EDITOR’S NOTE: A version of this article ran here at BCB 10 years ago on the 40th anniversary of this event. Lightly edited, and with some new information added, I thought you’d like to read it again on the 50th anniversary.

It was a Sunday that began as any other baseball day at Dodger Stadium. The Cubs, who would wind up with their second straight 87-loss season that year, entered that afternoon with a 6-7 record. The Dodgers, who eventually finished second in the NL West with 92 wins, were 4-9.

The game between the Dodgers and Cubs had no baseball out of the ordinary. The Cubs came from behind in the eighth inning to tie the contest only to lose in extra innings, 5-4.

But it was what happened in the Dodger Stadium outfield in the fourth inning that day that will make this particular game forever remembered. Richard Dozer, recapping that day’s game in the Tribune, described Monday’s save:

Monday explained his role in the chase for the flag with more clarity than anything else discussed in the clubhouse.

”I saw these clowns come out on the field, and I didn’t know what they were doing. I thought they were just out there to prance around,” he recalled.

”But then they spread the flag out like a picnic blanket. I was just going to run them over until I saw them with the can of lighter fluid. I could see they were going to try to burn it.”

After Monday raced in front of left fielder [José] Cardenal and grabbed the flag, he gave it to a security man. The demonstrators were taken to a nearby police station. It was reported they were American Indians, and one of them said something about “squatters” taking over the country. This could not be verified.

One was identified as William Thomas, 37. He gave Eldon, Mo. as his hometown. The other was not identified because police said he was a juvenile, but was reportedly Thomas’ 11-year-old son.

A few days later, the Los Angeles Times reported that Thomas had done this to call attention to what he claimed was his wife’s “imprisonment” in a Missouri mental institution. Here’s a 2016 article from Vice that gives more detail on Thomas and his family, along with a lot of detail about the incident and its aftermath.

Here’s some video of what happened, with the call of the legendary Vin Scully:

The actual flag that was saved is shown in the photo at the top of this post. That photo was taken at an event Monday attended in 2006 on the 30th anniversary of the occasion. In 2013, the Dodgers issued a bobblehead commemorating this event, complete with cloth flag:

I wasn’t in Los Angeles for this giveaway, but as many of you know, I collect bobbleheads. I had to have that one, so I bought one via eBay. The photo above is of my actual bobblehead. Meanwhile, the original flag is headed to Cooperstown this summer:

Monday, who played eight years for the Dodgers after the Cubs sent him there in the deal that brought Bill Buckner to the Cubs and hit a famous home run that put the Dodgers into the 1981 World Series, has been a Dodgers broadcaster for the last 31 years.

A final note on this: I am posting this today simply to note the 50th anniversary of this event, a notable event in Cubs and baseball history. It obviously can have political implications. I make no comment on that and remind everyone here of the site rules prohibiting political commentary. Thanks in advance for keeping the comments here related to baseball.

Rick Monday saved an American flag from burning 50 years ago today, Sunday, April 25, 1976.

With a game 1 win in the books, the Braves maintain the top record and run differential in MLB so far this season. They will now have two chances to secure a series win over Philadelphia and the Phillies have now lost 10 straight. This is an important game for the Phillies, as their ace of the last handful of years is returning in the mound from an injury dating back to last season in Zack Wheeler.

Bryce Elder has had an encouraging start to the season and while he has cooled off a bit from what were two brilliant starts to kick off 2026, he has still been effective as a back of the rotation starter outside of the bad but not catastrophic Cleveland game. Bryce has crucially kept the walks down, but is also currently running a career high strikeout rate. He’s also been mixing his sinker and four-seamer more instead of being sinker-focused and has added a cutter to keep hitters less keyed in on his preferred fastball shape. This has been a version of Bryce Elder that can be a rotation regular as a 4th or 5th starter in MLB.

We all know how good Zack Wheeler has been for the Phillies in recent years, but coming back from injury firing on all cylinders is no guarantee, especially without a normal Spring Training. He also had a pretty rough final rehab start, giving up 4 runs and 2 homers over 4.0 innings, sitting lower 90s with his fastball. Wheeler seemed to acknowledge the lower 90s as the new reality for his fastball after the game, at least in the near term, discussing the need for him to be “craftier” for a while upon his return. This may not be the dominant version of Zack Wheeler we’ve come to expect and while it would be a shame for Wheeler’s career to be derailed by this injury, it would be fine with me if the Braves capitalized on him not being fully up to his best on the day today. Wheeler has been a fastball-focused pitcher with his upper 90s velocity, throwing the four-seam fastball 40% of the time, but did throw a sinker, cutter, sweeper, splitter, and curveball all meaningful percentages last season, so he should still have a deep arsenal even if the velocity has taken a hit.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, April 25, 7:15 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

TV: BravesVision

Streaming: MLBTV

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

No ABS.

