Thunder Dan
03-19-2009, 06:57 PM
This is one of those nights that goes down in Cleveland sports lore. It's the night when you could bring in $2 and get yourself 20 Stroh's beers. Yes, that's right it was 10 cent beer night at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The night ended in a forfeit by the Tribe due to the riots by the fans. Some of the highlights (or lowlights) of the night included:
-a Woman in the 4th inning running onto the on deck circle and flashing her breasts then trying to kiss the home plate umpire
-A naked man sprinting and sliding into second base as the Rangers' Tom Greive rounded the bases after his 2nd home run
-in the 5th inning a father and son jumped into the outfield and mooned the bleachers
-between the 5th and 8th inning, 5 other fans ran onto the field, Mike Hargrove of the Rangers was pelted with Hot Dogs and was nearly hit with an empty gallon drum of boxed wine.
and then it finally boiled over in the 9th inning and this happened..
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.[3] 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. Realizing that the Rangers' lives might be in danger, Ken Aspromonte, the Indians' manager, ordered his players to grab bats and help the Rangers. Rioters began throwing steel folding chairs, and Cleveland relief pitcher Tom Hilgendorf was hit in the head by one of them. Hargrove, involved in a fistfight with a rioter, had to fight another on his way back to the Texas dugout.
Among the Indians players suddenly running for his life was Rusty Torres, who was on second base at the time, representing the winning run. In his career, Torres wound up seeing three big-league baseball riots close up; he was with the New York Yankees at the Senators' final game in Washington in 1971 and the Chicago White Sox during the infamous Disco Demolition Night in 1979.
The bases were pulled up and stolen (never to be returned) 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 too was a victim of the rioters as one struck him with part of a stadium seat, cutting his head.[4] His hand was also cut by a thrown rock.
As Joe Tait and Herb Score called the riot live on radio, Score mentioned the lack of police protection; a riot squad from the Cleveland police department finally arrived to restore order.
Later that season, the team's promotion of three additional beer nights were changed from unlimited amounts to a limit of four cups per person. American League president Lee McPhail commented, "There was no question that beer played a part in the riot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night
Here is a ESPN Page 2 article about it for further reading
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=beernight/080604
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Sgr7iHOvMAE/SE4jFC0s8-I/AAAAAAAAA7w/zuZkPelwdr0/s320/pg2_ap_10cent_beer2_300.jpg
-a Woman in the 4th inning running onto the on deck circle and flashing her breasts then trying to kiss the home plate umpire
-A naked man sprinting and sliding into second base as the Rangers' Tom Greive rounded the bases after his 2nd home run
-in the 5th inning a father and son jumped into the outfield and mooned the bleachers
-between the 5th and 8th inning, 5 other fans ran onto the field, Mike Hargrove of the Rangers was pelted with Hot Dogs and was nearly hit with an empty gallon drum of boxed wine.
and then it finally boiled over in the 9th inning and this happened..
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.[3] 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. Realizing that the Rangers' lives might be in danger, Ken Aspromonte, the Indians' manager, ordered his players to grab bats and help the Rangers. Rioters began throwing steel folding chairs, and Cleveland relief pitcher Tom Hilgendorf was hit in the head by one of them. Hargrove, involved in a fistfight with a rioter, had to fight another on his way back to the Texas dugout.
Among the Indians players suddenly running for his life was Rusty Torres, who was on second base at the time, representing the winning run. In his career, Torres wound up seeing three big-league baseball riots close up; he was with the New York Yankees at the Senators' final game in Washington in 1971 and the Chicago White Sox during the infamous Disco Demolition Night in 1979.
The bases were pulled up and stolen (never to be returned) 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 too was a victim of the rioters as one struck him with part of a stadium seat, cutting his head.[4] His hand was also cut by a thrown rock.
As Joe Tait and Herb Score called the riot live on radio, Score mentioned the lack of police protection; a riot squad from the Cleveland police department finally arrived to restore order.
Later that season, the team's promotion of three additional beer nights were changed from unlimited amounts to a limit of four cups per person. American League president Lee McPhail commented, "There was no question that beer played a part in the riot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night
Here is a ESPN Page 2 article about it for further reading
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=beernight/080604
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Sgr7iHOvMAE/SE4jFC0s8-I/AAAAAAAAA7w/zuZkPelwdr0/s320/pg2_ap_10cent_beer2_300.jpg