Thirty years ago a promotion at a major league baseball game went wrong, it went really wrong. Mike Veeck, son of White Sox owner at the time, Bill Veeck, the P.T. Barnum of promotions was in charge of promotions for the White Sox. Thirty years later, this promotion lives on, Disco Demolition was the brain child of 25 year old Loop disk jockey Steve Dahl & Mike Veeck. The Loop was a rock station in Chicago and disco, popular in some circles, was despised by rockers. Thus the promotion, bring a disco record to Comiskey Park, get in for a buck, and all of the disco records would be blown up by Dahl between games of a scheduled doubleheader between the White Sox and the Tigers.
Mike Veeck believed there would be a few fans, perhaps 1,000, who would take advantage of the promotion, and enjoy a cheap night out at the ole ballpark. He had no idea he would be remembered for coming up with the worst promotion in the history of the game, this coming from the son of a guy who batted a midget, Eddie Gaedel, in a major league game. Thousands of pot smoking disco haters showed up for the explosion between games, they couldn’t have cared less about baseball. There wasn’t enough security to handle the crowd, which soon overtook the ballpark.
They demolished the playing field, along with a few disco records, making the playing field unplayable for the second game, which was forfeited by the White Sox to the Tigers. Even the ever popular broadcaster Harry Caray and the infamous owner Bill Veeck’s pleas couldn’t get through to the stoner fans, who’d overtaken the field. As a young White Sox fan, I remember hoping the second game would be played, how embarrassing to lose a game by forfeit.
What do you remember about Disco Demolition Night?