CLEVELAND, Ohio – On June 4, 1974, the beer flowed at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
And flowed and flowed.
Many Cleveland fans know the story of 10 Cent Beer Night, a tale told generation after generation with the short version like this: On that night at the stadium, a dime got you a beer, there was little oversight, a six-beer “limit” was in place, fans got drunk, dozens ran on the field intermittently throughout the game, chairs were thrown, and Cleveland blew it with a rare forfeit, losing to Texas.
Clevelanders remember the date, now immortalized in t-shirts and memories. Hours before the promotion, other infamous news carrying more significance broke out of Washington: A panel concluded that more than 18 minutes of White House tape were erased by someone manually operating a keyboard. Impeachment proceedings against President Nixon would follow, and on Aug. 8 the nation’s top executive announced he would resign.
The sports world was enjoying a rich year. Baseball fans were focused on one thing early in the 1974 season: Hank Aaron’s pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home-run record. On April 8, Aaron’s blast to left field earned him a rarified place in the record books.
But in Cleveland, June 4 was all about cheap beer and baseball.
The precursor to 10 Cent Beer Night
A bit of bad blood had brewed between the teams. Milt Wilcox, who played for Cleveland from 1972 to 1974, traces the roots to a game a week earlier.
On May 28, Cleveland had blanked Texas, 8-0, behind a complete game by Gaylord Perry in Arlington Stadium.
“Gaylord Perry was an old-time pitcher – you knock me down, I knock you down; you laugh at me, I’m gonna knock you down; you don’t do that, we’re gonna fight,” he said.
Second baseman Lenny Randle reportedly had mouthed off against Perry in the press after getting a hit and stealing a base in the Rangers’ loss, Wilcox said.
The next day, Perry approached Wilcox with a request.
“Can you do me a favor?” Perry asked Wilcox, more than a decade younger than the big southern veteran.
“What do you want me to do?” Wilcox replied.
“Can you nail Lenny Randle for me? Perry said. “I want you to drill him.”
For Wilcox, who considered Perry a mentor, it was a no-brainer.
“OK, I will,” Wilcox said. “I didn’t like him, either. The first pitch I threw was behind him. I was trying to hit him right in the kneecap. Next pitch, same thing – I missed him. Next pitch, he bunts a ball down the first-base line. I go field the ball and throw him out. He veers off the line, runs right into me, knocks me down. He runs to first base. John Ellis was the first baseman. He bear-hugged him, then all hell broke loose. It was a huge fight that both teams got involved in.
“It was kind of all forgotten, but you don’t forget those things when you’re a ballplayer.”
An Associated Press writer colorfully described the brawl: “Texas manager Billy Martin charged into the fray and was knocked on the seat of his pants before law and order was restored.”
With a week of time to allow anger to ferment, and as fans were lining up to buy their beers in Cleveland, the teams met again.
‘C’mon guys, let’s go help ‘em!’
Tom Hilgendorf, a left-handed reliever for Cleveland, hadn’t pitched since he tossed a third of an inning in a 3-0 loss against Texas on May 29. If he thought June 4 would be another sleepy night in the bullpen, he would be wrong.
Going into the June 4 game, the teams were evenly matched as 25,134 fans filtered into the park. Cleveland was 24-25 in fourth place in the AL East, 2.5 games back. Texas was in second place in the AL West, four games back.
It was a typical late spring day in Cleveland, with a scorching high of 83 degrees and a low dipping to 51.
Wilcox remembers the night clearly.
“People used to streak all the time in the outfield,” he said. “So after the first inning, we knew there was going to be a problem. We heard it was 10-cent beer night. Kids had just been let out of college. And we’re, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a wild night in Cleveland.’ After the first inning there were one or two guys who streaked from left field to right field. They’d swing in front of the outfielders and then get in the fencing for the box seats, which was only about two feet high. Security couldn’t get ‘em. Everybody’s cheering them on. I am not sure if they had any clothes on.”
Related coverage: Collision Bend Brewing Co. plans to relive 10 Cent Beer Night in calmer fashion
As the game wore on, more people would leap onto the field to race around, he said.
“People were drinking more and more beer, it was getting louder and louder,” he remembered.
All this time a game was going on, and – maybe not to the distracted fans – a pretty good ninth inning was taking shape.
