Rick Monday American Flag, Rules of Base Ball Exhibits open at Museum
Hall of Fame Military Classic
Join us in Cooperstown this Memorial Day Weekend as the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum salutes all who served.
(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – As America celebrates 250 years of independence, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum debuts two exhibits that tell the story of two moments at the intersection of the National Pastime and national history.
These new exhibits opened Friday, May 22, on the eve of the Hall of Fame Military Classic Presented by New Era, a seven-inning legends game at Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field.
The American flag rescued by Rick Monday on April 25, 1976, at Dodger Stadium is now on display on the Museum’s third floor, finding a home in Cooperstown through Labor Day Weekend. It will mark the longest time the flag has been in one public location for as many days and is on loan from Monday, who has preserved the flag since that day during America’s bicentennial.
On that day 50 years ago in Los Angeles, Monday was playing center field for the Cubs in a game against the Dodgers. During the fourth inning, two trespassers entered the field, spread the flag on the left-center field grass and doused it with lighter fluid.
Monday, a veteran of the Marine Corps reserves who was in his 11th big league season, dashed over from his post, grabbed the flag with his right hand and sprinted away before handing it to Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau. Since rescuing the flag, Monday has actively employed it in fundraising efforts for veterans and their families.
Monday will be at Doubleday Field on Saturday, May 23, for the Hall of Fame Military Classic, a seven-inning legends game that will highlight the America 250 events in the Museum throughout the year. Tickets for the Hall of Fame Military Classic will be on sale on Saturday at the Will Call tent at Doubleday Field, including the Family, Food and Fun package that features a $10 food voucher with the purchase of every $18 outfield ticket to the game.
Also debuting in the Museum on Friday was an exhibit featuring the “Rules of Base Ball” – on loan from baseball fan Hayden Trubitt and penned circa 1857 by the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. The handwritten documents, originally submitted as part of a convention called to codify the rules of the emerging National Pastime, are exhibited in a special case located in the Museum’s Taking the Field exhibit designed to preserve their structural integrity.
Museum guests can experience the Rules of Base Ball via the new exhibit, and the documents can be viewed in their entirety online.