Sometimes A Great Idea Seems Like A Bad Idea At First

Then Disco Demolition Killed Me

by Mike Veeck

On July 12, 1979, at game time, the freeway was backed up for miles with cars we didn’t have room for in the stadium parking lot. Donna Summer and Bee Gees records, launched with malicious glee, sailed like Frisbees across four lanes of traffic and then fell to litter the road. Stoners climbed the fences of the park. The scent of weed lay heavy in the air.

I over-calculated how much dynamite we would need to blow up the records of attendees. As combat-fatigue-clad DJ Dahl spurred the crowd in a chant of “Disco sucks!” the explosives blew a crater in the outfield. In the aftermath, what Wikipedia now describes as a “small fire” smoldered in the ruins of the field.

The White Sox had to forfeit the second game of the double header. It was only the fourth time in major-league history that a game had to be called due to a failed promotion. It was the last time an American league game was forfeited.

Lessons From Another Boring, Derivative, Piece of Crap Business Book by Mike Veeck & Allen Fahden

Sometimes a great idea seems like a bad idea at first.

Give up doing this: Resisting any negative consequences to you.

Do this instead: Take full responsibility when it goes bad. It could be just a temporary setback.

If I had known in 1979 what I know now and what’s in this book, I would have gone to the right people early and asked, “What could go wrong?”