10¢ Beer Night

Ten Cent Beer Night was a promotion held during a game between the Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on June 4, 1974. The idea behind the promotion was to offer as many eight-ounce cups of Stroh's beer as the fans could drink for just 10¢ each, thus increasing ticket sales.

In the ninth inning, a fan attempted to steal Texas outfielder Jeff Burroughs' cap. Confronting the fan, Burroughs tripped, and Texas manager Billy Martin (thinking that Burroughs had been attacked) charged onto the field, his players right behind, some wielding bats. A large number of intoxicated fans - some armed with knives, chains, and portions of stadium seats that they had torn apart - surged onto the field, and others hurled bottles from the stands. Ken Aspromonte, the Indians' manager, ordered his players to grab bats and help the Rangers.

The bases were pulled up and stolen and many rioters threw a vast array of objects including cups, rocks, bottles, batteries from radios, hot dogs, popcorn containers, and folding chairs. As a result, umpire crew chief Nestor Chylak, realizing that order would not be restored in a timely fashion, forfeited the game to Texas. He later called the fans "uncontrollable beasts" and stated that he'd never seen anything like what had happened, "except in a zoo".

A riot squad from the Cleveland Police Department finally arrived to restore order.

The 25,134 fans in attendance (the past season's average attendance had been 8,000) chugged down an estimated 60,000 cups of beer.

Cotton/Poly/Rayon Blend