For those of you who, just like me, wasn’t really having its vision towards the next series, it might have come as a surprise to see the Diamondbacks play a two-game weekend series against a division rival.

The reason: the Diamondbacks move to Mexico to face the San Diego Padres in an International Series.

It is MLB’s first international series of the season and, by courtesy of a couple of articles on MLB.com, here are some facts:

• It is the 3rd time that MLB plays a series at the Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico City.
• The first time MLB played at this stadium was in 2023, when the Padres faced the Giants.
• In 2024 MLB returned with a game between the Astros and Rockies.
• The stadium has around 20,000 seats and is named after a minority owner of the Padres.
• The stadium is at an elevation of 7,300 feet above sea level, so we could expect lots of homeruns: Padres and Giants launched 11 in their inaugural match of the series in 2023.
• The Padres have played MLB games 4 times in Mexico, one against each NL West opponent so far.
• The Diamondbacks have never played a regular season game in Mexico, though have been in Mexico 11 times for exhibition games (Hermosillo and Monterey).
• This match won’t have the ABS, because the stadium lacks the infrastructure for it.

The Diamondbacks nor the Padres have a Mexican player on their 40-man roster. Alek Thomas has played for Mexico in the past on the WBC. Who will the Mexicans side with?

The Padres are league leaders.

The Padres started the season with a 2-4 record after the first two series but beat the Red Sox and the Pirates after that to get to .500. Ever since, they have taken advantage of a poor Rockies team, sweeping a four-game series and winning a three-game one. In between another sweep of the Seattle Mariners and a series win against the Angels, who halted their 8-game winning streak. It is no surprise that this hot Padres team has taken over the Dodgers as league leaders.

The guys that have carried the Padres’ offence are not the names you’d most likely expect. Sure, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. have had their share of RBI’s and hits, but since the start of their 8-game winning streak against Pittsburgh, veteran Xander Bogaerts (3 homeruns, 12 RBI, 178 WRC+), Ramón Laureano (12 homeruns, 11 RBI, 148 WRC+) and first baseman Gavin Sheets (3 homeruns, 7 RBI, 134 WRC+) have been driving everyone in. Both Bogaerts (.342 BABIP) and Laureano (.419 BABIP) are especially riding the hot bat. Add to that some excellent pitching from starters like Michael King and Randy Vasquez, reliable innings from former Rockie Germán Marquez and former Dodger Walker Buehler and a stand-out performance from the bullpen, led by Mason Miller and his 9 saves and 0.00 ERA, and you have yourself a very difficult team to beat.

Now the Diamondbacks haven’t been a shabby team themselves either, winning every series since splitting the four-game series against the Braves, until we found our Waterloo in the Chicago White Sox. That loss hurt and seems unnecessary and, from previous years, we know that those losses will cost you the post-season.

Matchups.

Game #1 Sat 04/24 3:05 PM MST, Zac Gallen (ARI) vs Germán Márquez (SDP).

• Zac Gallen. 5 GS, 25.2 IP, 1 W-1 L, 3.51 ERA, 3.87 FIP, 1.48 WHIP, 14/7 K/BB.
• Germán Márquez. 4 GS, 18.2 IP, 2 W-1 L, 3.86 ERA, 5.97 FIP, 1.39 WHIP, 15/6 K/BB.

Gallen sure isn’t pitching like an ace and battles heavy traffic on the bases each time he goes out there, though it hasn’t resulted in too many runs. The Padres aren’t a team that get on base easily, but once they get on, they are one of the better ones in running them to get home. Currently the offence is one of the colder ones and they lean heavy on the hot bat of Bogaerts and Laureano. The other bats will probably come alive sooner or later, but let’s hope it won’t happen in Mexico City against Zac Gallen.

