Alan Greenwood

Floating down a lonesome stream of consciousness, mulling over what is the leading promotion-gone-bad in Major League Baseball history – the Indians’ 10-Cent Beer night in 1974 or Bill Veeck’s Disco Demolition Night in 1979. … The NBA is proposing a 22-team resumption of play to begin July 31 – if it is deemed safe enough to play July 31. The first eight games would determine playoff seedings, then the slog toward crowing a champion would run into October.

The eight teams absent from this spectacle are whining that they should be allowed in.

(A bit of unsolicited advice for the forgotten eight: Play better.)

The countless fans who snicker at this foolishness are wondering if the sub-par teams taking the Disney World court will receive participation ribbons as they are sent on their way to await training camp for the 2020-21 season.

As a business plan, it makes some sense. The league can recoup some of its lost TV revenue and the networks owning those broadcast rights can dredge up something to satisfy sports fans’ appetite for live events.

As a basketball plan, it is absurd. It essentially negates the two-thirds of one season that withered with the stay-at-home decrees. There wouldn’t be enough asterisks on the planet to plant next to the name of the 2020 “champions.”

Admittedly, fans really don’t care how much money owners and players may gain or lose. But if the only alternative is to declare the season lost, scrap it and wait ’til next season. …

KEEP THAT TO YOURSELF: Drew Brees clearly had no inkling of the hurricane he induced with one line of his take on the public rage over George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. The protests have grown as fast as the outrage, prompting Brees to say, “I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.”

As many of his teammates and other players across the NFL have pointed out, the protests have nothing at all to do with disrespecting the flag or the country.

Who wouldn’t want to be a fly on the wall of the Saints locker room the next time the team gathers? …

TIME TRAVEL: June 7, 1985 – “As the final pitch of his career left his right hand, Exeter High School pitcher Ron Routh probably winced, realizing it was a pitch he would throw 1,000 times more whenever it came to mind.

“As Nashua’s Steve Spencer watched the fastball float letter-high over the heart of the plate, his eyes grew wide, his heart skipped a beat and his mind said: Batting practice.

Then, as Spencer sent the ball up against the left-field fence on one bounce and Monte Freire trotted in from second base, the rest of the Purple Panther baseball team charged from the third-base dugout and released the emotions generated by the previous seven gut-wrenching innings in their 4-3 win in the Class L tournament semifinals.” …

AND FINALLY: On July 12, 1979, the Chicago White Sox allowed fans bringing one disco album to the gates would be charged just 98 cents for admittance to Comiskey Park for a twinight doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers.

The albums were put into a crate that was to be exploded between games. And so it was. And then a chunk of the more than 50,000 fans filled the field, refusing to leave, doing so much damage that the second game was forfeited to the Tigers.

Bad as that was, the Indians’ 10-Cent Beer Night on June 4, 1974, proved much worse. Drunken fans took control of the field in the bottom of the ninth in a 5-5 game, menacing Texas Rangers players, some toting weapons. Umpire-in-chief Nestor Chylak, who had been hit in the head by a chair, declared a forfeit as he and his crew sought an escape route.

The Indians, having drawn 25,000 for that game, looked at the beer mug as half full and scheduled another 10-Cent Beer Night for July 18. They learned enough to institute a two-beer limit.

Contact Alan Greenwood at 594-1248 or agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com.

Newsletter