July 12, 1979 lives in sport and cultural infamy as "Disco Sucks" night at the original Comiskey Park in Chicago. Yes, they actually called an official promotion at a Major League venue "Disco Sucks" night. You gotta love the seventies, even if you don't remember them.A Chicago rock radio station sponsored the event, in which admission to the game was 98 cents and a disco record. Between games of a scheduled doubleheader, the collected albums were blown up on the field.
So their plan was to gather a fuckload of people who'd probably never been to a baseball game, get them stinkin' drunk, and then blow shit up. Brilliant! And the crowd DID NOT disappoint. I've seen video of the event, and it held the record for Most White Trash in One Place until Larry the Cable Guy played Tuscaloosa's Bryant-Denny stadium in 2005. Thanks for taking some of the heat off of the South, Chicago.
After the first game, some local DJ (which falls somewhere between mime and balloon-animal artist on the entertainment scale) gathered the records in the middle of the outfield and dynamited them. A few minutes later the stadium of drunk-ass unemployables drawn to the game by cheap admission decided - as one - to run onto the field. They set bonfires, they ripped up the playing surface, they stole the bases. No, literally. Stole. The. Bases.
Forty minutes passed before every police officer in Chicago came along to break up the party. Out of tens of thousands of rioters there were 39 arrests, so great job there by the cops. Way to restore order, fellas.
In closing, the "Disco Sucks" promotion was an embarrassment to baseball, the White Sox, and the South Side of Chicago. However, in the immediate aftermath of the event, radio station owners stopped playing disco records in fear of angry mobs of shirtless, mulleted Nugent fans burning their businesses to the ground. The Bee Gees went so far as to blame "Disco Sucks" for effectively killing the genre in the United States.
So in other words it was a complete success.
6 Comments:
No matter what you say, it's still fun to stay at the YYYYYYMCA! It's fun to stay at the YYYYYYMCA-A!!!
Who doesn't recall the good ol' days of the insane coho lips? You would have to have been there, man.
Power to the people, man.
The White Sox have never been known for their class. Cheatin' bastards.
You can't beat fun at the old ballpark but The Ligues will tell ya, you can beat a coach.
The deejay involved, Steve Dahl, ended up moving to the same suburb my family had moved to when we moved out of the city, Western Springs, Illinois. I didn't have any interactions with Dahl, but my brother frequently did-- he worked at the counter of the local pharmacy. Dahl was in once in a while picking up a prescription or shampoo and stuff like that. He was very quiet and polite, according to my brother.
I was supposed to go that night. I've posted about it.
There's a huge rivalry here in Chicago between Cub and Sox fans. I grew up on the North side, and so was doomed to be a Cubs fan. Sox "fans" (i.e. the people who showed up to the games the year they won a World Series, and at no other time) claim that the Cub fans are yuppies who party in the stands. BS. Cub fans are fans of the sport, though we do have fun. Twice in recent years, drunk assholes have jumped out of the stands at White Sox games and attacked an umpire and the opposing team's coach. Hasn't happend in the Friendly Confines. White Sox stadium has always been and still is white trash central.
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