No. 1979.07.12 · Free Agency Era
Disco Demolition Night
The White Sox blew up a crate of disco records between games of a doubleheader. Fans took the field, a fire started, and the second game was forfeited.
Thousands of fans storm the field at Comiskey Park during the disco record-burning stunt, July 12, 1979, forcing the second game to be forfeited.
Fred Jewell. Public domain (PD-US-1978-89), via Wikimedia Commons.
July 12, 1979, Comiskey Park, a twi-night doubleheader between the White Sox and the Tigers. Mike Veeck, Bill Veeck's son, and WLUP disc jockeys Steve Dahl and Garry Meier built a promotion around the backlash against disco: 98 cents to get in if you brought a record to destroy. Between games, a crate of records was blown up in center field.
Thousands of people came, many of them not there for baseball. After the explosion the crowd stormed the field. A fire burned. The grass was ruined. The umpires forfeited the second game to Detroit. What had been planned as a gag between games of a doubleheader ended with one of those games never being played.
The night is also part of a wider reaction against disco that overlapped with hostility toward Black and gay culture. Remembering it only as a funny forfeit leaves that out. Remembering it only as a culture-war parable leaves out the simpler operational fact: the club invited a crowd it could not control, and then lost the field.
Film
Remembering Disco Demolition Night
An MLB Network look back at the July 12, 1979 promotion. This is not footage of the forfeit itself.
Watch on MLB.comRelated entries
Ten-Cent Beer Night
Cleveland sold beer for a dime, the limit collapsed, and the crowd stormed the field. The umpires forfeited the game to Texas.
Cleveland Indians · Texas Rangers
Eddie Gaedel Walks
Bill Veeck sent 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to the plate in a child's uniform. Gaedel walked on four pitches. The league voided the contract the next day.
St. Louis Browns · Detroit Tigers
No. 1934.10.09
1934
Medwick and the Fruit Barrage
After a hard slide in Game 7, Detroit fans threw fruit, bottles, and vegetables at Joe Medwick until the commissioner took him out of the game.
St. Louis Cardinals · Detroit Tigers