IDIOT SPORTS FANS
The Juggler
Posts: 48,908
figured i'd start a thread because it seems like every day there is some new incident of fans behaving stupidly. it seems like the national media wants to think this type of stuff only happens in philadelphia but the reality is it happens on a daily basis in other cities all over the country.
from gangs roaming the stands in dodger stadium, to an indians fan tossing a beer at ivan desus in cleveland, to people getting killed in san francisco...minor stuff to the absurd---this shit is annoying.
today, we'll start with texans fans cheering when their own quarterback got hurt :roll: :
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutd ... --nfl.html
feel free to add to the list...
from gangs roaming the stands in dodger stadium, to an indians fan tossing a beer at ivan desus in cleveland, to people getting killed in san francisco...minor stuff to the absurd---this shit is annoying.
today, we'll start with texans fans cheering when their own quarterback got hurt :roll: :
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutd ... --nfl.html
feel free to add to the list...
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http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html
San Francisco has recently been labeled has having major security issues. Brian Stow got plenty of attention for well over a year. Yankees fans still get shit about "spitting" on Cliff Lee's wife. There have been stories everywhere about idiot fans. So stop crying about Philadelphia (Philadelphia in general, not you specifically) when something like this happens. It has nothing to do with you. I bet if this city dropped the put upon act, you'd see a lot less attention to the nonsense that happens here.
Pearl Jam bootlegs:
http://wegotshit.blogspot.com
I didn't even mention how I feel about the linc and eagles fans in general
bullshit cliffy. philly is the only town they still refer to things that happened 50 fucking years ago. throwing snow balls at santa. it happened in the fucking 1960s. if/when they talk about incidents in those other cities that happened 50 fucking years ago maybe us philly fans will get that chip off our shoulders.
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you.
You know who talks about Santa? People from Philly. A couple lazy journalists a year too maybe, but that's it. It's not se national speaking points like you people like to think it is
nope. every single year santa comes up and comes up often. came up for reid's return. the guys on nfl network were EXPECTING the fans to boo him and act like asses. instead, we handled it with class like we usually do....and then they said nothing about it after the game.
you brought up a nice one with yanks fans and cliff lee's wife. idiots!
A Michigan Fan Getting Maced In The Face
We're not exactly sure why this is happening, but then, isn't it more beautiful that way?
Of course, if you've got video of this happening (at Penn State, yesterday), let us know.
Image via Getty/Justin K. Aller
Update: Reader Bryan writes in with some details of what this idiot was up to:
Hey Guys,
I was sitting in the section next to this guy. He was standing for every play with his buddy and became confrontational with those around him. The people behind we're getting pissed and some lady actually had enough and hit him. Mid way through the 2nd after Michigan had scored he started taunting everyone and it looked like he was about to start a fight in the stands. Security came up and escorted him down to the front when he grabbed the railing and refused to leave. He ended up talking some swings at the state police who were arresting which is why he got pepper sprayed.
My only regret is not getting it on video for Tuesday night fights.
Cheers,
Bryan
Arrest made in fatal stabbing of fan
SAN FRANCISCO -- The man who was fatally stabbed during a confrontation a few blocks from AT&T Park after the Dodgers-Giants game Wednesday night was the son of a Dodgers security guard, the team said Thursday.
Dodgers spokesman Jared Kaufer said that Jonathan Denver's father, Robert Preece, worked security at Dodger Stadium.
San Francisco police say Denver, 24, was walking with his father, brother and two other people not far from the Giants' ballpark after San Francisco's 6-4 victory when their group exchanged words with some Giants fans who were leaving a nightclub.
The exchange turned physical, and Denver, who was wearing Dodgers gear, was stabbed.
"There is no rational explanation for this senseless act," the Dodgers said in a written statement. "The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable."
Denver's group left the stadium in the eighth inning. His attackers did not attend the game.
