Programming Note: 50 Years of 10-Cent Beer
All the Ten Cent Beer Night writing we've ever done, in one place.
On June 4, 2008, the 34th anniversary of Ten Cent Beer Night, we wrote about it and had it published on ESPN.com’s Page 2 imprint (remember Page 2?). It was the first thing we ever published.
When we started Project 3.18, June 4, 2024 was the first date circled on our production calendar. We knew we’d need to do something great for the 50th anniversary of Cleveland’s infamous Ten Cent Beer Night forfeit, so on February 19, just days into our internet writing journey, we asked the “world” (which at that point consisted of some brave and/or confused friends and family) to tell us the Ten Cent Beer Night stories we missed: the stories of the fans.
We can say, in hindsight, such a rallying cry was not likely to echo far out into the internet on the strength of our tiny lungs alone, but someone out there in Substack-land heard it and generously loaned us a company bullhorn. “Surprise Begonias” was featured in the weekly “Substack Reads” email.
Now that, readers could hear…and some of them responded! Our inbox has never been such a fun place as it was that week. Thanks to the borrowed megaphone and the contributions of readers and fans, we uncovered some fantastic Ten Cent Beer-related material with which to celebrate a Golden Anniversary.
BONUS GUEST POST: “The Texas Brawl: A Mostly-Untold Story of Ten Cent Beer Night,” by Scott Jarrett
Project 3.18 is proud to present a very-relevant excerpt from an eminent scholar of Ten Cent Beer Night and its universe, Scott Jarrett! Scott’s newly-released nonfiction book, Ten Cent Beer Night is a definitive account of this seminal 1970s moment.
We connected with Scott after “Surprise Begonias” came out and started our baseball-writing friendship with a conversation about TCBN. It was an incredible delight to talk to someone who not only knew a lot about our favorite historical riot, but knew more than we did about it. From that first connection, we wanted to get this guy to stop by Project 3.18, preferably for this very occasion.
We asked Scott to tell us about the precursor brawl between the Texas Rangers and the Cleveland Indians at Arlington Stadium, a week or so before TCBN. That brawl essentially lit the fuse that exploded on June 4 in Cleveland, and Scott tells it with relish and aplomb.
“(Re)Remembering Ten Cent Beer Night”
We are so excited to share our conversational interview with three friends who, in their wild youth, took part in Ten Cent Beer Night. Two of them were there that night, and one of them was actually out on the field, dodging thrown bullpen chairs and furious players, and he told us the surprising story of why he ended up out there there, and what he saw once he arrived on the scene.
Telling stories with the fans is something we want to do a lot more of at Project 3.18, and after reading “(Re)Remembering Ten Cent Beer Night,” we know you’ll see why.
“Ten Cent Beer Night Reader Round-Up!”
Rounding out our coverage, we’ll throw our second-ever Project 3.18 Reader Round-Up next week! After our call for TCBN memories, we heard back from a gratifying and statistically-useful number of people, and we’re delighted to help them share their delightful anecdotes, memories, ephemera, and micro-stories and add more to the tapestry of Beer-Night experiences.
By the way, it’s not too late to contribute to the Reader-Round-up, or to invite folks you know to do so. Indians/Rangers/Beer Night memories can be sent to project318@substack.com, left as comments on anything we post this week, or on TwitterX (see below).
Two other notes, while we have you:
After four very Substack-focused months, we’re expanding into our TwitterX account (pjacks28), where we’ll post and share bite-sized baseball and baseball-adjacent content (which Project 3.18 readers know might include almost anything). We’d love it if you give us a follow there, and/or retweet some of our story links on TwitterX if you enjoyed them. (Pssst…June 4 would be a great day to do this, on any platform of your choice.)
We’ve joined the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (
) and are now contributing to the IBWAA newsletter, Here’s the Pitch! Our first HtP story is out, wherein we examine a surprising overlap between baseball and…the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
As always, thanks for reading, thanks for supporting, and for all who contributed, thank you helping us make Project 3.18’s TCBN@50 coverage worthy of the occasion!
YES!