Elia finds way redeem himself with Cubs fans

PHILADELPHIA – There isn’t a nicer, more respected guy in baseball than Lee Elia. The Philadelphia native and former Cubs and Phillies manager has a big heart and a long list of friends in the game. He has been a contributor to pro ball for 50 years as a player, coach, manager and scout.

Yet, Elia is most remembered for a crude, three-minute meltdown he wished never happened.

Tuesday marks the 25th anniversary of Elia’s infamous diatribe against Cubs fans during a postgame news conference. The rant, perhaps the most well-known manager/coach blowup, can be heard over the Internet with a few clicks of a mouse.

Elia, his language spiced with expletives, ripped Cubs fans for booing his players and invited them to kiss his backside.

“And print it!” he told the handful of reporters in his office.

Elia went on to describe his team’s early-season struggles as a “disheartening (bleeping) situation” but promised fortunes would turn around.

Twenty-five years after the eruption that still causes him embarrassment, some good is about to come from Elia’s disheartening (bleeping) situation.

The 70-year-old baseball lifer, a part-time member of the Seattle Mariners coaching staff, has teamed with former Cubs PR man Bob Ibach in producing a souvenir designed to smooth things over with Cubs fans while raising money for cancer charities.

The souvenir includes a baseball signed by Elia, punctuated with the footnote: “And print it! The ball’s display case plays a recording of Elia praising Cubs fans and wishing them World Series success. It can be purchased for $89.95 by calling 800-581-8661. A portion of the money raised goes to Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities.

Elia had prostate cancer several years ago, and his father died from the disease. Giving something back to the people who helped him become a cancer survivor is important to Elia.

So is extending an olive branch to Cubs fans.

“For 25 years I’ve gone back to that city and never been mistreated by Cubs fans,” Elia said. “But I’ve still always felt the need for some redemption, the need to tell the fans what was really going on. Articles have been written for years about the tirade, but I’m not sure if people know what really happened.”

Elia, third-base coach for the World Champion Phillies in 1980, was in his second season managing the Cubs on April 29, 1983. The Cubs had lost 4-3 to the Dodgers to fall to 5-14. Attendance at Wrigley Field that day was just 9,391.

On the way to the clubhouse (which was down the left-field line in those days), Elia said a handful of fans derided catcher Keith Moreland and a verbal altercation nearly got physical.

“We had just lost a tough game,” Elia said. “The fans are all over two of my players. There’s nearly a fight. I walk into the clubhouse and I’m cooking.”

A reporter asked Elia if he thought the team’s slow start would stop fans from coming out.

“That kicked off the visual of what I just went through coming off the field, and I just lost it,” Elia said.

He torched Cubs fans, famously saying that 85 percent of the world worked during the day while the other 15 percent were “nickel and dimers” who came to Wrigley Field.

The tirade was recorded by radioman Les Grobstein. Ibach and Cubs GM Dallas Green listened to the tape and immediately began damage control. “If you don’t come up here now, you’re fired,” Green told Elia.

Looking back, Elia says he was just defending his players. He is sorry his language was so salty.

“It was terrible,” he said. “It was immature of me.”

Elia’s rant has led to some interesting interaction with fans. This spring in Arizona, when Elia was mulling the anniversary project, he was recognized by a group of 40-something Cubs fans in Mesa.

“Hey, Lee, I’m a working Cubs fan,” one of the men called out.

Elia approached the group, not sure what to expect. The group of men told Elia he showed a lot of guts calling out the booing fans. They told him that there were no problems, that he’d always be a Cub.

Elia felt better. At that moment, he knew he could embrace the 25th anniversary of his disheartening (bleeping) situation.

And print it!