More From ESPNLosAngeles.com
For more news, notes and analysis of the Dodgers, check out ESPN LA's Dodgers Report. Blog
San Francisco police said Michael Montgomery, 21, of Lodi, Calif., was arrested on suspicion of homicide in connection with the stabbing.
Montgomery's father said his son told him it was self-defense. Marty Montgomery told the Lodi News-Sentinel on Thursday that Michael Montgomery was jumped during the fight and that his son told him by phone that Denver had hit him over the head with a chair.
Michael Montgomery told his father that Denver yelled "Giants suck!" at Montgomery's friend, who was wearing a Giants hat, and that Denver and others hit Montgomery and his friends without warning.
Michael Montgomery and a friend went to Marty Montgomery's house in order to get the Giants hat before they left for San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon, his father said. They were going to attend a rave.
"If they didn't have the hat, they probably never would have been in this situation," Marty Montgomery said, adding that his son was not a passionate Giants fan.
Another person, whose name was not released, was also taken into custody.
"One of the suspects during the course of the interviews [with detectives] made incriminating statements that give us the indication that he will be the person booked for homicide," San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr told reporters. "We're trying to figure out what we're going to do with the other suspect. The investigation is still ongoing."
Denver's aunt, Janet Alvarado, told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that he was a "gentle, sweet boy" who would never hurt anyone. Speaking from her home in Covina, she called his death senseless and said she had no idea how it happened. On Friday, Denver's grandparents wrote in a public statement that "this incident underlines a symptom of a society whose values seem to have deteriorated over time."
Police said they were looking for two more suspects. Police were canvassing the area Thursday looking for the weapon used to kill Denver and any surveillance video of the crime.
Fans of both teams expressed a range of emotions as they entered Thursday night's game at AT&T Park.
"I was a little bit scared at first but then I thought tonight will probably be the safest night at this ballpark, so I thought it was still OK to bring my son out to the game," said Clay Brust, a Dodgers fan from Reno, Nev.
Brian Chew, a Giants fan from San Bruno, Calif., said the stabbing was unfortunate.
"It seems like the passion that exudes in some fans is really pointed in the wrong direction," Chew said. "We have bigger purposes in life than just orange and black, or blue and white."
The altercation was the second violent confrontation between Dodgers and Giants fans in the past several years to end in death or serious injury. Bryan Stow, a Northern California paramedic and Giants fan, suffered a traumatic brain injury when two men dressed in Dodgers gear attacked him following the teams' March 31, 2011, game in Los Angeles.
Stow's family said in a statement that they were "horrified and deeply saddened" by Wednesday's violence. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family."
Suhr said that Denver, his father and his brother had left a bar around 11:30 p.m. when they got into a spat about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry with a group of people leaving a nightclub. At first, Suhr said, no one was seriously hurt in the fight that occurred about 90 minutes after the game ended. But it picked up again a few minutes later, Suhr said, who added it wasn't clear who started the second fight but that it ended with Denver's stabbing.
The Giants and Dodgers are longtime division rivals, and passions tend to run high when the teams play. The Giants won the World Series last year but will miss the playoffs this year. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have won the NL West.
"I think the message to all people, all fans, is it's a game," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "Leave it on the field."
Denver was born in Los Angeles County but was living in Fort Bragg, a city about 170 miles north of San Francisco, according to public records. He and his brother went to San Francisco to attend the game with their father, said Cas Smith, the owner of North Coast Plumbing in Fort Bragg, where Denver worked.
"He was a hardworking kid," Smith told San Jose-based KNTV.
Denver, who just started a job as a plumbing apprentice, did have two recent brushes with the law in Mendocino County, according to KGO-TV. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in July and for public intoxication at the county fair this month.
Police said they didn't know whether alcohol was a factor in Wednesday's altercations.
In Fort Bragg, longtime friend Matt Gomes told KGO-TV that Denver was a die-hard Dodgers fan who "was a really great guy who would do anything for anybody and always put a smile on people's faces when he was around."
