10 Cent Beer Night: The Most Chaotic Night in Baseball History

one of the craziest most ridiculous disasters in human history just so happened to take place at a major league baseball game it's well documented that 10-cent beer night is a lesson both in how to not set up a game day promotion and in what an angry mob is capable of but if this is your first time learning about what happened here we promise you that all of this really happened June 4th 1974 the Texas Rangers are playing in the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland plenty of baseball figures are here to Hall of Famers were on the teams in this game Oscar gamble and his incredible afro were here the American League MVP that year was in this game and had his hat stolen by a fan on the field as he was playing the outfield which you'll learn more about in a little while now we're gonna do something a bit unusual for telling the story of 10-cent beer night meat naturally trash and Ashton two friends of the channel they volunteered to react to the story of 10-cent beer night and we're gonna tell the story through the reaction and perspective of two people who know nothing about what happened think of me as like the narrator in a movie here my voice will help guide the progression of the story but you get to see two people learn about this unbelievable story for the first time all right take it away guys just when you look it up there's already something on Google those are do Wikipedia 10-cent beer and I was a promotion held by Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians during a game against the Rangers at Cleveland Stadium did they just set up a bunch of beer cans for this picture or did everyone says most of above Roanoke yeah there's a lot of coca-cola like this isn't even hanging out beer what really happened 10 cent beer night it was a special wait I don't even know what word to use oh there's a special discount on beers instead of 65 cents of beer which is already cheap I think or maybe it was like normal priced in 1974 they were only 10 cents each for 12 fluid ounces so like it's like a good amount of beer and there was a limit of six beers per purchase and there's no there is no limit on the number of purchases made there game so someone could just go up and get six beers and drink them all and then come back and say hey can I get six beers terrible idea I don't know who came up with this mr. Cleveland himself probably but it says during the game fans became heavily intoxicated culminating in a riot in the ninth inning which caused the game to be forfeited due to the crowds uncontrollable rowdiness and because the game could not be resumed in a timely manner so we don't really know what they were doing for nine innings but at the end just like a little circus but apparently the Indians have previously held such promotions without incident beginning with nickel beer day in 1971 so that that was three years earlier and they had no problem why is it called nickel beer day but then this isn't called like dime beer night or something it's called 10-cent beer night a solid chunk of the people watching this video may have already known about the events of 10-cent beer night what those people may not know is that there was already some tension between the Rangers and the Indians before the game all right in Texas the trouble had started in the bottom of the fourth inning with a walk to the Rangers Tom grieve followed by a Lenny Randle single blah blah blah and the ants retaliated in the bottom of the eighth when pitcher Milt wilt Milt Wilcox through behind Randall's legs Randall eventually laid down a bunt blah blah blah blah blah wait oh oh this isn't ba ba ba ba when Wilcox attempted to field it and tag Randall out which he did successfully Randall hit him with his forearm Indians first baseman John Ellis responded by punching Randall and both benches emptied for a brawl after the brawl was broken up as Indian players and coaches were returning to the dugout they were struck by food and beer hurled by Rangers fans catcher Dave Duncan had to be restrained from going into the stands to brawls with fans okay so like they're just all immature I guess because they're like the players are literally trying to brawl with the fans they're throwing food and beer on Oh [Music] six days after the brawl in Texas that we just talked about Cleveland's 10-cent beer night promotion Drouin about a little over 25,000 fans to Cleveland Stadium on a Tuesday night which has doubled the number that they expected so the Rangers quickly took a 5-1 lead meanwhile throughout the game the that's a word I can't say crowd maybe what me breathing the inebriated crowd grew more and more unruly early in the game Cleveland's Leon Lee Ron Lee hit a line drive into the stomach of Rangers pitcher Ferguson Jenkins so this dude just got this straight knocked the wind out of him dropped to the ground cuz he got hit in the stomach line drive ball fan Singh the upper deck of the stadium cheered and chanted hit him again hit him again harder harder that's mean I don't know how that got started but a woman ran out to the Indians on-deck circle and flashed her breasts and a naked man sprinted to second base as Greve hit his home run of the game this stuff like this doesn't sound real food one