LEE ELIA TIRADE
Elia's outburst occurred on April 29, 1983, after the Cubs suffered a one-run home loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The rant took place during a postgame session with reporters in his office. Elia was pissed off at the continual booing by the Wrigley crowd (both during and after the game) and frustrated that no one could see beyond the Cubs' 5-14 record for any of the progress he felt the team was making.
The fact that Elia's rant has been preserved for posterity is something of a miracle. In the early 80s, "baseball reporters didn't work with tape recorders. But radio guys certainly did. So it was that Elia's outburst came to be a part of the public domain."
Les Grobstein, aka "ubiquitous" Les, was lurking on the edges of Elia's office, with tape rolling. For Grobstein, graduate of Chicago's Von Stuben High School, "it was his Zapruder moment." Elia commented that he dearly wished Grobstein "had gotten a flat tire on his way to Wrigley that afternoon."
Elia clearly regrets his ourburst. "I made some comments that I don't even know how they came out of my mouth, because they were not comments that I normally would make. Never in my wildest dreams did I think somebody would run out of there and put it on the air."
1983 turned out to be Elia's final year as the Cubs' manager. Many have argued that Grobstein's tape sealed upper management's decision to fire Elia. Grobstein heartily disagrees. He commented recently that "the tirade and my tape did not get Lee Elia fired - the team starting to suck again did."
Whatever the case, the tirade is now 25 years old, solidly entrenched in the firmament of baseball lore...and is TOTALLY AWESOME.
Enjoy.
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