San Francisco police said they planned to have more officers on the streets, although they said that police presence is already higher for Giants-Dodgers games.
Violence has marred many other games between the teams. In 2003, Giants fan Marc Antenorcruz, 25, was fatally shot after an argument at Dodger Stadium.
Two Dodgers fans are awaiting trial on charges in the Stow beating, which sparked outrage and brought stadium security changes around the state and country.
The Giants have held occasional fundraisers for Stow. The team will donate $10 from each ticket sold in certain sections of AT&T Park at Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday's games to a fund set up for him, spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said.
come on cliffy you know better than that. as Juggler said every time something even remotely happens at a game in philly the 1st thing out of the mouths of the announcers and commentators is how we threw snow balls at santa. every freaking time.
speaking of idiot fans...adult men in boston wearing long beards at the playoff games. grown men :roll:
A guy walks into the men's room at the Raider game wearing Broncos gear. He immediately starts hearing it from the Raider fans in there. Bronco fan barks back, but thinks it's innocent trash talking. While Bronco fan is taking a leak, a Raider fan sucker punches him from behind. Bronco fan is out cold, Raider fans in the restroom remove the man's Broncos coat and throw it in the steel urinal trough.
id be interested in seeing a comparable study on the decibel level of rock concerts.... cause personally I am never as loud as I am after a song has rocked my world.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Another one is when the New England Patriots played their playoffs game against Baltimore Ravens at Gillette Stadium this year. Torrey Smith's brother died in September 2012 and during the game, the Patriots fans taunted Smith by mentioning his dead brother. As a Patriots fan, I thought that was really cruel and cold-hearted. http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_ ... ad-brother
Need more recent proof?
http://nypost.com/2012/01/05/watch-off- ... ladelphia/
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1361 ... of-control
:roll:
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/06/0 ... den-yards/
Yankees Fan In Critical Condition After Assault At Camden Yards
BALTIMORE (WJZ)— A Yankees fan sucker punched by two Orioles fans at Camden Yards is in critical condition. The aftermath of the fight was caught on cell phone video.
Rochelle Ritchie has more on what led to the fight and how a local business in the victim’s community is coming together to help.
The two men accused of hitting the 25-year-old are now both charged. The victim remains in Shock Trauma and his medical bills are piling up.
Cell phone video captures the frightening moments after 25-year-old Matthew Fortese was sucker punched by two Orioles fans at Camden Yards as they took on the Nationals.
“That man is hurt bad over there because of them guys,” said a witness.
Witnesses tell police these Orioles fans–21-year-old Michael Bell and 22-year-old Gregory Fleischman—were taunting Fortese throughout the game, some say because of his Yankees apparel.
“We had a group of young men throw a beer and when they threw that beer, it ended up hitting another individual,” said Anthony Guglielmi.
Fortese confronted the men. He was hit and fell over the concrete barrier, hitting his head. Cell phone video captured the commotion as paramedics were called to the stands. The men accused of instigating the fight were placed under arrest.
“He was spitting on that guy that was lying down, he was spitting on him,” said a witness.
Fortese remains in the hospital with a fractured skull. The incident has caused action by another Yankees fan to help.
“So these are our community night fliers that we’ll hand out,” said Brian Campbell.
Campbell owns Jimmy John’s in the victim’s hometown of Hagerstown and shares a common love for the Yankees. He’s holding a special fundraiser that will help Fortese.
“On Wednesday, June 26, from 5 until 9 o’clock, we are going to donate 25 percent of our earnings to Matt and his family to pay for his medical bills,” said Campbell. “It could have been me. It could have been my kids, growing up. It could have been anybody, really.”
Fleischman is charged with first- and second-degree assault. Michael Bell is charged with second-degree assault. Both were held on a $250,000 bond. The men are also charged with disorderly conduct.
