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Tag: 10-cent beer night

  • 10-Cent Beer Night Celebrates 40th Anniversary

    It’s been 40 years since the Cleveland Indians hosted 10-cent beer night, and to this day it is still one of the most infamous promotions in Major League Baseball history.

    The promotion was held on June 4, 1974 and was intended to both show the Cleveland Indians’ appreciation for fans and as a way to make money of course.

    While the idea was innocent enough, 10-cent beer night ended up going wrong and even caused a massive riot. It also led to several streakers, a few fist fights, some fire crackers and the Indians forfeiting that night’s game against the Rangers.

    The whole thing may sound like a mess and something Cleveland would be ashamed to talk about, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Cleveland Indians fans talk about the catastrophe with fond memories and even consider it a source of civic pride.

    There are a lot of questions about what really went down at the stadium that night, but an even better one is, “why would anyone attempt a 10-cent beer night at a baseball stadium?”

    The truth is, Cleveland wasn’t the first place to come up with the idea and other stadiums across the country had hosted similar events. Cleveland had already sponsored a five cent beer night that went much smoother than expected and inspired them to host similar events.

    “It was just a way to get fans to the ballpark,” said Tom Grieve, then a Rangers outfielder. “It seemed like a good idea. [The events on June 4 were] a matter of circumstances that presented themselves throughout the night.”

    10-cent beer night may have been a bad idea, or it may have been a coincidence that a bunch of people drinking cheap beer and watching a sporting event under a full moon got a little rowdy and out of control. The point is that 10-cent beer night is remembered as an infamous day in sports history and today, Cleveland fans celebrated its 40th anniversary.

    Image via YouTube

  • 10 Cent Beer Night Offers Memories And Nostalgia

    Baseball, more than any other sport, revels in the history of the game, remembering the great or not-so-great players and moments of the past, a tinge of nostalgia blanketing over the memories, always accompanied by the phrase—“I was there!”

    Even for nights like 10-Cent Beer Night, which was hosted by the Cleveland Indians at Municipal Stadium on June 4, 1974, the reminiscing is contagious. What started off as a simple idea to sell cheap beers led to mayhem in the ninth inning of a game between the Indians and Texas Rangers, according to MLB.com. It led to a night that was unforgettable.

    So what are the stats of this game between the Indians and Rangers, according to Dan Coughlin, a retired sportswriter who was present at the game? How, in other words, would you sum it up?

    “There were 25,134 fans. 60,000 Genesee beers at 10 cents each. 50 cops. 19 streakers. 7 emergency room injuries. 9 arrests. 2 bare moons. 2 bouncing breasts. 1 sportswriter punched in the jaw.”

    Dan Coughlin, of course, was that sportswriter.

    According to Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com, the environment and past history between the two teams led to the eventual forfeit of the game by the Indians (only the fifth forfeit in MLB history). A much younger crowd was on hand for the game, due to college students returning to town. The early June humidity led to clogged lines at the concession stands, and of course there was a full moon that June 4 night.

    “Every bartender will tell you,” said Coughlin, “the gravitational attraction of the full moon makes crazy people even crazier.”

    As Castrovince writes about the events that would transpire, “The Indians forfeited that night’s game against the Rangers in the midst of a ninth-inning comeback because a crazed crowd had overtaken the events on the field. It is one of just five forfeits since 1954, and the only one known to include a combination of streaking nudists, exploding firecrackers, stolen bases (literally) and an organists’ rendition of ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ serving as the soundtrack to 50 ballplayers defending themselves from a crowd of unruly drunks.”

    It would not be the last of the 10-Cent Beer Night in Cleveland. The Indians held another one July 18, 1974. For that game, the crowd was larger but the promotion went off without a hitch.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons