On this day, June 4, 1974, a riot broke out at a Cleveland Indians baseball game during Ten Cent Beer Night.
The foundering Indians’ offered eight-ounce Stroh’s Beer for just 10 cents for its game against the lowly Texas Rangers.
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More than 25,000 fans showed — four times the Indians’ average — and guzzled 60,000 cups of beer.
In the ninth inning, a drunk jumped to the field to steal Rangers outfielder Jeff Burrough’s cap. Burroughs fell.
Players from both teams rushed to Burroughs’ aid as hundreds of fans, some armed with knives and chains, streamed onto the field.
Seven people were hospitalized; nine were arrested.
The event is considered the worst promotional fiasco in Major League Baseball, alongside Disco Demolition Night in Chicago in 1979.
-Scott McCabe
