White House correspondents will also hand out awards for exemplary reporting. That includes some stories that displeased Trump, such as one from the Journal about a birthday message Trump once sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The story led to a presidential lawsuit.
AP journalists Collin Binkley and Sagar Meghani in Washington contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Cheryl Hines pose for photographers at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Donald Trump arrives to the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin speaks to the media after being removed from the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
People are seen outside of the White House Correspondents Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
President Donald Trump's motorcade arrives at the White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A woman is escorted from the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach Fla., Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