The Orioles’ spokesperson has not commented on the altercation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Vanco ... y_Cup_riot
Tom O.
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
-The Writer
personally I think wearing a visiting teams jersey to a game is idiotic. it's like poking a dog with a stick then complaining when it bites you.
I agree but there is difference between taunting and being piece of shit human being.
Tom O.
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
-The Writer
no doubt fans abusing, even mildly verbally abusing, fans for wearing a jersey are complete assholes but only a moron doesn't realize today that wearing a jersey of a visiting team is going to cause a reaction. however mild or strong said reaction will be it will always cause at least one.
/end thread
http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?pag ... t%2F080604
It has been nearly 13 years since the most recent forfeit in a Major League Baseball game. Though 13 years may not strike us as terribly significant, only twice before has baseball been able to claim a stretch of 10 or more years without a contest decided by factors outside the play on the field.
Forfeits crop up throughout the game's history. As recently as Aug. 10, 1995, the Dodgers held an ill-advised souvenir baseball giveaway. When manager Tommy Lasorda and two players were ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the ninth inning of a game against the Cardinals, fans in the outfield bleachers hurled their balls en masse to protest.
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AP Photo/Cleveland Press, Paul Tepley
On June 4, 1974, the Rangers thought it necessary to brandish bats in defense of Jeff Burroughs.
Working backward from that day, there have been 128 forfeits in 139 years of professional play. In many cases, we know little of the circumstances beyond the asterisk next to the box score. When details survive, they prompt difficult questions. Why did Cleveland Spiders fans throw their seat cushions at the visiting Pittsburgh outfielders on May 26, 1894? Why, for that matter, were the bleacher seats at League Park padded?
The Indians, who played at League Park in later years, left the cushions behind when they relocated to Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1932. Their new home, the first sports venue built entirely with public financing, seated 74,400 fans -- making it by far the largest stadium in America at the time -- and sacrificed comfort for quantity. First announced in 1928, the scale of the building led to rumors that Cleveland might bid for the 1932 Summer Olympics, which eventually went to Los Angeles. Though such a proposal wasn't submitted, the fact that Cleveland's civic leaders would even dream of an Ohio Olympiad suggests that, at the time, this was a city squinting into a bright future.
In 1928, Cleveland supplanted St. Louis as America's fifth largest metropolis. Just three years later, the city was closing in on fourth-place Detroit. With Cleveland's shoes growing a full size every decade, civic planners designed a sports stadium roomy enough to accommodate thousands of citizens who had not yet arrived. They did not realize that their city's growth spurt was over, nor could they have anticipated the decades of sullen adolescence just over the horizon.
By May 13, 1974, Cleveland's civic optimism had long since passed. That night, the Indians beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 in front of just 4,234 spectators. In Cleveland, a city in which spring confines itself to the first week of June, the game-time temperature had dropped to 45 degrees. Players wore long sleeves under their uniforms and blew into their hands, working as quickly as they could and perhaps wondering why no one had thought to build the Astrodome in Cleveland instead of Houston. Fans applauded when John Ellis hit a three-run homer in the first inning, but icy winds swept their encouragement out to Lake Erie. By the end of the contest, few remained aside from the beat writers who were taking notes on the slow demise of Cleveland baseball.
The '74 Indians were a smorgasbord of mediocre and forgettable talent playing in an open-air mausoleum. That year, in a city that fielded one of the founding professional teams (the Forest Citys, incorporated there in 1869), 85 percent of the seats at home games went unsold. All those empty seats meant a balance sheet written in red. The team's executive vice president, Ted Bonda, could put up with losing teams and an ugly stadium (he had inherited both in 1972), but he would not tolerate insolvency. Bonda called a meeting to discuss options for improving attendance, which must have felt a little like trying to figure out how to get people excited about a trip to the orthodontist. Someone, apparently a team employee likely acting out of desperation, suggested copying the Texas Rangers, who had recently hosted a successful "10-Cent Beer Night." We can imagine the grim silence in the boardroom as the group considered this obviously dangerous remedy. How interested would Cleveland be in such a promotion?
