30th Anniversary of Disco Demolition Night

On July 12th, 1979, one of the worst promotions in Major League Baseball history took place at Comisky Park in Chicago. It was held between games of a double-header between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. It was the brainchild of Mike Veeck, the son of White Sox owner Bill Veeck.

Chicago DJ Steve Dahl was fired from his job at WDAI when the station went to an all disco format. He resurfaced at rival WLUP and created an anti-disco army among his listeners. Veek devised a promotion where fans could turn in disco albums in return for receiving admission to the game for only 98 cents. 98 represented WLUP's location on the radio dial. The records would be collected in a large crate, and blown up by Dahl between games of the double-header.

The turnout for this promotion exceeded expectations. White Sox management was hoping for and additional 5,000 fans. Instead, a standing room only crowd of 75,000 plus showed up. Thousands others were turned away or tried to gain entrance by climbing the walls of the stadium. When the crate was full, management stopped collecting records from the fans, who discovered that the records would fly like Frisbees when tossed, often striking fans or winding up on the playing field during the game.

After the first game, Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and a helmet, went out to center field, to where the box of records was now located. The box was rigged with a bomb (try getting away with that today). When it exploded, it tore a hole in the outfield grass.

After Dahl left in an army jeep,thousands of fans began rushing onto the field. Most of the crowd wandered aimlessly once the got onto the field.

Others were destructive. The batting cage was torn down and wrecked. The bases were literally stolen. Chunks of the outfield grass were pulled up and taken. Some fans set fires to the banners that they carried.

Eventually the playing field was cleared by police wearing riot gear. The field was in such poor condition that the umpires decided that the second game could not be played. Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson let the umpires know that he wouldn't allow his players to take the field in any case due to safety concerns. The next day, American League president Lee McPhail announced that the White Sox would forfeit the second game of the double-header for failing to provide proper playing conditions.

Although White Sox owner Bill Veeck took much of the public heat about the fiasco, those in baseball circles knew his son Mike was behind it. After his father retired, Mike was unable to find a job in Major League Baseball. "The second that first guy shimmied down the outfield wall, I knew my life was over!" Mike said.

Personally, in 1979, I liked disco, and was a fairly good dancer (I was 15, young, stupid, and weighed a lot less than I do now). I think they should have blown up the White Sox uniforms instead. They were horrid. In 1976, Baseball celebrated the bicentennial by wearing turn of the century uniforms. The White Sox wore them for another five years. Pictured is the home uniforms. The away uniforms were black with white trim.