October 24, 2025 • 7 mins
Why do sports fans sometimes become violent mobs? This is one of those occasions from Major League Baseball history.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Seth Andrews, and what you're about to hear is
a true story. How often does the crowds become a mob?
How often do the passions of people get way out
of hand? And how often has this happened at sporting events? Well,
(00:25):
allow me to transport you back to the fourth of
June nineteen seventy four at Cleveland Stadium in Ohio. Major
League Baseball teams the Cleveland Indians were facing off against
the Texas Rangers, and tensions were already high because just
six days earlier, there had been a bench clearing brawl
(00:45):
between the teams at the May twenty ninth game. Rangers
runner Lenny Randall had slid hard into the Cleveland second
basement that did not go over well with the opposing
team or their fans. At the bottom of the eighth,
the Indians retaliated when pitcher Milt Wilcox threw a fastball
which almost hit Randall in the legs. On the next pitch,
(01:10):
Randall bunted, and just before he was tagged out, he
took his forearm and he hit the pitcher. All of
a sudden, the bunch of players started throwing punches. The
rest of their teammates rushed out of the dugout onto
the field for an all out war, and six days later,
everybody's blood was still up over the whole thing. But hey,
(01:33):
it's all American baseball. Players loved the game and spectators
loved to buy their tickets, show up and have a
good time, and to bring in more and more of
those spectators. Cleveland was big on promotions. They did lots
of fun stuff that filled seats, and we have seen
a lot of this kind of thing over the last
one hundred and eighty years of American baseball. Discount tickets,
(01:56):
miniature bats to give to the kids, tossed into the stands,
hot dog coupons, whatever. And Cleveland's June fourth promotion was
really effective. With twenty five thousand, one hundred thirty four
spectators and fans in the stands, it was a full house.
(02:16):
But in this second encounter between the two rival teams,
things would again get weird and ugly, and not just
between the players. The Rangers quickly took a five to
one lead, and so the Cleveland home crowd was unhappy
and growing increasingly agitated. When Cleveland's larn Lee batted a
(02:39):
line drive into the stomach of the Texas pitcher. The
fans loved it. They went crazy. The upper deck started chanting,
hit them again, hit them again, harder, harder. They chanted
it over and over again. Soon after that, a woman
jumped out of the stands and into the pitcher's warm
up circle on the field. She turned to the crowd,
(03:00):
lifted her shirt and flashed everybody before attempting to kiss
the umpire. She was swiftly dealt with and the game continued.
The second home run of the game was hit by
player Tom Greeve, but it was actually a naked man
who had sprung out of the stands to run the bases,
(03:22):
and he slid into second in his bear's skin. Just
one inning after that, a father and son together ran
onto the field, dropped their pants, and mooned the crowd.
And to make things even more interesting, it turns out
that some fans brought fireworks to the game. They would
(03:42):
light them, and they would fire them into the sky
and at the players. Rangers first baseman Mark Hargrove was
also belted by spit and hot dogs, and things continued
to escalate. By the bottom of the ninth it was tight.
The Indians had rallied to tie the game at five all,
(04:03):
and that's when the whole train finally left the rails.
A nineteen year old teenager suddenly jumped out of the
stands and he ran onto the field and he attempted
to steal the ball cap of Texas outfielder Jeff Burrows. Well,
Burrows saw him coming, and he put his leg out
and he kicked the fan to defend himself. But the
(04:25):
team thought Burrows was being assaulted, so the Rangers team
jumped out of the dugout and they ran out to
help him, many of those players bringing baseball bats with them.
The crowd saw this happen and it activated. Spectators surged
out of the stands and ran onto the grass. Many
(04:45):
of those fans were armed. They had brought to the
game knives, a few chains. Some people ripped apart seats
from the stadium and they used the metal armrests as clubs.
Bottles were hurled at he. I mean, before anybody could
stop it, there were more than two hundred fans suffocating
(05:06):
twenty five Texas players. And then, realizing that the Rangers
players might be in real trouble, the Cleveland manager ordered
his own players to grab bats, go out and help
protect the opposing team. But you can imagine the optics
of that strategy, and within seconds, everybody was fighting everybody.
(05:26):
This was like a medieval battle. It was just primal
and violent and nasty. Quickly the teams managed to get out.
They retreated to their respective clubhouses and lock the doors,
but the crowd was still going. Fans were ripping the
bases out of the infield. Objects continued to be thrown,
including cups, bottles, radio batteries, popcorn containers, folding chairs. One
(05:51):
of the umpires took a blow to the head. He
would ultimately realize the whole night was unsalvagable and he
would forfeit the game to Texas. He would later be
asked to describe the crowd that night. He called those
people quote, uncontrollable beasts. And it would take ten eternal
minutes for the mob riot to stop. But what had
(06:15):
caused all of this? What had prompted agitated fans to
go beyond the usual stuff you would expect at a game,
the cheering, the booing, the complaining and shouting and taunting.
What had motivated them into streaking and mooning and mob violence. Well,
it may have had something to do with that night's
(06:36):
promotion by Cleveland's marketing department. Oh, I'm sure someone initially
thought it was a brilliant idea to offer to everyone
in that stadium beer for a dime. I would imagine
that's not a promotion that was recommended for future games anyway.
