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round 1 pirates 57 105 2 mariners 61 101 3 diamondbacks 65 97 4 orioles 66 96 5 royals 67 95 6 nationals 69 93 7 diamondbacks for b loux 8 indians 69 93 9 cubs 75 87 10 padres for karsten whitson 11 astros 76 86 12 brewers 77 85 13 mets 79 83 14 marlins 80 82 15 brewers for dylan covey 16 dodgers 80 82 17 angels 80 82 18 athletics 81 81 19 red sox from det for martinez 20 rockies 83 79 21 blue jays 85 77 22 cardinals 86 76 23 nationals from cws for dunn 24 rays from bos for crawford 25 padres 90 72 26 red sox from tex for beltre 27 reds 91 71 28 braves 91 71 29 giants 92 70 30 twins 94 68 31 rays from nyy for soriano 32 rays 96 66 33 rangers from phi for lee supplemental first round 34 nationals dunn 35 blue jays downs 36 red sox martinez 37 rangers lee 38 rays crawford 39 phillies werth 40 red sox beltre 41 rays soriano 42 rays balfour 43 diamondbacks laroche 44 mets feliciano 45 rockies dotel 46 blue jays buck 47 white sox putz 48 padres garland 49 giants uribe 50 twins hudson 51 yankees vazquez 52 rays benoit 53 blue jays olivo 54 padres torrealba 55 twins crain 56 rays choate 57 blue jays gregg 58 padres correia 59 rays hawpe three up three down home q a bert blyleven on felix hernandez and much more designated hitter august 11 2005 bargaining with rick monday by jon weisman like bellbottoms and white loafers rick monday has drifted in and out of style on more than one occasion he has dressed the diamond with aplomb the most beloved or desired baseball player in the country at other times you just want to box him up and cart him off to goodwill from my earliest moments as a baseball fan to today for 30 of monday s 40 years in the game he has been one of the most vexing characters i have witnessed on the baseball stage and i m going to tell you why let s start out of chronological order with an anecdote when i was a kid and i couldn t remember the age without looking it up but it turns out i was 12 i was sitting in the reserved level of dodger stadium on a school night with my dad the dodgers were in a tough game against the reds still their top division rival of that era by this time rick monday had established himself as a true disappointment in los angeles through his first three seasons with the dodgers he had managed 34 home runs after hitting 32 alone in his final season with the chicago cubs he wasn t a complete failure white loafers don t go out of style overnight but he was an easy target for disdain for a kid in the blue seats who had already seen better i was a quiet kid and a small kid but a huge fan this manifested itself in cheering when things went well and quiet moans when things did not but frustration with monday had been building for a long time in the bottom of the ninth inning monday came up to bat and while he was at the plate i suddenly screamed out monday a homer or your life you just have to imagine the distaste that i must have built for monday for such an eruption my father not prone to shock was agog in the row in front of me a stranger a veteran of the baseball wars turned back and growled dream on kid the pitcher doug bair threw boom over the fence ballgame dodgers win the hero was rick monday the hero was rick monday my dad was beside himself the man in front turned back his turn to be agog not for the first time and not for the last dodgerdom had sold its soul to a fickle monday the ups and downs of rick monday don t start with the dodgers of course monday as many of you know was the first amateur baseball player drafted by the majors ever he was picked no 1 by the kansas city a s in 1965 after starring at santa monica high and arizona state monday then rewarded the a s a year later by going 4 for 41 with six walks 384 ops in his first season evidence that his seductive charms could not be trusted blindly though it s hard to blame monday who was still only 20 years old for several years thereafter before he penetrated my consciousness i was born in 67 monday was a good player if not a star ten consecutive seasons with an ops over the league average of 100 nine of those seasons above 120 monday had some power some speed and could draw many a walk first with the a s in both kansas city and oakland then with the chicago cubs trying to catch up to the big red machine in 1976 the dodgers had already been engaged in trade discussions with chicago concerning monday when the cubs came to town for a three game series in april monday went 1 for 8 in the first two games but was still batting an enticing 345 1 053 ops not that anyone paid attention to that then on april 25 in the bottom of the fourth inning 37 year old william errol morris and his 11 year old son suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the dodger stadium outfield with a flag and some lighter fluid to this day i had always wondered why and baseball researcher bob timmermann found me a newspaper clip to explain it the man who tried to burn the american flag at dodger stadium was attempting to draw attention to what he claims is his wife s imprisonment in a missouri mental institution authorities say wrote the los angeles times on april 30 the incident has always been painted as a protest against the country but by this evidence it seems there was something more eccentric at work which frankly fits with the story i m trying to tell in any case monday s response to the attempted flag burning in the nation s bicentennial year won national acclaim he got down on his knees and i could tell he wasn t throwing holy water on it monday told the times and you can just hear the future broadcaster in him can t you if he s going to burn a flag he better do it in front of somebody who doesn t appreciate it i ve visited enough veterans hospitals and seen enough guys blown off defending that flag and so monday dashed over from his center field position and swiped the flag so that it could be delivered to safety which at that time was known as police impound ultimately it found a haven in monday s residence with this dramatic act monday became the most popular man in baseball ceremonies honored him in virtually every city he visited from the famous los angeles herald examiner photo of the flag rescue a poster was made a copy of which found a spot in my bedroom yep i was eight years old and on the rick monday bandwagon he had become too popular it appeared for the dodgers to continue entertaining their dream of acquiring him there s no way they ll trade him now dodger vice president al campanis told ross newhan of the times he s mr red white and blue but with monday you never knew monday who earned 90 000 in 1976 requested a multiyear contract in the offseason that chicago wasn t willing to offer reopening the door for the dodgers a romance of considerable duration was consummated on january 11 1977 wrote newhan when with reliever mike garman monday came to los angeles in exchange for bill buckner ivan dejesus and jeff albert newhan wrote that campanis had pursued monday for nearly four years even back then i had mixed feelings buckner had been a dodger my entire baseball watching life and i liked him so as warm as i might have been toward the patriotic monday i didn t take this as particularly good news and my pessimistic instincts were right in monday s first season with the dodgers they won the national league pennant but monday wasn t a part of it in his worst season since he was 20 monday batted 230 91 ops with 15 home runs in 118 games but monday is getting one of the last laughs on me when i went back this week to look at his stats from ensuing seasons i found they have aged well from 1978 1983 monday s ops was 837 which is something for that era as a dodger still it s safe to say that monday probably would have faded into dodger oblivion had it not been for his second dramatic moment a pennant winning home run in the 1981 nl championship series against the expos a blast that i heard in the middle of another school day late for class on a transistor radio surrounded by about 20 schoolmates ...