inning later a father and son pair ran onto the outfield and moon the fans in the bleachers nice as the game wore fans ran onto the field that caused problems Rangers first baseman Bob pelted with hot dogs forget it the Rangers later argued a call in which Lee was called safe in a close play at third base now at this point everyone's intoxicated hopefully not the players the Rangers angry response to the call enraged Cleveland fans who again began throwing objects onto the field someone toss to lit firecrackers into the Rangers ball you just brought them with you in case you've seen that tensions are high and this crowd is already out of control to say the least in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Indians put a rally together that tied the game the crowd exploded but not in a good way the winning run was at third base a 336 hitter stepped up to the plate the Indians had an expected win probability of 61% the crowd didn't give them the chance to see what would happen and one of the lowest moments in sports fan history was about to go nuclear in the bottom of the night the Indians managed to rally time game 5 to 5 and had rusty Torres on second base representing the potential winning run however with that crowd that have been drinking heavily for nine innings the situation finally came to a head now we're getting into the riot this is where it went crazy in the ninth inning the Indians managed to tie the game a nineteen-year-old fan ran onto the field then attempted to steal Texas yeah Texas outfielder Jeff Burroughs cap well a lot of the fans around bucks just there after you know for hours drinking beer and they just came out in there trying to steal my hat my glove and other things a large number of intoxicated fans some armed with knives chains and clubs fashioned from portions of stadium seats that they had torn apart surged went to the field it just they turned into the Hulk from drinking beer they just ripped the stadium seats apart and had not liked who brought I'll Club into the game where did they get clubs bro and chains wrote how are they just tearing the seats out I realizing that the Rangers lives might be in danger Cleveland manager Ken asked asked for Monty his players to grab bats and help the Rangers attacking the team's own fans in the process riders begin to know the old folding chairs and Cleveland release pitcher Tom Hogan Dorf this is like a joke at this point I'm sorry Tom I know you there's like some Hilding Gork stands in the comments open door he was hit in the head by one of the steel folding chairs hargrove after subduing one writer in a fistfight had to fight another on his way back to the Texas dugout teams were treated off the field through the dugouts in groups with players protecting each other teams fled into their club houses and closed and locked the doors the crowd pulled it literally says the crowd pulled up and both all the bases and anything else it found why what are you doing with the bases manteca gets collected you think there's people that actually that still have it and they have it like on their wall or maybe they psyche tried selling well not like the it might be on eBay right now where they're like zero responsible adults at this time like everyone just got blackout drunk and caused the riot even the kids yeah there was literally that nineteen year old kid that just went and stole a hat like bro you're not even old enough to drink why are you doing this the umpire called off the game because he realized it would not restore in a timely fashion he too was a victim of the rioters as one struck and cut his head with part of a stadium seat we need to see these stadiums we heard there was no question that beer played a part in the riot wow I wonder maybe the next beer night promotion on July 18th attracted 41,000 fans with beer again selling for 10 cents per cup but with a limit of two cups per person at the reduced price thanks guys for helping us out here something else that's worth mentioning one of the guys who was part of that game time rally for the Indians was a man named rusty Torres rusty played in three different MLB games that ended in forfeits because of riots his teams went one and two in those forfeits based on the percentage of games he played in compared to how many forfeits he experienced it's the same as if Derek Jeter was a part of 12 or 13 forfeits in his career 10-cent beer night will forever be remembered as one of the most insane nights in not just baseball history but human history for reasons completely beyond the control of those on the field the Indians took a loss that day in the standings this ended up being a relatively meaningless game the Indians finished eight games under 500 and the Rangers missed the playoffs by five games but those who were there and experienced it were part of one of the most significant baseball events of the 1970s for all the wrong reasons a final message to entertainment event planners don't try this again was there in your mind he's gonna tell us about that blueberry Franco I'm smoking today 20 days later I double my bank account Wells Fargo had to preach birthday

Channel: Stark Raving Sports

Views: 33,656

Keywords: Stark Raving Sports, Baseball, Sports

Id: daWdOwqQhCs

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020