Rick Monday remembers arriving at Dodger Stadium, opening a letter, reading the words of a Vietnam veteran thanking him for saving the American flag from burning on April 25, 1976.

"Letters every week," Monday said. "All sorts of letters. For a piece of cloth."

Twenty years, and Monday's smooth voice still trembles at the telling.

"I've gotten a thousand questions wondering if I'm disappointed being best known for something that had nothing to do with baseball," Monday said. "My answer is, absolutley not."

It was the bottom of the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium. Ted Sizemore was the Dodger batter. Monday was the Chicago Cub center fielder. The count was 1-0.

We could tell you what happened, but Vin Scully will always do it better:

"Wait a minute, there's an animal loose...two of them...all right...I'm not sure what he's doing out there...it looks like he's going to burn a flag...and Rick Monday runs and takes it away from him!

The animals were an unemployed 37-year-old man from Eldon, Mo., named William Errol Thomas and his alleged son. They got onto the field through the third base seats and ran to shallow left field.

Monday saw them stop there. Saw something being laid out, "like a picnic blanket." Saw the glare off the bottle of clear liquid.

"I said to myself, 'That's a flag, and that's lighter fluid,'" Monday recalled.

Monday had completed six years in the Marine Corps reserves. He had lost friends in Vietnam. He had heard stories of his father in the Army.

He knew all about the prices that were paid for something that allowed him to go from an average Santa Monica schoolboy to a very rich baseball player.

"It wasn't about having some military background," Monday said. "It was about appreciating your freedom."

While others stood and watched, Monday ran.

He saw William Errol Thomas light a match. For a moment, he thought he would be too late. Then he realized he would not have to save the flag alone.

"A gust of wind came along and blew the match out," Monday said.

Before the second match could be dropped, he had grabbed the flag and was carrying it off the field. He passed then-third base coach Tom lasorda, who was running towards the fools and cursing. He handed the flag to Dodger pitcher Doug Rau.

He returned to his postion amid a standing ovation.

Twenty years and Monday can still hear what even Scully missed.

"As the cheering died, everybody in the stands started singing 'God Bless America,'" Monday recalled. "I was stunned. I stood there and got chills."

Monday was invited to a couple of parades. William Errol Thomas was fined $60 for trespassing. The story figured to die.

But Monday soon learned that his story was about something that does not die.

"Every year I heard about it, every week, all the time," said Monday, a Dodger announcer for the last three years. "People thanking me. All sorts of people."

He retrieved the flag and hung it simply in his living room, in front of the only photo taken of the incident.

The Dodger computer people produced a replica of that photo that will greet him every time he turns on his laptop.

The man who took that photo, another hero named James Roark, fromer photo editor of the defunct los Angeles Herald Examiner, died last year after being beaten by four teenagers on the streets of Portland, Oregon.

But the story lives, because of something that does not die.

"That Vietnam vet wrote that he was in a jungle hospital for eight months, and the only thing that kept him going was thinking about the piece of cloth," Monday said. "Twenty years later, he wanted to thank me for saving it."

What would happen if somebody tried to burn a flag in a major league outfield today?

Barry Bonds would grab it, sign it and put it up for sale.

Brett Butler, knowing Betsy Ross was a non-union worker, would ignore it.

Albert Belle would forget about the flag and set fire to the hippe.

Jose Canseco would grab for the flag and miss. It would then bounce off his head and over the left field fence.

Rickey Henderson would drape it around his shoulders and immediately declare himself president.

Jim Edmonds would taunt it.

Kevin Mitchell would eat it.

Worse yet, if it happened today and Rick Monday tried to stop it, Monday would be arrested for infringing on the rights of others. The flag burner would be the hero.

Monday has only one thing to say to those such as Denver Nugget guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who recently refused to stand for the national anthem.

"I would tell him, 'If you want people to respect you, you have to respect them,'" he said.

Twenty years, and Rick Monday has not aged a day.

"People sometimes say. 'You're corny,'" Monday said. "I don't care if I am corny."

- Author Unknown

I finally got my hands on a 60Gb PS3 yesterday. I spent a lot of money getting the system, an additional exhaust fan, other accessories, and games, and I got about 20 minutes of gameplay out of it before it gave me the "yellow light of death". Can I just say this:

I HATE SONY!!!

