Are We There Yet?
February 3-9, 2020
By Jay Edwards
jedwards@dailydata.com
One night in Cleveland
Harry Doyle: Just a reminder, fans, comin’ up is our “Die-hard Night” here at the stadium. Free admission to anyone who was actually alive the last time the Indians won a pennant. - Major League (1989)
I was doing a little light research on some events from 1974 and ran across something I’d never heard about. It was June 4 at Cleveland Stadium, in a game between the Indians and the Rangers – a night when an enticement to attract more fans had been offered. The hook was a 12 ounce cup of beer you could buy for a dime, a whopping 55 cents off its regular price. However, more than a few mistakes were made in the promotion, the biggest being no limit on how many of the cheap beers one could purchase.
Heavy intoxication soon enveloped the stadium, but demand remained high. The beer could not be brought in fast enough, so another decision was made, known as mistake number two, which was letting the fans line up behind the outfield fence and refill their cups directly from the Stroh’s trucks.
As the public address announcer asked fans to please not litter onto the field, trash rained harder from above. Busy ground crews became moving targets. One woman leaped from the stands and was urged to do a striptease. As she considered it she was quickly removed, spitting curses at the police while the crowd booed.
When another fan began throwing firecrackers into the Rangers’ bullpen, Umpire Nestor Chylak told pitchers to start warming up on the mound. When Rangers’ first baseman Mike Hargrove trotted onto the field, he was almost hit in the head by a bottle of Thunderbird wine.
Streakers began shedding their clothes on the field, causing parents who weren’t drinking to herd children toward the exits.
When the Indians tied the game in the ninth a man leaped from his seat and took the hat from Rangers’ outfielder Jeff Burroughs head. Burroughs tripped giving chase, disappearing from the view of Texas manager Billy Martin, who grabbed a bat and charged to help his fallen player, yelling, “Let’s go get ‘em boys!” As if drunk themselves his faithful team followed.
But when they made it to Burroughs, 200 inebriated Indians’ fans waited, carrying chains, knives and clubs. The nudists were nowhere to be seen. Indians’ manager Ken Aspromonte watched from his dugout and made the quick decision to save his endangered opponents, ordering his own bat-wielding group to the rescue.
Announcers Joe Tait and Herb Score called the action from above:
Tait: Tom Hilgendorf has been hit in the head. Hilgy is in definite pain. He’s bent over, holding his head … I’ve been in this business over 20 years and I’ve never seen anything as disgusting as this.
Score: I don’t think the game will continue Joe. The unbelievable thing is people keep jumping out of the stands.
Tait: Well, that shows you the complete lack of brainpower on the parts of some people … now we’ve got another fight going on with fans and ballplayers. Hargrove has got some kid on the ground and he is really administering a beating.
Score: Well, that fellow came up and hit him from behind is what happened.
Tait: Boy, Hargrove really wants a piece of him – and I don’t blame him.
Score: Look at Duke Sims down there going at it.
Tait: Yeah, Duke is on it. Here we go again.
The teams finally escaped, and the drunken fans stood on the field, alone and confused. So they started ripping up the bases.
Tait: The bases are gone.
The organist began playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” When a hunting knife stuck in the ground next to his leg, Chylak forfeited the game to Texas.
Dan Coughlin, a reporter from the nearby Chronicle Telegram tried interviewing some fans but got punched in the face.
Burroughs was fairly calm after escaping with his life and asked someone if the forfeit would erase his 0 for 3 night at bat. It didn’t.
A few days later the Indians announced that new measures would be taken to prevent similar outbursts. The next time they offered a 10-cent beer night (three more were planned), fans would be restricted to four cups apiece per game, no exceptions.