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AP Photo/Cleveland Press, Paul Tepley
Umpire Joe Brinkman restrains an injured fan on 10-Cent Beer Night.
Any rumination on Cleveland's fortunes in the '70s must include the woeful state of the Cuyahoga River, which ran a winding course through downtown. In 1952, it caught fire for the ninth time. Years and years of absorbing liberal amounts of industrial waste had turned the Cuyahoga into something more than just a waterway. The fetid river burned with Stygian fury, destroying $1.5 million in property. Despite the significance of the incident, it didn't attract much national news coverage. But in 1969, when the Cuyahoga caught fire again, flames reached five stories in height and burned for almost a half-hour. Still, they did little more than scorch a rail bridge, and the damage cost just $50,000 to repair. In Cleveland, this was viewed as improvement. Between '52 and '69, however, the national attitude toward flammable bodies of water had changed.
This time, environmentalists used the city for target practice. National outrage led to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1977. Cleveland could be considered the chief impetus behind these two important and beneficial achievements, which in the '70s were as close as the city came to a story with a happy ending.
In the decade preceding 1974, more than 600 factories and heavy industrial operations fled Cleveland. The city considered itself lucky when these businesses landed in suburbs near enough for commuter transit. Most companies left the state or shut down permanently.
Cleveland would lose 177,000 inhabitants between 1970 and 1980, bottoming out at three-quarters of its post-WWII high population of 910,000. The city council met to earnestly discuss the prospect of bankruptcy. No municipality in the nation had landed in default since the Great Depression, but in Cleveland, all options were on the table.
Considering the state of the city in 1974, Bonda and his brain trust decided that, yes, Cleveland probably could use a drink.
Accounts vary as to the volume proffered -- 8 ounces? 10? 12? -- but the price was certain enough: 10 cents per cup. Fans -- and we shall use this term for lack of a better one -- could buy up to six cups at a time, with no system in place to prevent a designated mule from purchasing a full complement, handing them off to underage clients, and returning for more.
Even though the Indians offered copious amounts of beer at cut-rate prices, a great many attendees opted to play with a handicap, arriving at their seats drunk, stoned or both. The June 4 promotion turned out to be quite popular, drawing 25,134 people, more than double the average crowd that season.
Though the Rangers organization provided the inspiration for the promotion, no love was lost between the two teams. During their previous meeting on May 29 in Texas, a vicious brawl had erupted -- featuring head-hunting pitchers, punches thrown and a fair number of beer cups tossed at Indians players. The Tribe lost the game 3-0, and one can understand why Clevelanders' tempers were a bit on the short side six days later when the Rangers came to town.
Through deliberate coordination or spontaneous groupthink, hundreds of fans showed up with pockets full of firecrackers. Anonymous explosions peppered the stands from the first pitch, lending the game a war-zone ambiance that would seem increasingly appropriate. Though it is not clear whether this impromptu celebration cost anyone a finger or hand, an uneasy je ne sais quoi settled into the stadium along with clouds of exploded gunpowder and marijuana smoke.
The Rangers took the lead in the top of the second inning on a home run by designated hitter Tom Grieve. Just a few pitches later, a heavyset woman sitting near first base jumped the wall, ran to the Indians' on-deck circle, and bared her enormous, unhindered breasts to appreciative applause from the beer-goggled teenagers who made up the stadium's primary demographic that night. She then attempted -- unsuccessfully -- to kiss umpire crew chief Nestor Chylak, who was not in a kissing mood.
This woman was just the scout for a larger exhibitionist force. When Grieve hit his second home run in the fourth inning, he had not yet rounded third base when a man -- entirely naked -- ran onto the field and slid into second, probably getting dirt in places unsuitable for speculation. In the fifth inning, two men in the outfield got into the act, jumping the wall and mooning the Rangers' outfielders. The players watched, hands on hips, shaking their heads as park security chased one hooligan after another across the diamond.
