The disco craze ended that night in Chicago.
Recently, it was announced that the Philadelphia Phillies had discontinued the $1 Hot Dog Night following reckless fan behavior last year. For years, the hot dog nights were a popular promotion at the Phillies games and brought fans together. But after the hot dogs ran out last year, fans began throwing items at staff and fighting. The result was chaos and a mess for the custodians to clean up.
The incident got me thinking about another MLB fan incident that happened in 1979: The Disco Demolition Night.
In the 1970s, two things mattered to people: Good baseball and hearing the latest disco hits. Yes, disco was the most popular genre of music around this decade, even spawning a Disco Night during a White Sox game. However, some people disliked disco and thought the music sounded too engineered.
White Sox owner Bill Veeck saw an opportunity and decided to team up with radio station WLUP to discuss a team-up for an anti-disco night. The concept was that fans would get in for only 98 cents if they brought a disco record to be blown up during the middle of the game.
Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, it resulted in chaos. On July 12, 1979, the Detroit Tigers faced off against the Chicago White Sox in a doubleheader. In the middle of the game, WLUP host Steve Dahl brought all the disco records collected to the field to blow up in front of a crowd of over 50,000 people.
As soon as the explosion happened, chaos immediately followed. The field was torn to bits, records were tossed around like boomerangs, and Chicago police wearing riot gear were called to try and restore order. An estimated 30 people were injured during this event. To add insult to injury, after trying to postpone the second Tigers vs White Sox game due to the field conditions, Veeck was ordered to forfeit the game to the Tigers.
What lessons can be learned from this incident? Instances of ballpark promotions gone awry are pretty standard. With the upcoming baseball season approaching, let’s hope that the MLB will continue to regulate their promotional nights. That would be a home run in my book!
