Bright Ideas............

Burn Baby Burn!!!!!!! 

Have you ever heard of a crazy promotion or seen a crazy commercial for a product and wondered what the hell the person who thought up the idea was thinking at the time??? These "promotional" nights at baseball stadiums really happened and turned into disasters:

June 4th 1974, Cleveland: 10 Cent Beer Night-
I'm not sure the Cleveland Indians Management would have been dumber if they offered free gasoline and matches and invited all the pyromaniacs in town to the game. The Indians offered the fans all the beer they could guzzle for 10 cents a cup. This was basically nothing more than an open invitation for every thug in town to come start a drunken riot. Basically, that's what they got. By the third inning fans were running on the field harassing players. As the night wore on and the booze really kicked in, things got ugly. Fans started tossing the beers and firecrackers into the visiting Texas Rangers bullpen and dugout. Chairs started being ripped out and tossed on the field. One of the umpires was hit by a flying chair and called the game. Dozens were arrested and dozens more hurt as riot police were called in. Incredibly, the Cleveland management had scheduled three more 10 cent beer nights and planned to go ahead with them. Major League Baseball forced them to cancel the promotions.

July 12th 1979, Chicago: Disco Demolition Night-
The Chicago White Sox owner and a local radio DJ came up with this brilliant idea. They thought it would be a good idea for fans to bring disco albums to the stadium for a 98 cent admission price for a DOUBLEHEADER. The plan was to build a bonfire in centerfield and burn the disco records between games. More than 50,000 disco hating fans showed up for the game. Right away the fans started using the records as Frisbees and hundreds of records were flying all over the stadium. By the time the between game ceremony began, the fans were primed for craziness. When the “fire goddess” named Loreli came on the field and lit the bonfire, the fans went ape shit. About 7,000 fans stormed the field and rioted. The second game was cancelled and dozens were injured and arrested. Another brilliant scheme.

July 5th 1985, Atlanta: Fourth of July Fireworks-
The Atlanta Braves fireworks show lit up more than just the sky. After a 19 inning game with the NY Mets that started at 8pm on July 4th and ended at 3:55am on July 5th, the Braves management thought it was ok to proceed with the July 4th fireworks at the end of the game. Only about 8,000 fans remained in the stadium. As the fireworks started, residents within a 7 mile radius of the stadium were shaken out of bed thinking they were being bombed. Hundreds of calls were phoned into the Police and people were running out in the streets. After about an hour, order was restored in the city.