Each Texas player received a lusty chorus of boos as he stepped to the plate, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram beat writer Mike Shropshire noticed that the war drums beating from the nosebleed seats kept a quicker-than-usual tempo. Interest in the game itself peaked in the fourth inning, when Indians batter Leron Lee swatted a line drive back to Rangers pitcher Fergie Jenkins. Jenkins could not get out of the way and caught the ball with his stomach. As he writhed in pain, the fans began to clap. A chant began:
"Hit him again, harder!"
Later that inning, Lee was called safe in a close play at third. Rangers manager Billy Martin, no stranger to disruption and very much in his element that evening, came out to argue. A large number of the plastic cups sold to that point, many still full of beer, were thrown back onto the field by fans who found Martin's very presence offensive. As he returned to the dugout, the Rangers manager blew kisses into the stands.
As the night wore on, the crowds grew bolder, and packs of fans frequently scurried across the outfield. One man tossed a tennis ball into center field, then scrambled after it. After throwing the ball back into the seats, he led park security on a little jog, pausing at one point to hug another fan, perhaps a long-lost relative, who had jumped out to greet him. Ushers dragged away one of the two, while the other leaped into the stands and was borne away by dozens of gleeful, anonymous hands. The rain of beer became a hail of rocks, batteries, golf balls and anything not bolted down.
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AP Photo/Cleveland Press, Paul Tepley
Injured umpire Nestor Chylak leads his battered crew off the field after calling the game in the ninth.
Just a few years later, such a barrage would prompt the involvement of municipal police in large numbers. During the 1980 World Series in Philadelphia, officers clad in riot gear trotted out of the tunnels and along the baselines in a pre-emptive maneuver, their German shepherds flitting behind home plate like shadows as Phillies closer Tug McGraw tried desperately to close things out. In 1974, it did not occur to the Indians organization to request an additional police presence at the ballpark for their beer-fueled promotion. If any municipal police were in the stadium that night, they were off duty and quite possibly as drunk as anyone else.
Early on, the demand for beer surpassed the Indians' capacity to ferry it to concession stands, and a luminary, perhaps the same person who suggested the promotion in the first place, decided to allow fans to line up behind the outfield fences and have their cups filled directly from Stroh's company trucks. The promotion achieved critical mass at that moment, as weaving, hooting queues of people refilled via industrial spigot.
The public address announcer reminded spectators not to litter onto the field, and refuse rained down harder. The grounds crew had not sat down since the second inning, and outfield fans used them as moving targets. Another woman jumped out of the stands waving, and though she did not disrobe, the crowd urged her to consider it. When ushers arrived to end the discussion, she attacked them. The surprised ushers forced her to the ground, prompting a storm of boos and shouts of "police brutality!"
One enterprising fan threw lit firecrackers into the Rangers' bullpen like grenades. Chylak ordered both bullpens evacuated, but little short of an authentic grenade would deter the crew chief from seeing the contest completed. He told the relievers to warm up on the mound itself.
Mike Hargrove came on to play first base for the Rangers. The baseline fans greeted him with a half-full jug of Thunderbird wine that missed his head by inches.
As the ushers flagged, streakers stripped leisurely on the field of play, abandoning their clothes in a pile in left-center. A contingent of fans along the third-base side began removing the padding on the left-field wall. Either through numbers or sheer force of will, they nearly succeeded in taking a large chunk into the stands. The grounds crew abandoned its trash-collection duties and mustered to save the padding, an effort that occupied them the rest of the night.
In the seventh inning, radio announcers Joe Tait and Herb Score watched as the baseball fans in the crowd gathered their families and left the stadium like refugees. In the eighth, they noticed Bonda and other members of the Indians front office leaving the ballpark, doing their best to look casual.
