The Texas Rangers have been involved in some raucous riots and fights. There’s that insanely cool Nolan Ryan time beat the hell out of Robin Ventura and that time Rougned Odor absolutely clocked Jose Bautista. There’s the riot that started in 1971 when the Washington Senators announced they’d move to Arlington to become the Rangers, which ended in a forfeit. And then there’s Ten Cent Beer Night, which may be one of the most insane ways a team has ever won a game. On June 4, 1974, the Texas Rangers were confronted by a horde of angry fans, piss-drunk from insanely cheap beer, and had to fend them off with anything they could find.
In 1974, the Cleveland Indians (they were still called that back then) hosted Ten Cent Beer Night, a promotional night that’s exactly what it sounded like. For context, the Indians of the mid-’70s were not very good. They had lost 102 games in 1971 and hadn’t posted a winning record since 1968. In 1973, they ranked dead last in Major League Baseball in attendance.
So, eager to get butts in seats at Cleveland Stadium, the Indians announced that on June 4, beer at their game against the Texas Rangers would be 10 cents for a cup, down from the normal price of 65 cents (which is $4.65 in 2026 money). The Indians had done this a few years before, when in 1971 they hosted Nickel Beer Night without problems. But this time there would be; just a week before, on May 29, the Indians had visited the Rangers at Arlington Stadium in Texas and gotten into a brawl. Rangers fans threw food and beer at the Indians players…