Disco Demolition Night - Event

Event

The turnout for this promotion far exceeded all expectations. White Sox management was hoping for a crowd of 12,000, about double the average for a Thursday night game that year. But an estimated 90,000 turned up at the 52,000-seat stadium. Thousands of people climbed walls and fences attempting to enter Comiskey Park, while others were denied admission. Off-ramps to the stadium from the Dan Ryan Expressway were closed when the stadium was filled to capacity and beyond.

White Sox TV announcers Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall, who were broadcasting the game for WSNS-TV, commented freely on the "strange people" wandering aimlessly in the stands. Mike Veeck recalled that the pregame air was heavy with the scent of marijuana. When the crate on the field was filled with records, staff stopped collecting them from spectators, who soon realized that long-playing (LP) records were shaped like frisbees. Some began to throw their records from the stands during the game, often striking other fans. The fans also threw beer and even firecrackers from the stands.

After the first game (which Detroit won 4-1), Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and helmet, along with Lorelei Shark, WLUP's first "Rock Girl", and bodyguards, emerged and proceeded to center field. The large box containing the collected records was rigged with explosives. Dahl led the crowd in chants of "disco sucks" and a countdown prior to triggering the explosives. When detonated, the explosives blasted a hole in the outfield grass surface and a small fire began burning. Dahl, Shark, and the bodyguards hopped into a jeep which circled the warning track before leaving the field through the right-centerfield exit and the televised broadcast cut to a commercial break.

After Dahl left and the White Sox started warming up for the second game, thousands of fans immediately rushed the field; many were already wandering in the outfield as soon as the broadcast came back on the air. Some lit more fires and started small-scale riots. Some pulled down the batting cage, wrecked it and ran it across the outfield. Bases were stolen―though one of the ushers managed to take first base and bring it out of the ballpark before any of the rioters could touch it―along with chunks of the field itself. The crowd, once on the field, mostly wandered around aimlessly, though a number of participants burned banners, sat on the grass, ran from security and police and threw records into the air. In the announcers' booth, Piersall, who was in the midst of doing a pregame interview with local sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times' Bill Gleason, was commenting on the event and ranted against the rioters and Steve Dahl; Gleason, though also very critical of what was going on, kept his cool and described the rioters as "happy kids showing off."

Michael Clarke Duncan, a Chicago native and 21 at the time, attended the event. He was among the first 100 people to run onto the field and he slid into third base. He also had a silver belt buckle stolen during the ensuing riot and stole a bat from the dugout.

Veeck and Caray used the public address system to implore the fans to leave the field immediately, but to no avail. The scoreboard simply flashed, "PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR SEATS." After a short while, most of the fans left the field. After Piersall concluded his interview with Gleason, WSNS-TV took the event off the air and aired a movie instead. Eventually, the field was cleared by the Chicago Police in riot gear. Six people reported minor injuries and thirty-nine were arrested for disorderly conduct. The field was so badly torn up that the umpires decided the second game couldn't be played, though Tigers manager Sparky Anderson let it be known that his players would not take the field in any case due to safety concerns. The next day, American League president Lee MacPhail ruled that the White Sox had failed to provide acceptable playing conditions and forfeited the second game to the Tigers 9-0. The remaining games in the series were played, but for the rest of the season fielders and managers complained about the poor condition of the field.

For White Sox outfielder Rusty Torres, Disco Demolition Night was the third time in his career he had personally seen a forfeit-inducing riot. He had played for the New York Yankees at the last Senators game in Washington in 1971 and the Cleveland Indians at the infamous Ten Cent Beer Night in Cleveland in 1974. The event was deemed newsworthy worldwide.