Germán Márquez was once a promising pitcher in Denver until he wasn’t, hampered by many injuries. Last year he was crap for the Rockies, finishing the season with 26 games and a 6.70 ERA. Positive thing was: it was his first full season since 2022. The Padres offered him a 1-year contract with an annual average salary of $1,750,000 in the off-season. So far, that has paid off, especially considering he is de-facto the 5th starting pitcher in the rotation. His first outing of the season was a bit of a hiccup against the Giants, but since then he has fired two scoreless outings against Pittsburgh and, his most recent one, against the Angels. In between his former team, Rockies, punished him with 4 runs in 5 innings, though he still got the win.

Game #2 Sun 04/25 1:05 PM MST, Ryne Nelson (ARI) vs Michael King (SDP).

• Ryne Nelson. 5 GS, 20.2 IP, 1 W-2 L, 6.97 ERA, 5.02 FIP, 1.45 WHIP, 20/9 K/BB.
• Michael King. 5 GS, 27.2 IP, 3 W-1 L, 2.28 ERA, 3.67 FIP, 1.12 WHIP, 26/14 K/BB.

Michael King has been leading the Padres to 3 wins in 5 of his outings, so on the outside his performance looks terrific with that 2.28 ERA. However, his command hasn’t been terrific and he has been allowing quite some base on balls, though that isn’t really a surprise with Michael King, but it hasn’t come back to hurt him so far. His change-up has always been one of his better pitches, especially in 2025 when it carried him through the season, but this season it has lost some its effectiveness. However, his breaking balls are getting the job done at the moment.

After hopeful outings against the Mets and Baltimore, his outing against Toronto was a day to forget for Ryne. So let’s not talk about that one and hope he can find his groove in an exciting, though pitching wise difficult, environment.

The St. Louis Cardinals play game 2 of the 3-game series versus the Seattle Mariners Saturday as Matthew Liberatore (0-1 with a 3.67 ERA) gets the start for the Cardinals. The Mariners will send Bryan Woo (1-2 with a 2.25 ERA) to the mound for his 4th start of the season. First pitch is scheduled for 1:15pm central time at Busch Stadium.

The Texas Rangers have traded catcher Willie MacIver to the Toronto Blue Jays for cash considerations, the team announced yesterday.

MacIver was claimed on waivers by the Rangers from the A’s at the end of the 2025 season. The 29 year old had been originally drafted by the Colorado Rockies out of the University of Washington in the 9th round of the 2018 MLB Draft — 21 picks after the Detroit Tigers selected Tarik Skubal from Seattle University. Two college players from universities in Washington being taken in the 9th round of the same draft and ultimately making the majors! Though Skubal has had a bit of a better career than MacIver…

MacIver signed with the A’s after becoming a free agent following the 2024 season, and split the 2025 season between AAA and the majors, putting up a .186/.252/.324 slash line in 111 major league plate appearances. In 14 games for Round Rock this year, he has slashed .170/.333/.255. He was designated for assignment earlier this week to clear a 40 man roster spot for Peyton Gray.

After a thrilling win against the New York Mets last night, the Colorado Rockies will have to wait for game two of the series. Rain across the Big Apple pushed today’s game to a Sunday doubleheader.

In lieu of a Rockies rematch, here’s what’s going on today for our minor league clubs! Check out the Pebble Report for more info on the Rockies’ prospects. (More details to be added about the later games as they become available.)

Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes (13-11) vs. Sacramento River Cats (13-9)

Like the Rockies will tomorrow, the Isotopes get a doubleheader today after their Tuesday matchup against Sacramento was postponed for weather. The ‘Topes will look to snap a losing streak after dropping Thursday’s game 12-10 and Friday’s 4-3. Valente Bellozo, recently optioned to the minors after some rough relief innings for the Rockies, will get the start in the first matchup of the evening.

Game 1 First Pitch: 5:30 p.m. MDT

TV: MiLB.TV

Radio: MiLB.TV

Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats (8-10) vs. Portland Sea Dogs (9-9)

The Yard Goats look to add another win against Portland after taking three out of four in the series so far. Their latest came in a 5-1 win over the Sea Dogs yesterday. RHP Eiberson Castellano (1-1, 3.60 ERA) takes the ball for the Yard Goats. In his last outing, Castellano pitched five innings and allowed three runs on seven hits with a home run, one hit batter, three walks and four strikeouts.

