When good ideas go bad

File this under Promotions Gone Wrong as tonight marks the 45th anniversary of “Disco Demolition Night” at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

The brainchild of Chicago area disc jockey Steve Dahl and Mike Veeck – the son of White Sox owner and master promoter Bill Veeck – calls for fans to be admitted into the park for only 98 cents and a disco record that will be destroyed.

The records then are collected on the field to be, quite literally, blown up between games of the White Sox’s Thursday night doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers, who win the first game 4-1.

The idea, though, goes awry when an estimated 7,000 or so fans spill onto the field and refuse to go back to the stands, despite pleas from Bill Veeck to the standing room-only crowd of 47,795 on Chicago’s Southside.

As the on-field mob runs amok, Mike Veeck remains on the infield, surveying the mayhem he inadvertently causes.

“I never left second base,” Mike Veeck years later tells the Chicago Tribune. “I was just standing there thinking about what my next job would be, because I knew that my life as I knew it right then was over.”

After waiting 76 minutes for order to be restored – it never is – the umpires declare the second game a forfeit, giving the Tigers an easy win for just, well, Stayin’ Alive during the promotion.