Ten Cent Beer Night

The Ten Cent Beer Night was a marketing campaign as part of the Major League Baseball game between the host Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers on June 4, 1974. The game was advertised by the organizers with the announcement, 12 -ounce mug of beer ( about 350 ml ) for sale at a price of 10 cents at a maximum level of 6 cups per person. The regular price was 65 cents. At the beginning of the ninth inning of the space of strongly drunken fans stormed, which led to violent riots and the demolition of the game.

Prehistory

Beer Nights, there had been at baseball games for a few years. The Cleveland Indians had in 1971 carried out with the nickel Beer Day is a corresponding action, where there had been no major problems. However, there was a trend to proclaim ever more spectacular volumes and low prices. The game in June 1974 was also a publicly registered dispute between the leaders of both clubs preceded it. In the meeting a week earlier there had been in Texas for a wild brawl between players on the court, the bench of the Indians had been thrown in the wake of Rangers fans with fast food and beer cups. The General Manager (GM ) of the Rangers, Billy Martin, had been asked after the game by journalists whether he was afraid of the upcoming meeting in Cleveland and the corresponding reactions of the local fans, and he replied that he could not imagine that would be enough spectators present in order to worry about need.

He was referring to the small audience average of the Indians, which was a result of a very long dry spell of the association with many defeats and negative balances season. The city of Cleveland also suffered resulting from the emigration of various industrial plants and from the fact of high unemployment. The leaders of the Indians responded to the provocations from Texas with aggressive announcements to make the enemy the upcoming game to hell, which was picked up by local newspapers and radio stations. In addition to the beer promotion caused this, that in the evening of the game had over 25,000 spectators made ​​their way to the Cleveland Municipal Stadium, about twice as many as in the home games before.

The game and the riots

Even before the start of the game large amounts of cheaply -emerging beer were sold and consumed. The planned serving limit per person was not controlled with consumption cards or the like, and often not adhered to, with the result that many viewers were drunk during the game. After the game play to the expectations of home viewers did not meet - the Indians were back early with 1:5 - there was a wide range of aggressive expressions of anger and an ever -increasing number of intrusions of the spectators on the game. Several rioters and racer had to be tamed and captured in the sequence of folders, a woman ran onto the lawn, exposing her breasts. Players from both teams were once they were in the vicinity of the spectator stands, pelted with objects and spat. Viewers will also lit fireworks, some of which landed on the field.

When the Indians had just equalized to 5:5 and the game in the ninth inning was the decisive stage, a fan ran onto the pitch and tried a Rangers player to tear his cap from his head. Billy Martin, the scene could not tell exactly and had feared, the fan could have beaten the player stormed with bench players in the wake of the square, to support his players. This in turn means that many spectators climbed into the interior of the stadium and the place also stormed. Some of them were armed with knives, iron chains, beer bottles and torn seats. Ken Aspromonte, the GM of the Indians, called on his players to go with their baseball bats to the square and to protect the Rangers players. Not only had he fears the guests player could be lynched.

It occurred as a result diverse hunting and beatings. Among the later injured were several spectators, players of both teams - Cleveland's Tom Hilgendorf suffered a concussion after he was hit by a stadium seat at the head - and the umpire Nestor Chylak that it was a laceration on his head and a cut injury on the hand. Chylak later said the rioters would have been like " uncontrollable animals' behavior, like he had only experienced in the zoo. The game was stopped and later scored for Texas. Only several units heavily armored police could stop the riots. The interior was completely devastated, Base stones and accessories stolen from the substitutes' bench and coaching zone.

Reactions

Only about a dozen rioters were arrested by police and sentenced accordingly. Cleveland GM Aspromonte expressed shock and spoke of a shameful day for the whole city. On the fact that the police were initially present in hardly appreciable force levels in and around the stadium, ignited in the wake fierce criticism that led to the forces of similar risk games were drastically increased. Lee MacPhail, competent president of the American League, said there is no question that the cheap beer have favored the riots largely and initially banned all similar actions planned. A few weeks later they were permitted again under strict conditions. In Cleveland another Beer Night was held a month later on July 18, but in which only two cups were sold for 10 cents per person, which was this time also controlled. There were no incidents.

Tim Russert, at that time a student in Cleveland, was among the spectators of the 10 Cent Beer Night and described his own experience later as follows: "I came with two dollars in his pocket. You can calculate it. " (I went with $ 2 in my pocket. You do the math. )

765195
de