Cleveland Indians , 1974, what a story!

[flyingillini]

In 1974, the Cleveland Indians had a brilliant idea to fix their terrible attendance... Sell beer for just 10 cents! This idea became known as the worst sports promotion idea in history.

For starters, the economy in Cleveland wasn't great in 1974. People were losing their jobs left and right. It also didn't help that the Cleveland Indians weren't exactly good at the time.

Normally, they only had 5,000 fans and 50 security guards.

But for this game, with the 10 cent beers, 25,000 people showed up... and they still only had 50 guards.

It was a recipe for disaster.

There was no limit on purchases, and teenagers were the ones selling the alcohol. When the taps ran dry, they literally drove a beer truck onto the field, but even that wasn't enough. The teenagers, rightfully, gave up and just walked off the job. It became a free-for-all and fans just raided the truck.

The game was hardly playable to begin with but the chaos escalated fast. Streakers were running onto the field, women were trying to kiss the umpires, fans were throwing fireworks into the Texas Rangers' dugout. It was a disaster.

But the breaking point came in the 9th inning when a man ran onto the field and tried to grab the hat off a Texas player.

From the dugout the players thought their teammate was being attacked, so they ran out to defend him.

The mob exploded. Thousands of fans stormed the field to start fighting with the opposing team.

So the Indians, who were actually rivals with Texas at the time, joined forces! The players grabbed their bats to fight off the drunken horde with Texas while retreating to the locker rooms.

Riot police eventually got called and had to tear gas the stadium. The game never finished and Cleveland forfeited.

Cleveland actually ran the promotion once more, but decided to limit the beer per customer.

 

[BMR Genie]

"Streakers were running onto the field, women were trying to kiss the umpires, fans were throwing fireworks into the Texas Rangers' dugout. It was a disaster."

--> I would love to do time-travel and join this event. Sounds really fun.

 

[Wagerallsports]

Wow

 

[BigJay]

"Streakers were running onto the field, women were trying to kiss the umpires, fans were throwing fireworks into the Texas Rangers' dugout. It was a disaster."

--> I would love to do time-travel and join this event. Sounds really fun.

 

[BigJay]

In college they used to have penny and nickel beer night.

Natty Light I believe it was.

They finally had to ban this practice for the same reason. People were drinking so much and getting into huge fights.

 

[djefferis]

Likely rioted when they found out the dime beer was Stroh’s.

Seriously - the whole thing had more to do with the teams than anything else. Rangers and tribe had a little rivalry going that had boiled over a week before, These were 2 teams with big expectations and looking to knock off the big boys in their respective divisions. Rangers were lead by none other than Billy Martin - so the Rangers had adopted his hard nosed style and Cleveland was not appreciative of it.

Problem was with a packed house of fans drawn for the cheap booze and tired of a couple decades of losing and wasting talent - the fight on the field was the spark that lit the powder keg.

Municipal stadium was both a great social experience and a completely horrible baseball stadium. You were so damn far off the field - and sitting there in the stands you would often find the going on’s with fan around you more interesting.

Young college age kids - cheap beer and a huge stadium with minimal security who didn’t give a shit as they made next to nothing. It didn’t take much for that place to explode into a riot. Just look at the World Series of Rock shows held there from mid 1970s-1980 I think it was. You had bands like Pink Floyd and the Stones headlining every year - and 100,000 kids going absolutely apeshit crazy.

The 1979 WSOR was another legendary riot at this stadium. Also ultimately was the final straw between Joe Perry and Steven Tyler that lead to Joe leaving Aerosmith.

 

[djefferis]

And if you think 10 cent beer night was a dumb idea - should have seen this place on bat day !!

 

[quantumleap]

In college they used to have penny and nickel beer night.

Natty Light I believe it was.

They finally had to ban this practice for the same reason. People were drinking so much and getting into huge fights.

When I was in college, and shortly after, bars used to have All You Can Drink night at the bars that only served beer. It was like $5 to get in and that's all you had to pay. No charge for the beer.

So many fights and so many drunk people they had to stop doing it in fear of litigation against them.

 

[edawg]

Complete nonsense reporting a good time was had by all!