I never bought a Playstation or Playstation 2. By the time I was able to buy a PS2 the PS3 was announced and Sony promised everybody that it would be backwards compatible and that they were not going to rush the release because they wanted to make sure that it was supported by great programming and hardware. So I waited. I waited three years. Every year more promises. When it does get released it is over $600 for the system I wanted but didn't have the money (in fact, I still don't). Then I started hearing horror stories about PS3s failing and Sony not replacing or fixing the consoles for free (grrrr). So I decided it wasn't worth my time or money. I felt like that decision has been re-enforced over the years as Sony still has yet to compile 10 exclusive titles that are even half as compelling as the top 10 (or 30) on each of the other two consoles.
Then I saw the trailer for Heavy Rain, followed soon thereafter by a trailer for The Last Guardian; also, I own copies of Kingdom Hearts, Silent Hill 2 (Greatest Hits ver), Ico, and Shadow of the Colossus. Now there are a number of PS and PS2 games I would LOVE to be able to play and DO NOT own, but owned no PS consoles so I haven't purchased anymore games. In addition, I started acquiring Blu-Ray movies because they are now cheaper than DVDs and the house we're living in has a BD player. So I figured, with the announcement of The Last Guardian and my growing BD collection, that it was about time I bought a PS3. I thought this would solve all of my multi-media problems. I even bought a 52" LCD tv and a 7.1 surround system thinking that I wanted to take full advantage of the lauded power of the PS3. I bought Wanted: Weapons of Fate for $8, the Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena for $11 and shelled out top dollar for Heavy Rain.

How did Sony respond? by bending me over, shoving all of that up my toochis, patting me on the back with a giggle and walking away. Not only did the console stop working while Jordan was staring a game of Kingdom Hearts, but it has no port for PS1 or 2 memory cards to port over saved game data. Stupid! It has no ports for PS1 or 2 controllers. STUPID! The usb cord for the six-axis is about 3 ft long... the last time a console made that mistake was when Atari ruled the console industry. SUPER STUPID!!! They've had years to refine their products. They enjoyed golden boy status as Nintendo struggled to find their Next Gen identity. They clearly learned nothing from Nintendo's mistakes during the 64-Gamecube years. They had 2 years of watching what worked and didn't work for the 360 before the PS3 launch. Why weren't they taking notes? I am very, very disappointed. I have purchase several used nintendo products over the years and even a used 360s already (for my brother) and have had no problems. I have known of people whose 360 ringed out, but Microsoft gave them another at no charge, no run-around. Clearly Nintendo and Microsoft (as much as I hate to say it about MS because of Windows) understand the importance of customer satisfaction. It seems like PS carries a chip on it's shoulder because of it's dismissal from Nintendo and is out for themselves, to prove Nintendo made a mistake, rather than their customers. Here's a news flash for Sony: You already made that point. Guess what, now Nintendo has rebounded back to their old form and is grinding you into an early grave like they did to Atari, Panasonic, and Sega. Learn and learn quickly or you'll soon be out of the game.

Am I over-reacting? Should I not be angry at Sony for producing garbage and charging $600 for it? Maybe I am. I mean, I offered the money, albeit warily; but if you care about your customers, shouldn't you provide them with a product or service that has, at the very least, an enjoyable amount of longevity and quality? I have now played several games that were released on the 360 and the PS3. While SOME of those game had better resolutions on the PS3, the PS3 always looks choppy compared to the 360 and the controls seem to be more intuitive on the 360 more often than not.

So where is this famed and lauded power? Where is the machine that was spawned by the all-powerful and evil Master Control Program? Show yourself to me, PS3, and I will name you for what you are. I have seen your true face. You are a deceiver. Your games DO NOT run at 60 frames per second, you have no third-party support, you bear no reminders of your ancestry and scorn the lowly middle - lower-middle class consumers who gave you your royal heritage and crowned your father, the PS2, the greatest selling console of all time (a title the Wii became successor to instead of you). You have no identity, you are not loved by the people and with good reason: You have forsaken them. If you had arrived with full backwards compatibility (including controllers and memory cards like Nintendo did) and provided a more reliable machine, a lot more people would have been willing to invest, even with the $600 price tag.

Now, I should state that the company I purchased the PS3 from has offered to replace the console for free they are even paying for the shipping of the broken system. The thing is that I will be expecting the next one to not function properly either. Oh, well. I guess I knew what I was getting into when I bought it.

I just got orders to Okinawa, Japan. We are leaving in April for 3 years. I will hopefully deploy twice from there and come back financially sound. It's a little bit disorienting to think that in such a short period of time we could go from being poor to being borderline wealthy. The kind of money that would almost allow us to buy a nice house in cash.

