Broadcast Spot Goes to Monday

The Dodgers made the logical move Wednesday, naming Rick Monday as Don Drysdale’s successor on the announcing team.

Monday will join the crew today when the Dodgers play a doubleheader against the Mets at New York.

Said Monday, who will also continue as host of KABC radio’s “Dodgertalk” shows on the weekends: “I’m filling in to the end of the season because we’ve all lost a very dear friend in Don Drysdale.”

Brent Shyer, the Dodgers’ director of broadcasting, said: “Rick has done an exceptional job with ‘Dodgertalk’ this season and his talents as a broadcaster will help us through a difficult time.”

Shyer said the plan for now is to use Monday exclusively on radio.

Monday, 47, spent 18 seasons in the major leagues as a outfielder, eight of them with the Dodgers.

He began his broadcasting career after ending his playing career in 1984. He worked as a Dodger commentator on cable telecasts, served as a sports anchor and host of “Dodger Central” for Channel 11 and spent the last four seasons as an announcer with the San Diego Padres.

The Padres released Monday after last season in a money-saving move.

Monday, from Santa Monica, was the first player picked when baseball had its first free-agent draft in 1965 and got a $104,000 signing bonus from the Kansas City Athletics.

Monday appeared in five league championship series, three World Series and two All-Star games. His ninth-inning home run off Montreal’s Steve Rogers in Game 5 of the 1981 National League championship series gave the Dodgers a dramatic 2-1 victory and sent them to the World Series.

In 1976, as an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs, he earned national acclaim when he rescued an American flag from two protesters who were trying to burn it in left field at Dodger Stadium.

Monday, his wife Karen and children Michael and Heather, live in Tierrasanta, just north of San Diego.