Posted on 09/16/2022 12:14:38 PM PDT by dennisw
On June 4, 1974 the Cleveland Indians held a promotion called Ten Cent Beer Night at Municipal Stadium during a game against the Texas Rangers. It was exactly what it sounds like: the Indians gave unhappy people who rooted for a bad team unlimited quantities of nearly-free alcohol and it turned into utter chaos.
Ten Cent Beer Night has been much written about over the years so most of you probably know the broad details of it all. It’s pretty straightforward: the 1974 Indians were a pretty miserable squad. They were actually an improvement, though, over the 1969-1973 clubs, but that wasn’t saying much. Either way, all of that losing and meant for tons of empty seats at the lakefront ballpark. As a result, the team’s front office was looking for any way it could to boost attendance.
Whenever people talk about the disaster that Ten Cent Beer Night became on that June 4 in Cleveland, they almost always add jokes such as “who could’ve seen that coming?” and “what could possibly go wrong?” The thing was, though, the riot that ensued in Cleveland was at least something of a surprise. The Rangers themselves had actually done a Ten Cent Beer Night in Texas recently and it went off just fine. So while, yeah, it was still probably ill-advised, it’s not like it was unprecedented. There was at least some reason to believe it’d work.
There was one other complicating factor that often gets overlooked as well: it was probably a really bad idea to hold the promotion on the night they played the Rangers. Why? Because just six days earlier, when the two teams met down in Texas, things got ugly. For whatever reason a lot of pitches were thrown at batters’ heads which led to a brawl erupting — a proper 1970s brawl, with actual punches thrown and landed, not one of the modern pushes-at-most affair — followed by multiple ejections and fans throwing things at Indians players. In light of that, a lot of fans showed up to Municipal Stadium packing both attitudes and firecrackers and other things they intended to throw on the field anyway. Adding cheap beer to that mix was not good.
Also not good: the number of fans who showed up. While the attendance was only 25,000, and while that might seem small by today’s standards, the average Tuesday night game in Cleveland in 1974 would attract only 12-13,000 fans tops. As such, the ballpark staff was probably not prepared to deal with that many people getting out of hand.
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Another thing people sometimes miss is that the actual riot that ended the game didn’t happen until the ninth inning. Much of the chaos simply occurred as the game was being played. The firecrackers going off for one thing. Also a good bit of nudity. It was 1974 and 1974 was the year of the streaking craze. Early in the game a woman entered the playing field, stood in the on deck circle and flashed her breasts before trying to kiss the home plate umpire. Later a guy who streaked to second base, sliding and everything which, man, that couldn’t have felt good. A father and son team mooned the bleachers. Things were lit.
And increasingly ugly. As the beer continued to flow — limit six, but there was no practical enforcement preventing people from returning to the beer stands over and over again, getting six cups each time — more fans would run out onto the field, some being apprehended by ushers, most scurrying back into the stands. Beer, batteries, tennis balls, golf balls, and other things fans brought to the park were thrown onto the field with increasing frequency. At one point someone threw a glass bottle of Thunderbird at Mike Hargrove, just missing him.
The actual riot came in the bottom of the ninth, just as the Indians had rallied to tie it at five. Here let’s go to Paul Jackson’s seminal story on Ten Cent Beer Night from ESPN back in 2008:
I don’t know about you, but I am blaming ye ol’ Demon Rum.
Sounds like the Les Nessman Turkey Trot.
We used to have nickel beers at hockey games. Loads of fun
The Ballad of Ten-Cent Beer Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dh2g0TUKgc
Great story. I went to a lesbo night club on 10-cent beer night once. (The beer in question was Milwaukee’s Best.) The gal I went with was a co-worker. Nothing bad happened but after that I avoided any place I knew there was likely to be more than one or two lesbians. My impression was of a giant crowd of women trying to prove that yes, women can be worse than men. They certainly convinced me.
I fear that this article might give Biden an idea: Issue an executive order making 10 cent beer mandatory everywhere in the country.
Sure, that would lead to chaos, fights, and shortages. But in Biden’s eyes, those are all pluses.
Inflation killed that idea. It would be 50 cent beer night now.
And here we are 48 years later where a club could have a TEN DOLLAR beer night and people would flock for that cheap beer.
10 cent beer for 9 innings....what could go wrong?
Billy Martin was Rangers manager......knowing thst guy he probly had his share.
I stopped going to nfl games 10 years ago...even back then beer was $6....stupid
Judging by that video from the recent Oakland A’s game, I think they had 10-cent Prostitute Day.
The headline is misleading. Ten Cent Beer Night was June 4, 1974.
“...the 1974 Indians were a pretty miserable squad. They were actually an improvement, though, over the 1969-1973 clubs”
I recall reading in Graig Nettles’ book “Balls” about his time in Cleveland from about 1970 through the 1972 season when he was traded to the Yankees (right before Steinbrenner bought the club). He mentioned by that time, the downtown was crummy and run down and so was the ballpark (Municipal Stadium) and that main thing you did was play hard so that another team would possibly want to trade for you.
Could be worse. How about free handgun night at a Cubs game.
Anyway, the 1970s was a lot of fun. I remember getting 50 cents beers at Fenway Park when I was 15 years old. And they brought it to me! Back then they had concessioners tote beer around the stadium just like hot dogs and peanuts. Checking ID? Nobody did that in those days. If you had the cash, they just handed it to you.
The days before the Corporations ruined sports.
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