The Night a Baseball Game Turned into an Anti-Disco Riot – Imagine going to a baseball game, Close your eyes and think about it. You expect to smell hot dogs and popcorn. You expect to hear the crack of a wooden bat hitting a ball. You expect to hear people cheering when their team scores a run. It is usually a fun, sunny day.
You do not expect a giant explosion.
You do not expect a fire in the middle of the grass.
You certainly do not expect thousands of people to run onto the field and steal the bases.
But on one crazy night in 1979, all of this happened. It happened in the city of Chicago. It was a night called “Disco Demolition Night.” It became the weirdest night in sports history.
This is the story of the night baseball exploded.
Part 1: The Year Was 1979
To understand this story, we have to go back in time. We have to go back to the year 1979.
The world was very different then. There were no cell phones. There was no internet. There were no video games like we have today.
Music was very important to people. And the biggest music in the world was called Disco.
What was Disco?
Disco was music made for dancing. It had a loud drum beat. It went thump, thump, thump, thump. It made you want to move your feet.
People who liked disco wore fancy clothes. They wore shiny shirts. They wore pants that were tight at the top and very wide at the bottom. These were called “bell-bottoms.” They went to clubs to dance under a big ball covered in mirrors. It was called a disco ball. It sparkled everywhere.
A movie called Saturday Night Fever came out. It starred a man named John Travolta. He was a very good dancer. After that movie, everyone wanted to be a disco dancer. Disco was on the radio all the time.
Why Did People Hate It?
Not everyone liked disco. In fact, some people hated it.
People who liked Rock and Roll music thought disco was silly. Rock fans liked loud guitars. They liked long hair. They liked blue jeans and t-shirts. They did not like shiny suits and dancing.
They felt like disco was taking over. Their favorite radio stations stopped playing rock music. They started playing disco instead. This made the rock fans very angry.
They started a slogan. A slogan is a short saying. They said, “Disco Sucks.” They wrote it on t-shirts. They wrote it on signs. A war was starting between Rock and Disco.
The Sad Chicago White Sox
In the middle of this music war, there was a baseball team. They were called the Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox were not having a very good year. They were losing a lot of games. Because they were losing, people did not want to watch them play. The stadium was usually empty.
The stadium was called Comiskey Park. It was a big, old building. It had thousands of seats, but most of them were empty. The team owners were worried. They needed money. To get money, they needed fans to buy tickets.
They needed a big idea.
Part 2: The Man Behind the Boom
Enter a man named Steve Dahl.
Steve Dahl was a funny man. He talked on the radio. He was a DJ. A DJ is the person who picks the songs you hear.
Steve loved rock music. But one Christmas, his boss came to him. The boss said, “Steve, we are changing. No more rock music. We are only playing disco now.”
Steve was fired. He lost his job because of disco.
Steve was very mad. He got a new job at a different radio station. Every morning, he talked about how much he hated disco. He made fun of the shiny clothes. He made fun of the songs. His fans loved it. They called themselves the “Insane Coho Lips.” It was a silly name, but they were a strong group.
The Big Plan
One day, Steve met a man named Mike Veeck. Mike worked for the White Sox baseball team. His dad owned the team. Mike was known for doing crazy things to get people to come to games.
Mike and Steve started talking.
“I hate disco,” said Steve. “I need fans at my baseball game,” said Mike.
They had an idea. What if they combined baseball with hating disco?
They came up with a promotion. A promotion is a special event to sell tickets. They called it Disco Demolition Night.
Here was the deal:
- The game would be on July 12, 1979.
- If you brought an old disco record to the game, your ticket would only cost 98 cents. That is less than one dollar!
- Steve Dahl would take all the records. He would put them in a big box in the middle of the field.
- Then, he would blow them up!
It sounded like a fun, silly night. They thought maybe a few thousand extra people would show up.
They were wrong. They were very, very wrong.
Part 3: The Day of the Game
July 12 was a hot summer day in Chicago. It was humid. That means the air felt heavy and wet.
The White Sox were playing a team called the Detroit Tigers. They were playing two games back-to-back. This is called a “doubleheader.”
The plan was simple.
- Play the first game.
- Take a break.
- Blow up the records.
- Play the second game.
- Everyone goes home happy.
The Crowd Arrives
The team hoped for 12,000 people. Maybe 15,000 if they were lucky.
But around 5:00 PM, the traffic stopped. Cars were lined up for miles around the stadium. Thousands of people were walking down the streets.
They were young. They were wearing black t-shirts. They were carrying disco records.
The stadium workers were shocked. They ran out of tickets. They stopped letting people in. But the people kept coming.
Over 50,000 people squeezed into the stadium. Every seat was full. People were standing in the aisles. People were climbing on the walls.
Outside, there were another 20,000 people who could not get in. They were banging on the gates.
Most of these people did not care about baseball. They did not know the players’ names. They were there for one reason only. They wanted to see disco die.
Part 4: Game One Gets Weird
The first game started. The White Sox played the Tigers. But it was not a normal game.
The smell in the air was strange. It smelled like smoke. It smelled like hot dogs. It smelled like “funny cigarettes.”
The fans were wild. They were screaming and yelling. They held up signs that said “Disco Sucks.”
The Flying Frisbees
People had brought thousands of records. The team had big bins to collect them. But the bins filled up too fast!
The workers stopped taking the records. So, the fans took the records to their seats.
A vinyl record is a big, flat circle made of hard plastic. It is heavy. If you throw it, it flies like a Frisbee.
