Former Cubs manager and White Sox infielder Lee Elia — best known for one of the most epic rants in baseball history — died Wednesday at 87, the Phillies announced.
Elia’s professional baseball career spanned more than 50 years as a player, coach, manager and executive, but his name forever will be linked to his 1983 -tirade directed at Cubs fans that eventually got him fired.
“What am I supposed to do? Go out there and let my [bleeping] players get destroyed every day and be quiet about it for the [bleeping] nickel-dime people who show up?” Elia said in the roughly three-minute postgame rant. “The [bleepers]don’t even work. That’s why they’re out at the [bleeping] game. They should go get a [bleeping] job and find out what it’s like to go out there and earn a [bleeping] living. Eighty-five percent of the world is working; the other 15 come out here.”
Elia seemed particularly upset with the day-baseball fans famous for filling Wrigley Field, especially the boozy sections of the bleachers. There were only 9,391 fans at Wrigley for that April 29 game.
“A [bleeping] playground for the [bleepers],’’ Elia said. ‘‘Rip them [bleepers]! Rip those country [bleepers], like the [bleeping] players! We’ve got guys bustin’ their [bleeping] asses, and those [bleeping] people boo . . . and that’s the Cubs? My [bleeping] ass! They talk about the great [bleeping] support that the players get around here; I haven’t seen it this [bleeping] year!”
The tirade reportedly was witnessed by only a handful of reporters — the Sun-Times’ Joel Bierig, the Tribune’s Robert Markus, the Daily Herald’s Don Friske and WLS-AM’s Les Grobstein, who recorded the rant and preserved it for decades.
Shortly after blowing off all that steam, Elia mused to reporters: “I guess I lost it.”
Elia said years later that he was moved after seeing fiery Cubs players Larry Bowa and Keith Moreland nearly brawl with loudmouthed fans after a 4-3 loss to the Dodgers dropped the Cubs to 5-14.
General manager Dallas Green summoned Elia to his office that evening to play the tape of his rant. Elia told ESPN years later that he was shocked by what he heard.
“I was completely oblivious,” Elia told ESPN in 2008. “With God as my witness, when Dallas called me to his office, I told him I had to get to Park Ridge to umpire my daughter’s softball game. And he told me, ‘If you don’t get up here, you can start packing your bags.’ Then, when I finally heard the recording, I surprised myself. I didn’t realize half of what I had said. I was like, ‘Where in the world did I come up with that?’ ’’
That night, Elia went on Jack Brickhouse’s radio show and apologized. Green, a longtime friend, eventually fired Elia four months later, with the Cubs at 54-69.
A Philadelphia native, Elia had a 238-300 record in four seasons as a big-league manager, two with the Cubs and two with the Phillies (1987-88). He was a shortstop during his playing career, batting .203 with three home runs and 25 RBI in 95 games with the Sox and Cubs.
He was the third-base coach when the Phillies won the 1980 World Series.
“Affiliated with 10 different organizations throughout his distinguished career, he always considered himself a Phillie at heart,” the Phillies said in their statement.
The Cubs issued this statement: “The Chicago Cubs organization joins the rest of the baseball world in mourning the recent passing of Lee Elia. Elia’s long career within professional baseball included time as both a Cubs player (1968) and manager (1982-83) — a stint that began his over-30-year major-league coaching career. His connection with our organization will forever be remembered, and our thoughts are with his wife, Priscilla, and his entire family.”