First Pitch: 11:00 a.m. MDT

TV: MiLB.TV

Radio: MiLB.TV

Lineups:

High-A: Spokane Indians (6-13) vs. Everett AquaSox (11-8)

After last night’s 2-1 loss, the Indians will look to bounce back. Brody Brecht (No. 3 PuRP) will get the start. In his last outing against the Vancouver Canadians, Brecht threw just three innings but put up a lot of zeroes — zero hits and zero runs, but also two walks and five strikeouts.

First Pitch: 8:05 MDT

TV: MiLB.TV

Radio: MiLB.TV

Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies (12-7) vs. Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (10-9)

The Fresno Grizzlies beat the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 10-3 last night and will look to capitalize that on their “Halfway to Halloween” day. Lefty Brady Parker will be making his second start (fourth appearance) of the year. In his last outing, Parker threw 2.1 innings of relief against the Ontario Tower Buzzers in the 23-7 loss last Sunday.

First Pitch: 7:50 p.m. MDT

TV: MiLB.TV

Radio: MiLB.TV

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With the Cincinnati Reds entering the weekend as joint leaders of the NL Central and the Detroit Tigers rounding into form, today’s matchup is one of the standouts on the slate, especially after last night’s fireworks.

Nathaniel Lowe mashed a two-run walk-off dinger for Cincinnati yesterday to cap a barrage of homers either side of a rain delay, but my Tigers vs Reds predictions expect the visitors to get revenge here, giving starter Jack Flaherty enough run support to escape with a victory.

Read on for my free MLB picks for this April 25 battle.

Who will win Tigers vs Reds today: Tigers moneyline (-105)

The Detroit Tigers have found a nice rhythm since getting swept in Minnesota earlier this month, and that uptick in form has translated to a 10-4 mark in their last 14 games.

Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds have had erratic outings from tonight’s starter Brady Singer, who enters with a 5.32 ERA and could be vulnerable against a potent Detroit lineup.

Jack Flaherty racked up walks in Boston on Monday, but he’s only allowed two earned runs across his last 15 innings of work, so I’m riding with the Tigers, who’ve won six of the past nine meetings between these teams.

COVERS INTEL:At 17-9, the Reds have found ways to grind out wins, but a league-worst .210 batting average is a cause for concern against a veteran like Flaherty.

Tigers vs Reds Over/Under pick: Over 9.5 (+100)

These squads crushed eight homers last night, so look for the scoreboard to be busy again here. The Over is 5-1 in the Tigers’ last six games – and it has cashed easily in their past four matchups against the Reds.

The visitors rank 10th in the majors in hits, and they’ve scored 34 runs across their past six contests. Cincinnati is trending up at the plate too, with 6+ runs in four of its last five outings.

With both starting pitchers searching for their best stuff, we should see the batters on top after the lineups combined for 17 runs and 22 hits last night.

Tigers vs Reds odds

• Moneyline: Detroit -107 | Cincinnati -103
• Run line: Detroit -1.5 (+146) | Cincinnati +1.5 (-161)
• Over/Under: Over 9.5 (+105) | Under 9.5 (-161)

Tigers vs Reds trend

The Tigers have won seven of their past 10 matchups against the Reds in Cincinnati. Find more MLB betting trends for Tigers vs. Reds.

How to watch Tigers vs Reds and game info

Tigers vs Reds latest injuries

Tigers vs Reds weather

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Seattle looks to build on what, for the 2026 Mariners, counts as a formidible winning streak of two games into today’s mid-morning contest against the Cardinals. The M’s will hand the ball to Bryan Woo, who’s been his regular spectacular self for most of the year and is coming off a six-strikeout performance against the Rangers in his most recent start. The at-bats to watch will be when he faces Jordan Walker, who jumped into the center of the national baseball discourse with his hot start. But his hot start has cooled since opposing teams figured out that he’d finally learned to punish a fastball and consequently started throwing him more breaking balls. That’ll make for an interesting puzzle for the fastball-dominant Woo.

On the other side, the Mariners will face St. Louis’s Matthew Liberatore, who pronounces his name LIBB-er-uh-tore, but who I always say in my head like Super Mario would right before slamming some canolis—lib-er-uh-TORRE. Originally drafted by the Rays, Liberatore was the return when Tampa Bay acquired Randy Arozarena before the 2020 season. That reunited Liberatore with Cardinals’ third baseman Nolan Gorman, who started playing baseball with Liberatore when they were five years old. Fun story.