Fans started throwing records. Whoosh! A record flew onto the field. Smack! A record hit the grass.
The baseball players were scared. Imagine trying to catch a baseball while heavy plastic discs are flying at your head!
An outfielder named Rusty Staub played for the Tigers. He told his teammates, “Wear your helmets!” Even the guys sitting on the bench wore hard helmets. They were afraid of getting hit.
The game went on. But it was chaos. The Detroit Tigers won the game 4 to 1.
Usually, when a game ends, people cheer or boo. But this crowd did not care about the score. They started chanting.
“WE WANT STEVE! WE WANT STEVE!”
They were ready for the explosion.
Part 5: The Big Boom
The first game ended. The players ran off the field to be safe.
A large green Jeep drove onto the field. Steve Dahl was inside. He was wearing an army helmet and a uniform. He looked like a general going to war.
The crowd went crazy. They stood up. They screamed. The noise was deafening. It sounded like a jet engine.
Steve drove to center field. Center field is the part of the grass furthest away from home plate.
Waiting there was a big wooden box. Inside the box were thousands of disco records.
Steve got a microphone. He yelled to the crowd. “This is now officially the world’s largest anti-disco rally!”
The crowd roared back. “DISCO SUCKS! DISCO SUCKS!”
Steve held up a detonator. A detonator is a little box with a button. It sets off the bomb.
He counted down. Three. Two. One.
BOOM!
It was huge. It was much bigger than anyone expected.
The team had put too much explosive in the box. A giant cloud of fire and smoke shot into the sky. It blew a massive hole in the ground. Dirt and pieces of plastic records flew everywhere. It looked like a bomb had hit the stadium.
The explosion tore up the center field grass. There was a smoking crater where the box used to be.
Steve Dahl waved to the crowd. He got back in his Jeep. He drove away. He thought his job was done.
But the night was just getting started.
Part 6: Anti-Disco Riot
For a few seconds, it was quiet. Everyone stared at the smoke.
Then, it started.
One fan jumped over the wall. He ran onto the field. Then two more. Then ten. Then fifty.
Suddenly, it was like a dam broke. A river of people poured onto the baseball field.
Thousands of young people jumped the fences. They were running wild.
Chaos on the Grass
It looked like an army of ants covering a picnic. There were so many people you could hardly see the green grass.
They did crazy things.
- Some people ran to the bases. They pulled them out of the ground and stole them!
- One person brought a ladder and climbed up the foul pole. A foul pole is a big yellow pole at the edge of the field. He sat on top and waved.
- People found the broken records. They piled them up and used lighters to start a bonfire. There was a fire burning in the outfield!
- They broke the batting cage. That is the metal cage where players practice hitting. They dragged it down and smashed it.
The stadium announcer got on the speaker. “Please return to your seats,” he said. “Please clear the field.”
No one listened. They were having too much fun being wild.
The Players Lock the Doors
The baseball players were watching from the dugout. The dugout is a little room where the team sits.
“Lock the door!” someone yelled.
The players grabbed their bats. They were not going to play baseball. they were ready to defend themselves. They ran down the tunnel to the locker room. They locked the heavy door and put a bench in front of it.
They ate their dinner in the locker room while the riot happened outside. They could hear the screaming and the stomping feet above them.
Part 7: Game Over
The riot went on for a long time. The sun went down. It was getting dark.
Finally, the police arrived.
They were not normal police officers. They were the riot police. They wore heavy helmets with clear shields over their faces. They carried batons. Some came on horses.
The fans on the field saw the police. The fun was over. They started to run away. Some climbed back into the stands. Some ran out the exits.
Soon, the field was empty of people. But it was ruined.
The Broken Field
The beautiful green grass was gone. There was a giant black hole from the explosion. There were small fires burning. There was trash and broken records everywhere. The bases were gone.
The umpire is the judge of the game. He walked out and looked at the mess. He shook his head.
“We cannot play baseball here,” he said. “It is too dangerous. The ground is full of holes. The players will trip and break their legs.”
He made a big decision. He declared a forfeit.
A forfeit means the game is over before it starts. Because the White Sox fans destroyed the field, the White Sox lost. The Detroit Tigers won the second game without even swinging a bat.
The White Sox players were sad. They lost a game because of a disco party.
Part 8: The Aftermath
The next morning, the news was everywhere. Pictures of the riot were in the newspapers. People on TV talked about the “night baseball died.”
Steve Dahl was famous. Everyone knew who he was now. He was the man who blew up Comiskey Park.
The White Sox were embarrassed. The owner, Bill Veeck, felt bad. He just wanted people to have fun. He did not want a riot. Mike Veeck, his son, lost his job for a long time because of the idea.
Did Disco Die?
So, did it work? Did they kill disco?
Kind of.
Before that night, disco was everywhere. But after the riot, people started to turn away from it. It wasn’t “cool” anymore. Radio stations stopped playing it.
By the next year, 1980, disco was mostly gone. Rock and Pop music were popular again.
Some people say disco would have ended anyway. But many people think that hot summer night in Chicago was the nail in the coffin.
Read Also: 10 Bizarre Musical Moments You Won’t Believe Are Real
Conclusion
We will probably never see a night like that again.
Today, baseball teams are very careful. They have lots of security guards. They do not let people bring records to blow up.
But we still remember Disco Demolition Night. It is a funny and crazy story from the 1970s.
It reminds us of a time when music was so important that people would fight over it. It reminds us of a time when 98 cents could get you a ticket to the wildest show on earth.
And it teaches us one very important lesson: Never use too much explosive at a baseball game.
