the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

OOPS 140
kind of disaster familiar to those who have studied fan violence in sporting
cultures around the world: frustrated fans of a hardscrabble team, simmering
resentment of the opposing players, and alcohol. Lots and lots of
alcohol. The echoes of that single game gone wild continue today in many
ways, including stricter guidelines for serving alcohol at stadium events of
all kinds, and a federally mandated nationwide minimum drinking age of
twenty- one.
But Ten-Cent Beer Night wasn’t just an isolated example of poor
judgment and planning. When you consider the strange times in which it
occurred and the long, beer-fueled history of baseball, there seems a weird
inevitability to the moment when, in the game’s second inning, a stout and
apparently drunken woman kicked off the festivities by making her way
from the grandstands into the Indians’ on-deck circle. There, she lifted
her shirt—the literal flash point for an eve ning of ribald revelry that, inning
by inning, slid inexorably toward mayhem. But then, in Vietnam-era
America, substance abuse, casual sexuality, and violence were always a
potent mix.
Beer and Baseball: A Love Story
As relationships go, the one between beer and baseball is particularly
long and profound. This should surprise no one, given that today the
sport includes a Milwaukee team named the Brewers that plays in a stadium
named after Miller Beer, and other landmark stadiums bear the
names Busch and Coors. Television viewers have grown accustomed to
the kind of full- saturation sponsorship deals that, during one recent
American League Championship Series, introduced them to the “Budweiser
Starting Lineup,” aerial coverage by the Bud One blimp, and long,
loving shots of play against the backdrop of red-and-white Anheuser-
Busch stadium billboards—accommodations to one of Major League
Baseball’s most loyal sponsors. The November 1, 2004, World Series issue
of Sports Illustrated was dominated by beer advertising, including a back
cover and a special insert from Miller. But there was a frothy presence in