(06:58):
That's a true story True Stories podcast dot com
I'm Seth Andrews, and what you're about to hear is
a true story. How often does the crowds become a mob?
How often do the passions of people get way out
of hand? And how often has this happened at sporting events? Well,
(00:25):
allow me to transport you back to the fourth of
June nineteen seventy four at Cleveland Stadium in Ohio. Major
League Baseball teams the Cleveland Indians were facing off against
the Texas Rangers, and tensions were already high because just
six days earlier, there had been a bench clearing brawl
(00:45):
between the teams at the May twenty ninth game. Rangers
runner Lenny Randall had slid hard into the Cleveland second
basement that did not go over well with the opposing
team or their fans. At the bottom of the eighth,
the Indians retaliated when pitcher Milt Wilcox threw a fastball
which almost hit Randall in the legs. On the next pitch,
(01:10):
Randall bunted, and just before he was tagged out, he
took his forearm and he hit the pitcher. All of
a sudden, the bunch of players started throwing punches. The
rest of their teammates rushed out of the dugout onto
the field for an all out war, and six days later,
everybody's blood was still up over the whole thing. But hey,
(01:33):
it's all American baseball. Players loved the game and spectators
loved to buy their tickets, show up and have a
good time, and to bring in more and more of
those spectators. Cleveland was big on promotions. They did lots
of fun stuff that filled seats, and we have seen
a lot of this kind of thing over the last
one hundred and eighty years of American baseball. Discount tickets,
(01:56):
miniature bats to give to the kids, tossed into the stands,
hot dog coupons, whatever. And Cleveland's June fourth promotion was
really effective. With twenty five thousand, one hundred thirty four
spectators and fans in the stands, it was a full house.
(02:16):
But in this second encounter between the two rival teams,
things would again get weird and ugly, and not just
between the players. The Rangers quickly took a five to
one lead, and so the Cleveland home crowd was unhappy
and growing increasingly agitated. When Cleveland's larn Lee batted a
(02:39):
line drive into the stomach of the Texas pitcher. The
fans loved it. They went crazy. The upper deck started chanting,
hit them again, hit them again, harder, harder. They chanted
it over and over again. Soon after that, a woman
jumped out of the stands and into the pitcher's warm
up circle on the field. She turned to the crowd,
(03:00):
lifted her shirt and flashed everybody before attempting to kiss
the umpire. She was swiftly dealt with and the game continued.
The second home run of the game was hit by
player Tom Greeve, but it was actually a naked man
who had sprung out of the stands to run the bases,
(03:22):
and he slid into second in his bear's skin. Just
one inning after that, a father and son together ran
onto the field, dropped their pants, and mooned the crowd.
And to make things even more interesting, it turns out
that some fans brought fireworks to the game. They would
(03:42):
light them, and they would fire them into the sky
and at the players. Rangers first baseman Mark Hargrove was
also belted by spit and hot dogs, and things continued
to escalate. By the bottom of the ninth it was tight.
The Indians had rallied to tie the game at five all,
(04:03):
and that's when the whole train finally left the rails.
A nineteen year old teenager suddenly jumped out of the
stands and he ran onto the field and he attempted
to steal the ball cap of Texas outfielder Jeff Burrows. Well,
Burrows saw him coming, and he put his leg out
and he kicked the fan to defend himself. But the
(04:25):
team thought Burrows was being assaulted, so the Rangers team
jumped out of the dugout and they ran out to
help him, many of those players bringing baseball bats with them.
The crowd saw this happen and it activated. Spectators surged
out of the stands and ran onto the grass. Many
(04:45):
of those fans were armed. They had brought to the
game knives, a few chains. Some people ripped apart seats
from the stadium and they used the metal armrests as clubs.
Bottles were hurled at he. I mean, before anybody could
stop it, there were more than two hundred fans suffocating
(05:06):
twenty five Texas players. And then, realizing that the Rangers
players might be in real trouble, the Cleveland manager ordered
his own players to grab bats, go out and help
protect the opposing team. But you can imagine the optics
of that strategy, and within seconds, everybody was fighting everybody.
(05:26):
This was like a medieval battle. It was just primal
and violent and nasty. Quickly the teams managed to get out.
They retreated to their respective clubhouses and lock the doors,
but the crowd was still going. Fans were ripping the
bases out of the infield. Objects continued to be thrown,
including cups, bottles, radio batteries, popcorn containers, folding chairs. One
(05:51):
of the umpires took a blow to the head. He
would ultimately realize the whole night was unsalvagable and he
would forfeit the game to Texas. He would later be
asked to describe the crowd that night. He called those
people quote, uncontrollable beasts. And it would take ten eternal
minutes for the mob riot to stop. But what had
(06:15):
caused all of this? What had prompted agitated fans to
go beyond the usual stuff you would expect at a game,
the cheering, the booing, the complaining and shouting and taunting.
What had motivated them into streaking and mooning and mob violence. Well,
it may have had something to do with that night's
(06:36):
promotion by Cleveland's marketing department. Oh, I'm sure someone initially
thought it was a brilliant idea to offer to everyone
in that stadium beer for a dime. I would imagine
that's not a promotion that was recommended for future games anyway.
(06:58):
That's a true story True Stories podcast dot com
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