Rate Field

This guide to Rate Field in Chicago revisits July 12, 1979, when the old Comiskey Park across the street sold nearly four thousand more tickets than it had seats, for a promotion cooked up by a recently fired radio DJ named Steve Dahl and the team's young promotions director, Mike Veeck. Fans could get in for ninety-eight cents by bringing a disco record, which would be destroyed between games of a doubleheader. Veeck's own father, showman owner Bill Veeck, had long argued baseball needed circus as much as box scores. The guide picks up from the moment that crate of vinyl detonates in center field.