With all of the snow and bad weather we've had, I was in the mood to re-watch Storm of the Century. For all of you who haven't seen it, Storm of the Century is a mini series that aired on television back in February of 1999. I remember watching it my second semester at FC and John Murrell was my roommate. It had a very powerful effect on me then and, as i just learned, 11 years later, it has not lost its potency.

The story, written by Stephen King, takes place on a small island off the coast of Maine. King portrays the island folk as being good, Christian folk who pull together in difficult times and also know how to keep a communal secret (referencing Dolores Claiborne and her husband's disappearance during an eclipse some 25 years prior). Suspense is built with illustrations of the evil power and knowledge wielded by a stranger who arrived on the island only a few hours before a massive winter storm cuts off the island from the mainland. presents a moral dilemma: choose death for yourself, your children, and all other residents of the island (about 200 men, women, and children) or give what would most accurately be described as a demon one of the 8 toddlers in the community.

Stephen King uses his contrived paradigm to illustrate what he believes lies beneath the polished veneer of professed faith in God and community: desperation and unbelief in God. Inscribed above the door to the Town Hall meeting room are the words: Trust in God and Each Other. King wants you to know without any uncertainty that they are ONLY words. For all the lip service given to faith and God, the people are weak-willed and petty. The individuals are without conviction or direction and are easily manipulated by the mysterious and evil antagonist, Andre Linoge. The only resident of Little Tall island who is not crippled by the threats and revelations of Linoge is Michael Anderson, the town constable, also owner and operator of the town market. The profession of Michael Anderson is not coincidental, the author wants us to know who the real spiritual and physical leader of the community is as appointed by God. Michael Anderson is a humble man, but a convicted man of God and trusts that God provides for and takes care of His own (There are similar characters in Kings other stories: Alan Pangborn, sheriff of Castle Rock when the Crimson King arrives, but is foiled by the uncorruptable Sheriff; David Carver, a young boy who reminds his party of survivors that God works through all things and we are here to love and serve Him, and many others). The jobs are a metaphor for what Michael Anderson really is: spiritual provider and God's prophet to Little Tall. The story shares many elements of the stories about the Hebrew judges and prophets with Michael Anderson serving as the judge/prophet to God's people. Michael Anderson confronts and shames the Little Tall's Catholic Priest in several confrontations, exposing the priest's cowardice and lack of true faith in God.

As the only voice of reason and admonition to look to God for help and guidance, Michael is physically restrained and forced to watch as his community shows their unabashed blasphemy and apostasy.

In all honesty, this is what I have seen just about everywhere I've gone. Christianity is a mask worn to hide who we really are from the rest of the world and ourselves. Truly, it is a rare thing to find someone who is so focused on God that they are beyond intimidation, unafraid of their "secret" sins being exposed. It has been my experience, that most people professing belief in a higher power, will abandon their "convictions" when asked to sacrifice for those "convictions"; furthermore, they will assault and smear anyone who stands against them or encourages them to hold fast to their convictions. Storm of the Century demands you to look within yourself and ask, "Am I that way, would I abandon God like that".

I'm kind of focused on this right now, because I have also just finished playing a video game called Bioshock that presents a similar question, asking the player to make difficult moral decisions that ultimately decide how the game ends for your character and the world. Do you choose morality and all the rules and responsibilities thereof or do you do things your own way and reject God and the responsibilities tandem with that decision. The people of Little Tall island chose to trust in themselves, in their own ability to reason and not to trust in God. Little Tall pays a high price for their transgression. We should never be found in paying the same price, nor should we ever encourage others wander toward that debt. How often do we abdicate our responsibilities and convictions in attempt to avoid culpability? How often have I? An honest answer may take some painful soul searching.

As video games go, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is ageless. True, the graphics and frame rate (although playing on a Wii or GC improves the frame rate) are sub-par by today's standard and there is no voice acting to speak of (HAHAHAHAHA). What it does have makes it immortal. The gameplay is addictive; the environments are inviting, compelling, and interesting; the graphics are still beautiful and colorful (even when compared to current titles); the interface and controls are intuitive, comfortable and revolutionary at the time of it's release. The music and sound is beautiful, fun, and perfectly ambient. The puzzles are fun, challenging, to the degree that you feel satisfied afterward without being so hard that you have to scream or cry or break the controller... or all three; there's no objectionable material, content, or language; the game never stops being fun.

I sit here, watching Jordan play OoT. I love that more than a decade has passed since it's release and this game is still enchanting.