EXTRA: Will Disco Demolition really sell Buona Beef more sandwiches?

Thursday is the day (the night, specifically) that the Chicago White Sox will be using 40-year-old memories of exploding records and running amok on the Comiskey Park turn to try to attract fans to the old ball game.

The game against the New York Yankees is having a t-shirt giveaway -- 10,000 shirts remembering the events of July 12, 1979 when the White Sox bolstered their attendance for a double-header with the Detroit Tigers by letting people into the ballpark for 98 cents IF they brought a disco record to be blown to smithereens.

THE PROMOTION WOUND up being too successful. The anticipated crowd of some 20,000 turned out to be in excess of stadium capacity, with another 20,000 or so people stuck outside trying to figure out a way to sneak in.

And as we all remember, all the burn-outs who wanted to rock 'n' roll all night and rage against the evils of disco music (mostly because they couldn't dance) wound up losing control, storming the field, causing significant damage to the playing field, and have many people to this day ranting and raging about how "stoned" all those kids must have been.

The event is considered something significant in White Sox history -- which is why the team says it went ahead with using the 40-year-old event as a reason to celebrate.

The giveaway

Although I wonder just how many sandwiches Buona Beef (the sponsor of Thursday's event who paid for all the t-shirts being given away) will actually wind up selling as a result of the event?

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Included is a YouTube recording of that ballgame, The 2-hour, 34-minute mark is the key point where the records blow up, while 2-hours, 39 minutes is where the "fans" take over, and where broadcaster Jimmy Piersall starts denouncing the crowd as a batch of followers.