On that date in the history of the Texas Rangers, it was “Ten Cent Beer Night” in Cleveland.
On June 4, 1974, the Texas Rangers met Cleveland at the Cleveland Municipal Stadium on a night when those in power offered locals 10 cents of beer in hopes of grabbing the stadium.
It went as well as one could hope for.
Cleveland had almost recovered from a 5-3 deficit in the ninth inning. In fact, Cleveland had two runners on the base including the winning run when large numbers of fans took to the field. One might guess that many were drunk. Things got choppy for about 15 minutes, resulting in at least one injury to Rangers outfielder Mike Hargrove, who grabbed a beer bottle on his head.
Done with the situation, referee Nestor Chylak declared the only defeat in Rangers’ history and declared Rangers the winner with a score of 9-0. The game remains one of the most bizarre in Major League history. According to nationalpastime.com, Cleveland sold an estimated 60,000 cups of beer to the 25,134 in attendance.
Chylak, who refereed the American League for nearly 25 years, mixes with Rangers history in a different way. Chylak made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 in a class with Rangers legend Nolan Ryan.
Also on this day …
June 4, 2012: Craig Gentry became the fourth Rangers positional player to line up in a regular season game in Rangers history. He threw an inning in Oakland, gave up three hits, two runs and walked one.
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