Liberatore has a kitchen sink approach befitting his career 18.5% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. But his slider and his changeup are his best pitches, which may well befuddle this Mariners lineup right now.

Lineups

The Mariners will run out what’s become their standard attack against lefty starters, including having Mitch Garver catch and Cal Raleigh DH, though I still wish they’d shuffle the front three to be Julio-Refsnyder-Cal. The one change from their standard will be to have Will Wilson play third instead of Leo Rivas while Brendan Donovan continues his IL stint.

The Cardinals will mix things up significantly from last night, with the change wer’re most likely to notice being the addition of Victor Scott II in center field. Scott’s sprint speed really jumps off the screen, though it comes across more on defense since he’s not on base often enough to steal as many bases as you’d expect.

On the Mend

Bryce Miller fared well in his second rehab start last night, pitching three scoreless innings in Everett. He was up to 47 pitches and struck out six while surrendering one walk and one hit.

Colt Emerson was back in the lineup for Tacoma, having missed the midweek games after being hit by a pitch. He was 0 for 5 with a walk, but it’s nice to know the injury didn’t keep him off the field for long.

Game Info

First pitch: 11:15 PDT
TV: Mariners TV
Radio: Old Reliable

After looking very comfortable in Low-A as a 17 year old last year, Eli Willits got off to a surprisingly slow start for the Fred Nats. The former first overall pick was only hitting .139 in his first nine games. It was great to see the rest of that Fred Nats team performing, but Willits struggling put a damper on that.

However, he has really turned things around lately, which is not much of a surprise. Willits is just too skilled and too talented to struggle for long. That slump was not going to last for long, and it has not. In his last 10 games, Willits is hitting .391 with an OPS of 1.101. He is hitting the ball with much more authority and settling into pro ball nicely.

For the season, Willits’ OPS is up to .799. That number should keep rising as he gets further removed from his cold streak. What we have seen the last couple weeks is the Willits we thought we would get from the jump. He is showcasing his combination of contact skills, a great eye, speed and defense.

When I saw Willits this spring, the thing that stood out to me the most was his plate discipline. He was casually spitting on borderline pitches from Liam Doyle, a top five pick, in the Spring Breakout game. Willits has shown his eagle eye so far in Low-A, posting an 18.1% walk rate.

The one thing I would like to see Willits improve on is his strikeout rate. Right now, he is striking out 21.3% of the time. That is higher than I want to see for a player of his profile. He is a hit over power guy, so hopefully he can get that K rate closer to 15%. Maybe the strikeouts are elevated because he is just working a lot of deep counts.

While Willits will never be a big power guy, he is showing more impact lately. He hit home runs in back to back games about a week ago, though one was an inside the park homer. However, he did hit one over the fence and it was a real nice opposite field shot. Willits becoming a 15-20 home run guy will be crucial if he wants to be a star player rather than just a solid starter.

Another part of Willits’ game I really like is his speed and instincts on the bases. He may not have Trea Turner speed, but Willits is a good runner who is very aggressive. The 18 year old already has 16 stolen bases on the season. Whenever you watch him play, you immediately notice the all out hustle he plays with. Sometimes he can be overly aggressive on the bases and get thrown out, but he will learn where he should pick his spots as he gets older.

Eli Willits’ polish extends to the defensive side of the ball as well. Most evaluators expect him to be an above average or even plus defender at short. He has all the requisite physical tools to play the position, but his instincts and internal clock are what really separate him.

Last season, his defense may have stood out even more than his offense, despite the fact he was hitting well. That has continued this year. The teenager has not made a single error in his 15 games at shortstop. That is a crazy stat for such a young player. He has also made some really nice plays as well.

After a shaky start, it is back to scheduled programming for the Nats number one prospect. I would like to see him make a bit more contact, but I think that will come as he starts to really establish himself in pro ball. It is important to remember that Willits just turned 18 in December. He should be in this upcoming draft, yet he is already performing in full season ball.

It just shows how refined he is and why the Nats took him first overall. He may not have the tools to be a Bobby Witt Jr. type mega star, but for an 18 year old Willits is a very safe bet to be a quality starter for a long time. If he taps into more power than expected, there is also star upside here. 

Just look at what Geraldo Perdomo did last year if you want to see a peak of Willits’ ceiling. Eli Willits struggled out of the gate, but you can’t keep a talent like this down for long. There is a reason this kid went first overall.