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Tom Hilgendorf
AP Photo/Cleveland Press/Paul Tepley
Indians reliever Tom Hilgendorf is helped from the field after being hit with a chair by an unruly fan.
In the ninth, the Indians mounted a rally, scoring two runs to tie the game at 5. The winning run stood on second base when a young man jumped from the outfield seats and (perhaps searching for a memento to mark the occasion) flipped the cap off Rangers outfielder Jeff Burroughs' head. The outfielder turned to confront the fan and tripped over his own feet in the process. For the first time that evening, the chaos enveloped a player.
The slope of the diamond made it impossible for Martin to see below the level of an outfielder's knees from his station in the dugout. The legendary manager, in a moment that does not get large enough print on his long and colorful résumé, did not hesitate after Burroughs fell from view.
"Let's go get 'em, boys," he said, arming himself with a fungo bat and sprinting toward right-center field. The Rangers, understandably inspired, followed him.
Martin and his team stormed the diamond, infielders filling out their ranks. When they reached the outfield, the Rangers found Burroughs flustered but unharmed. More worrisome was the effect of their charge on the assembly: The jovial, frolicking nudists had disappeared. The mob that replaced them kept its clothes on and brandished an arsenal that made Martin's Louisville Slugger look like a child's toy. The Rangers manager spotted people wielding chains, knives and clubs fashioned from pieces of stadium seats. The 25 Texas players quickly found themselves surrounded by 200 angry drunks, and more were tumbling over the wall onto the field. The Texas Rangers had been ambushed.
Then the riot began. Indians manager Ken Aspromonte, his own defining moment upon him, realized that the Texas franchise might be on the verge of decimation. He too ordered his players onto the field. The bat racks in the home dugout emptied as the Indians mounted their own rescue. Announcers Tait and Score have the call, as recorded by Akron Beacon-Journal writer Bob Dyer:
Tait: Tom Hilgendorf has been hit on the head. Hilgy is in definite pain. He's bent over, holding his head … Aw, this is an absolute tragedy. Absolute tragedy … I've been in this business for over 20 years, and I have never seen anything as disgusting as this.
Broadcasters often employ the "always a few bad apples" defense in these situations, but when confronted with the sight of an entire stadium of such rotten fruit, Joe Tait finds himself at a loss.
Tait: And I'll be perfectly honest with you: I just don't know what to say.
Score: I don't think this game will continue, Joe … The unbelievable thing is people keep jumping out of the stands after they see what's going on!
Tait: Well, that shows you the complete lack of brainpower on the parts of some people. There's no way I'm going to run out onto the field if I see some baseball player waving a bat out there looking for somebody. This is tragic … The whole thing has degenerated now into just -- now we've got another fight going with fans and ballplayers. Hargrove has got some kid on the ground and he is really administering a beating.
Score: Well, that fellow came up and hit him from behind is what happened.
Tait: Boy, Hargrove really wants a piece of him -- and I don't blame him.
Score: Look at Duke Sims down there going at it.
Tait: Yeah, Duke is in on it. Here we go again.
The sight of 50 angry professional athletes slowly killed the buzz, and the tide in the outfield turned. Taking advantage of what might be their only opportunity to escape alive, Martin and Aspromonte led their players out through the dugouts and down the tunnels, assisting their wounded as needed, with bench players forming a rearguard. After the teams departed, the mob found itself alone on the diamond, with many securing souvenirs to mark the occasion.
Score: They've stolen the bases.
Here, Score undersold. They stole more than just the bases. Anything not secured or already taken disappeared. The mob swarmed like locusts as the doors to both clubhouses were shut and locked. With no baseball plays or players left to describe, Tait and Score stared down at the melee, which continued for another 20 minutes.
