Like many Chicago Cubs managers who tried and failed to end the team’s legendary championship drought, Lee Elia didn’t last too long in his job. Elia managed 285 games for the Cubs from 1982-83, going 127-158 before general manager Dallas Green fired him during the ’83 season. But Elia, who died Wednesday at age 87, will always remain a significant part of Cubs lore, thanks to a rant for the ages that’s celebrated every April 29, the date of his 1983 tirade against what he called the “so-called Cubs fans.
” The long-winded, expletive-laden rant, which was taped and saved for posterity by late Chicago radio reporter Les Grobstein, occurred in a postgame interview session with Cubs beat writers in Elia’s cramped Wrigley Field office when some of the crowd of 9,391 on hand that afternoon harangued his players after a 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers left them 5-14. Elia used an expletive to describe Cubs fans whom he claimed “don’t even work,” and according to Grobstein used 33 “F-bombs” in his four-minute rant. “That’s why they’re out at the (expletive) game,” he said.
“They oughta go and get a (expletive) job and find out what it’s like to go out and earn a (expletive) living. Eight-five percent of the (expletive) world is working. The other 15% come out here.
(It’s) a (expletive) playground for the (expletives).” Another of his more memorable lines was: “I hope we get (expletive) hotter than (expletive), just to stuff it up them 3,0.