WE FORFEIT!

In modern professional baseball, forfeits are exceedingly rare. It’s a sophisticated game where a lot of variables can be accounted for, so a team suddenly unable to play is an almost impossible prospect. Here are some of the few times it’s happened.

BACKGROUND

In the Major League Baseball book of rules, a forfeit occurs when a team can no longer play, or the home team can no longer host a game in a reasonable, safe fashion. All statistics for hitting, pitching, and fielding are counted toward the players’ and teams’ totals, but the official score is listed as 9–0 (one run per inning of the game). The loss goes to the team that forfeited, and the win to the team that wasn’t at fault.

WASHINGTON SENATORS vs. NEW YORK YANKEES

After the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961 (where they became the Twins), the American League expanded from eight to ten teams, and one of the new expansion teams was a new version of the Senators. The new Washington Senators lasted in D.C. until a planned move to Arlington, Texas, for the 1972 season and a team name change to the Texas Rangers. The Senators’ final home game at RFK Stadium on September 30, 1971, was hardly a bon voyage party. Fans felt jilted by the move and got more and more upset as the game went on, even though the Senators led the Yankees 7–5 with one out in the top of the ninth. That meant the game was two outs from being over—without incident, unless you count the deafening boos—when fans ran out and started vandalizing the field. There was no chance of cooler heads prevailing and security putting an end to the melee. Reason: stadium guards, angry about losing their jobs, had left the stadium early in the game, allowing thousands of fans to overcrowd the stadium…without paying the price of admission. Umpires called the game, and the forfeit went to the Yankees.

CLEVELAND INDIANS vs. TEXAS RANGERS

On June 4, 1974, Cleveland Stadium held a promotion to get fans into seats: Ten Cent Beer Night. While those four words might seem synonymous with phrases like “really bad idea” and “the fans are going to wreck the place,” the Indians had been holding similar promotions for years without anything going wrong. But in 1974, tensions against the visiting Texas Rangers were high following a bench-clearing brawl when the Indians had played at the Rangers’ home field a week earlier. Fans came into Cleveland Stadium angry and looking to get drunk, which the ballpark obliged by offering 12-ounce servings of beer for a dime (regular price: 65 cents). There was no limit on the number of beers an individual could purchase, so the stadium quickly became a sea of angry drunks. It all culminated when Cleveland fans stormed the field and went after Rangers outfielder Jeff Burroughs. The field rush turned into a full-on riot, as fans threw objects (including seats they’d ripped out) at players from both teams, the umpires, and each other. The grounds—and fans—were in such a terrible state that game officials called a forfeit. The game was nearly over, too—the teams were tied at five, halfway through the ninth inning. (Texas officially got the win.)

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BALTIMORE ORIOLES vs. TORONTO BLUE JAYS

Beyond riots and field rushes, forfeits can also come about as a result of relatively peaceful situations. On September 15, 1977, rain threatened a game at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium between the Blue Jays and the visiting Baltimore Orioles. Officials ordered the grounds crew to place a tarp over the two pitcher’s mounds in the Blue Jays’ bullpen, which sat in foul territory just by left field. The Blue Jays cruised to a 4–0 lead by the bottom of the fifth inning, which is when Orioles manager Earl Weaver told umpire Marty Springstead that he had a problem—those bullpen tarps were wet, and since it was just outside the field of play, one of his outfielders could feasibly slip or trip on it while trying to catch a fly ball. Weaver refused to send his players out onto the field until officials removed the wet tarps, and Springstead compromised, removing one tarp—the one closest to the foul line. That wasn’t good enough for Weaver, who argued with Springstead for 20 minutes before returning to the dugout at an impasse. When the Orioles, per Weaver’s direction, did not take the field, Springstead called the game a forfeit: the Blue Jays “won,” 9–0.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS vs. ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

For decades, “Free Ball Night” has been a fun team promotion—paying customers receive a free baseball emblazoned with the team logo. Nowadays they’re given out as fans leave the stadium, rather than when they arrive, specifically because of what happened at Dodger Stadium on August 10, 1995. That night, thousands of Dodgers fans had these hard projectiles in their hands when a game against the visiting Cardinals soured over some controversial calls. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Dodgers sent batter Raul Mondesi to the plate, with the team down 2–1. He was called out on strikes, then argued the call with umpire Jim Quick, who ejected Mondesi from the game. That upset Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. He stormed out of the dugout to give Quick a piece of his mind. That, in turn, prompted Dodgers fans to protest, which they did by hurling their “Ball Night” balls onto the field, aiming for Cardinals players. The Cards immediately fled the field. When the balls stopped raining down, they returned to the field, only to have fans in the center field section start throwing balls at them again. Umpires had no choice but to call the game out of safety concerns, in favor of the Cardinals.

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