Tait: The security people here are just totally incapable of handling this crowd. They just -- well, short of the National Guard, I'm not sure what would handle this crowd right now. It's unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
Score: People go back into the seats and others jump down to take their place.
Tait: The bases are gone.
Perhaps attempting to soothe the riotous beast, the organist then played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
Chylak then had a moment of profundity in which he realized that there will be days when the mail just does not go through. A hunting knife has landed, blade down, in the grass behind his leg. He forfeits the game to the Rangers and runs.
The beat reporters worked overtime that night, particularly Dan Coughlin, from the Chronicle-Telegram of Lorain County, Ohio, who was punched in the face twice while interviewing fans. Those reporters smart enough to follow the teams into the safety of their clubhouses got more than stock responses about looking forward to the next contest.
Said Martin: "That was the closest you're ever going to be to seeing someone get killed in this game of baseball. [Given the hectic circumstances, Martin can be forgiven for overlooking the death of shortstop Ray Chapman, who was wearing an Indians uniform in 1920 when he was fatally struck by a Carl Mays fastball.] Burroughs seemed to be surrounded. Maybe it was silly for us to go out there, but we weren't about to leave a man on the field unprotected. It seemed that he might be destroyed."
For someone who had just escaped destruction, Burroughs kept his calm. He hopefully asked one reporter whether a forfeit would erase his 0-for-3 at the plate that night. The writer informed him that it would not.
Aspromonte took a wider view of events, wondering whether Cleveland had lost more than a game that night.
"It's not just baseball," he said. "It's the society we live in. Nobody seems to care about anything. We complained about their people in Arlington last week when they threw beer on us and taunted us to fight. But look at our people -- they were worse. I don't know what it was, and I don't know who's to blame, but I'm scared."
Cleveland did not lose its ballclub, but after the Indians finished the season 77-85, Aspromonte lost his job -- to one of his own players, Frank Robinson.
Though Chylak and his crew were criticized for not ending the game sooner, they did not shirk their responsibilities as the night deteriorated. Said the irate and rattled crew chief after the game, as he applied a compress to the back of his bleeding head: "F
animals! You just can't pull back a pack of animals. When uncontrolled beasts are out there, you gotta do something. I saw two guys with knives, and I got hit with a chair."
He paused, then added an inexplicable and vaguely disturbing coda: "If the f
war is on tomorrow, I'm gonna join the other side to get a shot at them."
The Cleveland Police Department arrived in force soon after the game was forfeited to the Rangers. It took a half-hour, but the officers dispersed the crowd with the aid of stadium personnel, who helpfully turned off all the lights. Nine fans were arrested.
Indians players volunteered to escort their Texas colleagues to the team bus, provided that it was not lying on its side or in flames. Neither was the case.
In the wake of the debacle, the Indians announced that drastic measures would be taken to prevent further chaos: At all future promotions offering 10-cent beer (three more were planned), fans would be restricted to four cups apiece per night, no exceptions. American League president Lee McPhail greeted this mandate with one of his own: All promotional events were canceled, pending league review.
The "war" did not start the next day, and Chylak did not fire upon any Clevelander whom history is aware of. He was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.
As they had for most of that decade, the 1974 Indians finished in a forgettable fourth place in the AL East -- in the standings and in attendance.
Mike Hargrove would return to Cleveland as Indians manager in 1991. He kept a picture from 10-Cent Beer Night on the wall of his office.
As of this writing, the missing bases have not been returned.
classy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2isksLw0jW8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JYVZ_1qPM0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtsfQOrxX7A
A Chargers coach was knocked out.
Tom O.
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
-The Writer
I'm a Jets' season ticket holder and I'm at the point where I don't even want to go anymore because the fans are such idiots, especially the ones from the visiting teams. They obviously have a right to buy a ticket and but I wish they would show some class and respect the fact they are a guest in someone else's house. Most of them come in to taunt and start fights. :fp:
happens everywhere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E1iWpwuFcg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkOP0QqeRR4