Dodger Stadium

**^{Just in time for Saturday’s holiday, what’s happening in this image?}**

The year was 1976 and the United States was approaching its big bicentennial celebration.

The location was Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium and the Chicago Cubs were in town on this Sunday afternoon to complete a 3-game set. The teams had split the first two games (Cubs won the first game, 4-3 in 11 innings; Dodgers won the second, 2-1).

Batting leadoff and playing centerfield in all three games for the Cubs was Rick Monday. Monday had the distinction of being the first-ever player selected in MLB’s Amateur Draft (in 1965 to the Kansas City Athletics). He’d go on to hit one of the more famous home runs in Dodgers history, a ninth inning solo homer off the Montreal Expos’ Steve Rogers to give the Dodgers a 2-1 victory in the National League Championship Series and send them to the World Series where they’d beat the rival New York Yankees in six games.

On that April Sunday, however, Monday was noteworthy for a markedly different reason.

In the fourth inning, Monday noticed a pair of individuals enter the playing field carrying something that he later saw as the American flag which the men were dousing in lighter fluid. Monday, a former U.S. Marine Corps Reservist, sprung into action, sprinted over, and snatched the flag before the men could get a match lit.

The incident was unexpected (at the start of an inning) and occurred so quickly, photographers at the game were not really focused on the outfield. James Roark from the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner was able to capture the moment just after Monday snatched the flag and began his sprint to the left field line. Roark’s photo was later nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Sadly, Roark’s life ended in 1995 at the age of 49 to an act of violence in Portland, OR, where he was working as a night cook following the Herald-Examiner‘s closing in 1989.

Rick Monday Saves the U.S. Flag — **^{Chicago Cubs’ outfielder Rick Monday swooped in to grab the American flag before}**
**^{a pair of protesters lit it on fire at Dodger Stadium on April 25, 1976.}**
**^{(Photo by James Roark/Los Angeles Herald-Examiner)}**

Today, Monday is working his 32nd year as a Dodgers’ radio broadcaster and he’s witnessed and participated in many amazing moments during his now 60 years in professional baseball, but he might be best remembered for what transpired on that sunny April Sunday in 1976.

Here‘s a Dodgers’ blog retrospective of the event;
Here‘s a National Baseball Hall of Fame piece on the event.

By the way, the Dodgers went on to win the game, 5-4 in 10 innings.

Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.

**^{The views from upstairs at Dodger Stadium can be stunning.}**

For some ballpark chasers, they enjoy planning the entire trip. For others, it’s easier to sit back and let others do the organizing and sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Some people have tried it both ways and determined they prefer the easier way. That’s where the baseball bus tour companies come in. Having used Coast 2 Coast Sports Tours the last two years, I tend to agree.

So do Steve and Kim from Pennsylvania, who I met on this year’s West Coast Swing tour with Coast 2 Coast. The couple, who live in suburban Philadelphia are Phillies fans, hit the Midwest parks last year, including Minnesota, Milwaukee, and both Chicago parks.

And who can blame them for liking the charter bus better.

Exhibit A: Traffic in and around Los Angeles.

There’s a reason that Dodger fans arrive in the second and third innings and leave in the seventh. It’s one way to try to beat the traffic.

Just getting into the stadium can be a chore, as the driveways wind up to the parking areas. That also doesn’t help the curb appeal for the ballpark. With most stadiums, you usually get a glimpse of the park as you approach. With Dodger Stadium, you see the side of a hill.

The difficulties are to be expected, I suppose. Los Angeles is the second largest populated city in the United States. The park is also one of the oldest in the Major League Baseball.

Dodger Stadium Entrance — **^{Former manager, Tommy Lasorda, coined the phrase “Blue Heaven on Earth” and it is featured at an entrance to Dodger Stadium.}**

Dodger Stadium is the third oldest stadium overall, behind Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field. It was built in 1962 and is the largest baseball stadium in the world, by seat capacity.

The stadium is often referred to as a pitcher’s ballpark, having seen 13 no-hitters and two perfect games. Dodger fans affectionately call it “Blue Heaven on Earth,” a phrase coined by former Dodger manager great Tommy Lasorda.

The entrance to the ballpark may be a big highlight, especially if you enter on the home plate side and the Top Deck entrance. You enter at the very top of the stadium, opening to an incredible view of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Even if you enter at the outfield entrance, it’s worth a trip to the top to enjoy the view.

^{Fans entering through the centerfield entrance are able to see lifesize bobbleheads as well as statues of Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson.}

The center field entrance offers plenty to do as well, including statues of Dodger greats Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson. The center field plaza also features lifesize bobbleheads, the Legends of Dodger baseball display along with a sports bar and beer garden.

Two of the stadium’s most distinctive features are the wavy roof on top of each outfield pavilion. Each pavilion has a scoreboard. There is also the top of a 10-story elevator shaft that has the Dodger logo, sitting directly behind home plate.

Given its history, the Dodgers have a lot of retired numbers: Don Drysdale (53), Koufax (32), Don Sutton (20), Pee Wee Reese (1), Robinson (42), Duke Snider (4), Lasorda (2), Walter Alston (24), Roy Campanella (39), Jim Gilliam (19), Gil Hodges (14), and the most recent player Fernando Valenzuela (34). Also honored in left field are announcers Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin.

The stadium is the last in the National League that has symmetrical dimensions. In left an right field, it is 330 feet. In medium left-center and right-center, it is 360 feet. True left-center and right-center is 375 feet. Center field is 395 feet while true center field is 400 feet.

^{Built in 1962, Dodger Stadium is the third oldest MLB stadium, trailing only Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.}

Here is an explanation of that: The distance of center field has been marked as 395 feet since1973, but it is actually still 400 feet. The two 395-foot signs are to the left and right of dead center, but the curvature of the fence between the posted signs is not exactly radial from home plate, meaning true center field is five feet further.

Obviously, the signature food item is the Dodger Dog, which is just a hot dog with a fancy name. Nothing else really stood out in terms of edibles. It was your basic ballpark cuisine.

As far as the game, we did get to see a little bit of history. Dodger catcher Will Smith smashed a two-run home run in the first inning. It was his fourth homer in four consecutive at bats, tying him for the MLB record. He was the first Dodger to accomplish the feat since first baseman Adrian Gonzalez did it back in April 2015. He is just the third MLB catcher to do it, along with Johnny Bench (1973) and Benito Santiago (1996).

The Dodger ended up beating Milwaukee, 5-3.

After Milwaukee tied the game, 3-3, after home runs by Rhys Hoskins and Christian Yelich in the fourth and eighth innings, respectively. Miguel Vargas and Shohei Ohtani both hit homers to put the Dodgers ahead for good,