As a city with 3 major sports teams, Cleveland is no stranger to Sports Lore. From the firing of Paul Brown, to Art Modell moving the Browns out Cleveland, to Bottlegate, to former Cavs owner Ted Stepien being such a bad owner that the NBA instituted the “Stepien Rule,” Cleveland has certainly left its mark on sports.
However, the most infamous event in Cleveland sports history is the June 4, 1974, baseball game at Cleveland stadium between the Texas Rangers and the then Cleveland Indians, known as Ten Cent Beer Night—witnessed by CSU Law’s own Professor Ken Kowalski.
Ten Cent Beer Nights were not necessarily new to the MLB. Even after June 4th, other MLB teams hosted the same promotion, including the Rangers themselves. In theory, it was not a totally bad idea; however, the execution of it in Cleveland was completely botched.
The idea was intended to improve attendance by offering low-alcohol beer for just 10 cents, with a limit of six beers per purchase. The first problem was that there was no limit on the number of purchases being made during the game. The second problem was that fans already held animosity towards the Rangers for a bench-clearing brawl that had happened a week prior in Texas. Angry fans combined with cheap beer is a recipe for disaster, and what a disaster it was.
That night, over 25,000 fans flocked to Cleveland Stadium (which had only increased security to 48 police officers from their usual 32), and early in the game it was clear the type of night it was going to be. After the first inning, one or two men streaked from left field to right field (and managed to evade security); later, a woman entered the playing field and flashed her breasts before trying to kiss the home plate umpire. A man streaked and slid to second base. A father and son duo entered the field and mooned the crowd. At one point someone threw a gallon glass bottle of Thunderbird at Mike Hargrove (who at the time was playing for the Rangers but ended his MLB career with Cleveland). Even firecrackers were set off.
However, what ended up turning the game into a riot was during the ninth inning. The Indians had rallied back to tie the score 5-5 when some fans tried to steal the cap of Texas right fielder Jeff Burroughs. When Burroughs kicked at them, he lost his balance and fell. Unfortunately, Rangers manager, Billy Martin, who was known for fighting and drinking (and had once tried to get a friend to take out a hit on an umpire), thought that the fans had knocked down Burroughs. In true Billy Martin fashion, he led his players onto the field armed with bats.
And that is when things spiraled out of control. Fans, armed with knives, chains, and clubs they had made from stadium seats, started rushing the field trying to attack the Rangers. Cleveland players left their dugout to try and protect the Rangers from the now angry and drunk fans. Eventually, 12 fans ended up being arrested. As the riot was going on, baseball announcers Joe Tait and Herb Score were able to keep their cool and called the riot live on the radio. Another person who managed to keep calm during the pandemonium? CSU Law’s very own, Professor Ken Kowalski.
Professor Kowalski is a lifelong Cleveland Baseball fan, which makes sense considering he is named after Cleveland Indians All Star third baseman Ken Keltner, most famous for making two great fielding plays that ended Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. So, when asked about Ten Cent Beer Night, he was more than happy to share his experience.
He made it clear to me that first and foremost he is a baseball fan, so he had decided to attend the game because it was a Cleveland baseball game. The Indians, as they were called at the time, were a good team and Texas was also a good team, so he knew it was going to be a good game. And he will admit the beer was tempting.
At the time he was an elementary school teacher. Because of his job he was able to afford some bleacher seats and went with some friends. The fact that he was in the bleachers is very important. He explained that the old municipal stadium (Cleveland Stadium) was built for old world games back in the 1930s, so it was huge. The bleachers went so far back that there was a space between the fence in the outfield and the bleachers themselves. The fans that ended up on the field had to come from the stands, not the bleachers. The stands were different from the bleachers and a lot closer to the field. This space between the field and bleachers ended up being used to house the beer trucks and Professor Kowalski does recall seeing them. The beer trucks were brought in because management had not expected so many fans to show up, and they were worried that they were going to run out of beer.
Professor Kowalski explained that the number of fans showing up was due in part to Billy Martin running his mouth, saying “they don’t have enough fans in Cleveland to cause a problem.” The media took that as a challenge to show up. Professor Kowalski also remembered that many of the fans that he saw buying beer were underaged and were successfully able to carry their six cups that came with their purchases. He also stated that while he doesn’t recall a specific person running onto the field, he recalls that there were a lot of people on the field and throwing things onto the field. Some of the things thrown came from the bleachers (though not from Kowalski or any of his friends) and others came from the stands.
I also asked him if he had considered leaving the game early as many families and sober fans left well before the riot started. He said “it always amazes me that people leave a game early, especially when it looks like your team will win. But with everything going on, I can understand a family with kids leaving.” He and his friends, however, stayed, and as the Indians rallied in the ninth inning, he was sure they were going to come back and win. Then, of course, the riot happened. He knew it was about to turn into chaos the second he saw Billy Martin, armed with a bat, leave the Rangers dugout. Regardless, he and his friends stayed in the bleachers and watched.
When I asked if he was surprised about the fans being armed with knives and chains, he said no. He explained that there were no metal detectors around at the time so you could bring in anything, including food and drinks, which is probably where the bottle of Thunderbird that was thrown at Mike Hargrove came from. Professor Kowalski and his friends truly believed that the game was going to continue, so they were extremely disappointed when, after realizing that order would not be restored in timely fashion, umpire Nestor Chylak forfeited the game to the Rangers.
Explained Kowalski, “I was hoping that the Indians would pull out a victory, and had to end the game because of what I considered nutcase fans.” So, while the night and the game didn’t go quite as planned for both Kowalski and the Indians, it became a night forever infamous in sports history. So as June 4, 2024, approaches, we still remember Ten Cent Beer Night 50 years later. And for those of you wondering; no, Kowalski was not one of the 12 people arrested that night.
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