ASU baseball to wear special uniforms to honor Rick Monday

The Arizona State Sun Devils will honor one of their own on the baseball diamond when they take on the University of Arizona on April 26.

The school announced on Wednesday the team will wear special retro uniforms with a commemorative patch on the sleeve noting alum Rick Monday, who made a play on that date in 1976 that will go down in baseball history.

ASU provided some detail in a press release:

Monday was playing center field for the Chicago Cubs in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium during the United States Bicentennial when a pair of protesters ran onto the field in the fourth inning with matches, lighter fluid and an American flag. They intended to set the flag on fire, but Monday ran over to them and pulled the flag away unscathed.

“I am extremely humbled and proud that Arizona State Sun Devil Baseball has elected to wear a special uniform depicting the exact moment when I was able to stop two individuals attempting to desecrate the very symbol that represents the rights and freedoms we all enjoy in this great country of ours…the American Flag,” Monday said in the press release. “My thanks and best wishes to coach Tracy Smith and the entire Sun Devil Baseball team.

“The uniform you wear on this special day represents more than that Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium many years ago: it represents all of us who have been privileged to say we are from Arizona State University!”

The uniforms are not the only special thing that will happen that night, as the Sun Devils will commemorate the 1965 ASU team that, with Monday, won the school’s first national championship. There will be a poster giveaway, a special pregame ceremony and more.

“Rick Monday is a pillar of this program and honoring those who forged Arizona State baseball’s storied legacy has been an important part of my time at ASU so far,” head coach Tracy Smith said. “A national champion in college, a man of service, the first-ever MLB draft pick, and World Series Champion – I can’t think of a better person for our current student-athletes to emulate than Rick.”