Former manager Lee Elia, whose rant against Chicago Cubs fans became part of team lore, dies at 87

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 3,000 (expletive) people that show up every (expletive) day. Because if they’re the real Chicago (expletive) fans, they can kiss my (expletive) ass right downtown. And print it!”

Print it they did. Elia instantly became notorious and was forced to make an apology when Green got wind of the tirade. It would’ve been a viral moment had it happened today, but there was no social media, no YouTube and no internet in 1983, so Elia’s rant was mostly a local story that perfectly exemplified the frustrations of an old-school manager of a team synonymous with losing.

Elia survived the incident, thanks in part to his friendship with Green, the first GM hired by Tribune Co. after it bought the team in 1981.

“He’s still under the gun, he’s a manager,” Green said after the incident. “He’s a manager of a big-league team who made an error in judgment, and his team is struggling. Unfortunately, Lee has put himself in a position where if he does not change it around, then his way of doing things is not working.”

But Green fired Elia four months later when Elia said he had “never heard of this guy, Gerald Perry,” after the Atlanta Braves first baseman homered and drove in three runs to help beat the Cubs. Elia returned to managing in 1987 with the Philadelphia Phillies but was fired after the 1988 season, finishing with a 111-142-1 record with the Phillies.

Lee Elia’s rant: How the Cubs manager’s 3-minute tirade became one of the most infamous speeches in history

Born in Philadelphia on July 16, 1937, Elia, a shortstop, played two seasons in the majors: 80 games with the White Sox in 1966 and 15 with the Cubs in 1968. He hit .203 with three home runs and 25 RBIs in 95 career games.

“The Chicago Cubs organization joins the rest of the baseball world in mourning the recent passing of Lee Elia,” the team said in a statement Thursday. “His connection with our organization will forever be remembered and our thoughts are with his wife, Priscilla, and his entire family.”

The Phillies also released a statement, noting that Elia was affiliated with 10 organizations but “always considered himself a Phillie at heart.”

Elia lived to regret the tirade, and on his first trip back to Wrigley as a Phillies coach in 1985, he told Tribune reporter Robert Markus his remarks were “not directed at the masses” of Cubs fans.

“Lord knows I’ve always felt the most beautiful thing in this game is the roar of the crowd,” he said. “There were probably 1,800 or 2,000 people there that day, and I was unhappy with the four who threw beer on Keith Moreland and the other section that was getting on Larry Bowa.

“It didn’t come out that way, and I have nobody to blame but myself for that, but it is so out of proportion now.”

The legend grew over the years, and a Wrigleyville dive bar, Nisei Lounge, holds a “Lee Elia Day” every year on or around the anniversary of the incident.

Despite his place in Cubs history, Elia was instrumental in some decisions that led to the Cubs’ turnaround season in 1984, such as sticking with struggling infielder Ryne Sandberg after a rough debut, making Lee Smith a closer and giving Jody Davis the starting catching job. The ’84 Cubs would go on to win the National League East under manager Jim Frey, and that season not only changed the way the franchise was perceived, it fueled the evolution of Wrigleyville from a rundown neighborhood into a hot real estate destination.

Elia was a coach with Tampa Bay under Lou Piniella in 2003 when he told the St. Petersburg Times on the tirade’s 20th anniversary that he assumed his remarks were off the record.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think somebody would run out of there and put it on the air,” he said.

Grobstein not only ran with it, he replayed it every year on his late-night radio show. After Grobstein’s death in January 2022, his son, Scott Grobstein, sold his father’s mic, tape recorder and the original tapes of the Elia rant for $1,800.

Instead of making himself a villain to Cubs fans by blasting them, Elia wound up becoming a sympathetic figure to many. While defending his players from boorish fan behavior that was common at Wrigley Field in the early 80’s, he simply got a little overheated.

Who can honestly say they haven’t had one of those days before?