Wilcox set down the order in the top of the ninth. The Indians came up for their final at-bat, down 5-3.
George Hendrick doubled. Then manager Ken Aspromante sent up three consecutive pinch-hitters - Ed Crosby. Rusty Torres and Alan Ashby. All singled, and John Lowenstein’s sacrifice fly scored Crosby. Score: 5-5. Outs: Two. Fans’ drunkenness: Very high.
What wasn’t in the box score for the game? Firecrackers went off. A naked man slid into second. A woman ran on the field, flashed the crowd, and tried to kiss umpire Nestor Chylak. One can only imagine what was going through Chylak’s head at the time, considering he had earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart fighting at the Battle of the Bulge.
Hilgendorf was cut by one of the chairs thrown. But the fuel-on-the-fire moment probably came when fans tried to steal Texas right fielder Jeff Burroughs’ cap. He kicked at them, lost his balance, and fell. Rangers manager Martin – never a stranger to a fight or a drink - reportedly thought fans knocked down his player. Like a general leading troops to battle, Martin led his Rangers - helmets on, bats in hand, into the melee.
The flood gates had opened. Wilcox remembers “a huge surge of people” running to right field. Cleveland players leapt out of the dugout in solidarity with their baseball compatriots. Of all people, it was Perry who took the lead, charging from Cleveland’s dugout.
“C’mon guys, let’s go help ‘em!” Wilcox remembers Perry saying.
“As soon as we run out on the field, people started throwing chairs from the upper deck and other articles, whatever they could find they’re throwing, and the place is going wild.”
The most protected player on the field might have been Wilcox.
It turned out Wilcox was pals with a local Italian-restaurant owner whose joint was popular with players. The owner didn’t put up with any guff and had steelworker pals with him, Wilcox said.
“They had a human fence around me so nobody could get to me,” he said. " ‘Don’t let anyone hurt Milt.’ I had my own posse.”
A bit of history on the diamond
Forfeits are rare but not unprecedented. The last one in the Majors before Cleveland’s soiree of suds came on Sept. 30, 1971, in Washington, D.C. and foreshadows the Rangers-Indians 1974 beer bash. In a way, the 1971 game was more of an ignoble moment for the Senators, since it was their last game – ever. They would become the Texas Rangers the following year.
In that 1971 game, the Senators were beating the Yankees, 7-5, with two outs in the ninth. Fans rushed onto the field and, with a lack of security, and as people churned through unattended turnstiles, order was lost. And so was the game. The umps called it, giving New York the forfeited win.
Dick Bosman started that game for Washington and pitched for Cleveland on 10 Cent Beer Night.
“The fans in Washington were not mean. … they were looking for mementos. This was a mean, ugly, frightening crowd,” he was quoted as saying in The Plain Dealer.
Also, 10 Cent Beer Night wasn’t the first forfeit involving a Cleveland team from various major leagues, but it is its most recent. The first of eight in the 19th century occurred in 1871. Cleveland teams in the American League were involved in forfeited games in 1901, 1903, 1917, 1918 and 1925.
Cleveland has recorded its share of infamous moments. When 10 Cent Beer Night rolled around, the city had just passed the fifth anniversary of the Cuyahoga River catching fire.
But that night, if Wilcox thought he had seen everything in a ballpark, he would be wrong.
The night disco was blown up
On July 12, 1979, Mike Veeck, son of former Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck and a budding promoter in his own right, was working in the front office for the Chicago White Sox. He teamed with popular disc jockey Steve Dahl for “Disco Demolition.”
The idea was simple: Fans would get in for 98 cents – a reference to the call numbers of Dahl’s station – and a record. Beer might have fueled the fans in Cleveland five years earlier, but on this night it was anger over what some perceived as soul-less pablum on the airwaves.
Wilcox, now with the Tigers, was preparing to start the second game of a doubleheader.
“It was getting wild, too,” he said. “We knew 95 percent of the people there weren’t really baseball fans.”
He was walking down the right-field line to warm up with catcher John Wockenfuss. He noticed what turned out to be a big box with records on the field.
