This Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of 10-Cent Beer Night, one of the most infamous games in the history of professional sports. The idea was simple: Get people to buy tickets to the Rangers/Indians game at Cleveland Stadium with the promise of 10¢ beers. At no point did anyone stop the initial planning session and ask, "So what happens when there's a crowd of 40,000 completely hammered people in our stadium?"

Chaos. That's what happens. Billy Martin, manager of the Rangers, put it well:

It's the closest I've ever seen anybody come to getting killed in my more than 25 years in baseball.

With the help of the Getty Images archives, here are the 12 best pictures from 10-Cent Beer Night.

And to think, science tells us that 50 Cent's first pitch was five times as horrible.