10 Cent Beer Night
Terry_Clubbup
833 Posts
June 4, 1974 Cleveland Municipal StadiumCleveland Indians vs. Texas RangersWhy is there no video of this to be found online?I want it now."In the bottom of the ninth, the Indians managed to rally and tie the game at five runs apiece, but with a crowd that had been consuming as much alcohol as it could for nine innings, the situation finally boiled over. After Texas outfielder Jeff Burroughs violently reacted to a fan stealing his glove and cap, the Texas players, led by manager Billy Martin, charged out to his aid with other members of his team onto the field with bats to defend the players against an avalanche of drunken fans pouring onto the field or hurling bottles from the stands. As soon as they arrived, hundreds of fans poured into the outfield, some armed with knives, chains and portions of stadium seats that they had broken apart.[/b] Realizing the Rangers might be in danger of their lives, Ken Aspromonte, the Indians' manager, ordered his players to grab bats and help the Rangers. Fans began throwing steel folding chairs and Cleveland relief pitcher Tom Hilgendorf was hit in the head by one of them."Who brings chains to a baseball game?
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You should go to a Browns Steelers game some time. Its a blast. if you can, get tix to the dog pound section of Browns Stadium, so worth it.
had a case of that this weekend.
funny story though. i like the fact that the cleveland players went after there own fans to protect the rangers. good guys those indians.
Coals to Newcastle, homie: The chains were taken from the stadium's railings and from the line-labyrinth things by the concessions. One of my uncles was talking to my brother about this very thing not too long ago.
Incidents like this are a recurrent theme in Ohio entertainment history, and run deep in the collective consciousness of its citizenry. For all of its apparent placidity, there's this lingering sense among many folks there that any sizable gathering can, with just a slight shift in the public wind, rapidly degenerate into Grand Guignol. Cleveland Municipal 1974, Riverfront 1979, the Dog Pound 2007, etc. As recently as 2005, my mother-in-law was concerned about my wife and I attending some concert, asking--in all seriousness and all gravity--"Are you absolutely certain there won't be any festival seating?"