“But the guy who put the charge in there put three times the amount of charge he was supposed to,” Wilcox said. “I remember I’ve got my towel on my arm - starting pitchers always have a routine – and I’m going down a little bit early to get my tosses in. All of a sudden without any warning this thing blew up. The concussion from it almost knocked us down. It was a big explosion.”
It shocked the battery mates. “We were, ‘Whoa, what was that?’ All of a sudden everybody just came on the field. They opened the floodgates, just like Cleveland. And here came everybody. The umpires ran out on the field and started waving their hands and called the game.”
What remained was a giant crater, an unexpected night off for Wilcox, and another forfeit in Major League record books.
The game, aftermath and connections to 10 Cent Beer Night
The official score for the record books per forfeiture rules for the June 4, 1974, game is 9-0.
Texas starter Ferguson Jenkins – who went 5 and 2/3 innings - is the lone Hall of Famer who was in the game. Texas’ Tom Grieve went 3-4 with three runs scored and two RBIs. Cleveland left fielder Leron Lee went 3-4 with two runs scored.
Cleveland’s starting lineup that night:
1. John Lowenstein, 3B
2. Jack Brohamer, 2B
3. Leron Lee, LF
4. Charlie Spikes, RF
5. Oscar Gamble, DH
6. George Hendrick, CF
7. Ossie Blanco, 1B
8. Dave Duncan, C
9. Frank Duffy, SS
For Crosby, part of the pinch-hitting troika in the ninth whose efforts would be as wasted as the fans, it was his first game in a Cleveland uniform.
Torres owns a forfeiture hat trick: He was with New York in 1971 for the Senators’ finale, Cleveland in 1974 for 10 Cent Beer Night and Chicago in 1979 for Disco Demolition.
Blanco, a veteran minor-leaguer, led off the fifth with a single off of Jenkins. He played 18 games with Cleveland in 1974, and had 20 total hits (all singles) in the Majors. Five days later, Blanco made his final appearance in a big-league uniform.
Knowing about the beer promotion, 48 police officers – 16 more than usual - were working the game. Twelve people were arrested.
Martin - never short of opinions - spoke to the Wahoo Club after the game: He blamed the fans, credited the team, and rescinded his criticism of the press. Cleveland front-office execs Ted Bonda and Phil Seghi said the umpires lost control and subsequent beer promotions would go on. Plain Dealer sports editor Hal Lebovitz called the perpetrators “beered-up hooligans.”
“I hope the Indians don’t lose the pennant because of that game,” Lebovitz said.
That wouldn’t be a problem. After the game, Cleveland and Texas each would sit 3.5 games back in their respective divisions. At the end of the season, Cleveland finished in fourth place and Texas wound up in second.
Two of the four umpires working 10 Cent Beer Night are tied to yet another ignoble moment in the Majors. Joe Brinkman and Nick Bremigan also were umpiring during the Pine Tar incident on July 24, 1983, in Yankee Stadium.
The Royals’ George Brett hit what appeared to be a home run. It turned out he had violated a rule limiting substance on a bat. It was Bremigan who came up with the idea to lay the bat across the plate, which is 17 inches, to determine how much of the bat contained the substance.
Dahl bounced to several stations and, of course, moved into podcasting. Veeck’s career was set back for years because of the stunt. But he came back, bought minor-league teams, and is known as one of the game’s greatest promoters.
Darin Erstad, who played most of his 14-year career with the Angels, made his Major League debut in 1996 and never played in Cleveland Municipal Stadium. But he is connected to 10 Cent Beer Night. It was the day he was born.
Wilcox amassed a 119-113 record over 16 seasons.
“Back in the day, they did all this stuff, cause they didn’t draw any fans, cause our team always sucked. Our team didn’t suck, we didn’t have good management, is what it was,” he said.
He became a manufacturer’s representative, but almost 20 years ago, looking for a way to spend his retirement, teamed up with his son Brian on a dock-dog business called Ultimate Air Dogs. Years ago, he had a dog named Sparky Anderson Wilcox. They travel across the country to put on shows.
Looking back, Wilcox remembers his time here fondly, 10 Cent Beer Night and all.
“The three years I was in Cleveland I loved it,” he said. “I loved the people. The stadium sucked at the time - the showers, the locker rooms were terrible. But I enjoyed the three years I was there.”
I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. Twitter: @mbona30.
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