Lee Elia’s rant, 40 years later: How the Cubs manager’s 3-minute tirade became one of the most infamous speeches in history

“I guess I lost it,” Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia told reporters on April 29, 1983, hours after he made an epic rant ripping the team’s fans — a three-minute tirade peppered with more than 50 profane words including 30 “F-bombs.”

Only a few reporters were present when Elia delivered the diatribe, but it soon became legendary after WSCR-AM 670 personality Les Grobstein captured it in full on his tape recorder.

As the Tribune would later point out, Elia used four-letter words, 10-letter words and 12-letter words. These words are so filthy, even 40 years later, that Tribune editors will only allow an edited version to be included here. But unedited versions are out there — just Google Elia’s name.

“It sounded like I was cursing the entire Cub kingdom,” Elia told the Tribune in 1987. “But that’s not true.”

Here’s a look back at how Elia’s managerial frustration became one of the most infamous speeches in sports history — and the fallout.

Who is Lee Elia?

A native of Philadelphia, Elia was a journeyman shortstop who spent most of his playing days in the minor leagues — except for 80 games with the White Sox in 1966 and 15 with the Cubs in 1968.

“I can’t hit the ball out of this park. I’m not even going to try,” he told the Tribune about Comiskey Park.

He took a job as an insurance salesman in 1970. Elia almost made Equitable Life’s “Million Dollar Round Table,” but there was just one problem, he said.

“I hated it,” Elia told the Tribune in 1981. “When I said to someone, ‘For gosh sakes, you’re underinsured. What’s going to happen when you’re not in the picture?’ I knew there was a need for insurance, but I was always uncomfortable.’”

When he was offered a lower-paying coaching job in 1973 by friend Dallas Green in the farm leagues for his hometown team, the Philadelphia Phillies, Elia took it. He became the Phillies third-base coach in 1980, the year the team won the World Series.

When was he hired by the Cubs?

The Tribune Co. bought the Cubs in June 1981 and months later Green was hired as general manager. Green brought much of his staff to Chicago — including Elia.

Elia was introduced as Cubs manager at Tribune Tower on Oct. 22, 1981.

“Dallas and I have the same basic approach, and we holler at each other a lot,” Elia told reporters then. “I can’t match him for toughness, because if you beat his logic, he outyells you.”

The Cubs went 73-89 in his first season at the helm, finishing fifth in the National League East.

How did the 1983 season start for the Cubs?

The Cubs home opener was canceled due to rain — the team’s first since 1959.

Less than a week into the regular season, the team was winless after dropping five straight games when Dickie Noles, one of Elia’s starting pitchers, was arrested following a barroom brawl in Cincinnati. (Noles underwent treatment for alcohol abuse, pleaded no contest to a charge of assaulting a police officer, then closed out the season with a 5-10 record.)

What happened on April 29, 1983?

The Cubs (then 5-14) dropped a heart-rending 4-3 game to the Los Angeles Dodgers (then 14-5) at Wrigley Field in front of less than 10,000 fans. (Future Cubs manager Dusty Baker hit third for then-Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda that day.)

They let Lee Smith have it after his wild pitch let Ken Landreaux score the go-ahead run in the eighth. (Ironically, Smith would throw another wild pitch four years later at Wrigley Field to give the Phillies a game-winning home run. Elia was the Phillies third-base coach then.)

The fans booed as the Cubs trudged to the clubhouse after pinch-hitter Scot Thompson, a .193 hitter that season, struck out in the ninth inning, stranding Keith Moreland.

As Elia trudged down the left-field line to the clubhouse after the game, a dozen or so alleged Cub fans doused Moreland with stale beer and hurled verbal abuse at Larry Bowa.

What did Elia say?

Immediately after the game, many reporters went to the Dodgers clubhouse to interview Mike Marshall, a young outfielder from Buffalo Grove, who had homered in the fifth inning.

Only a few showed up for Elia’s news conference. Grobstein said he and three writers — the Tribune’s Robert Markus, the Sun-Times’ Joel Bierig and the Daily Herald’s Don Friske — were there.

“We get in there, Elia sees us, and he says: ‘Hi fellas, come on in,’” Grobstein told the Tribune in 2008. “He seemed very calm.”

Grobstein said he asked the question that sent Elia into a rage: “Tough way to lose a game, huh?”

Elia later told the Tribune’s Fred Mitchell the tipping point actually came when a Los Angeles reporter asked about how Cubs fans were reacting to the team’s 5-14 start.

Here’s the full transcript, plus a recording.

LEE ELIA: I’ll tell you one f------ thing. I hope we get f------ hotter than s--- just to stuff it up them 3,000 f------ people that show up every f------ day.

Because if they’re the real Chicago f------ fans they can kiss my f------ a— right downtown and PRINT IT! They’re really, really behind you around here. My f------ a—.

What the f--- am I supposed to do? Go out there and let my f------ players get destroyed every day and be quiet about it? For the f------ nickel-dime people that show up? The m------------ don’t even work! That’s why they’re out at the f------ game. They ought to go out and get a f------ job and find out what it’s like to go out and earn a f------ living.

Eighty-five percent of the f------ world’s working — the other 15 come out here. A f------ playground for the c----------. Rip them m------------, rip them c---------- like the f------ players.

Got guys busting their f------ a— and now f------ people boo and that’s the Cubs? My f------ a—.

They talk about the great f------ support that the players get around here. I haven’t seen it this f------ yet.

The name of the game is hit the ball, catch the ball and get the f------ job done. Right now, we have more losses than we have wins.

The f------ changes that have happened in the Cub organization are multifold. All right, they don’t show up because we’re 5 and 14. And, unfortunately, that’s the criteria of them dumb 15 m------------ percent to come out to day baseball. The other 85 percent are earning a living.

It’ll take more than a 5 and 13 or 5 and 14 to destroy the makeup of this club. I’ll guarantee you that.

There’s some f------ pros out there that want to f------ play this game, but you’re stuck in a f------ stigma of the f------ Dodgers and the Phillies and the Cardinals and all that cheap s---. All these m------------ editorials about (Ron) Cey and f------, uh, the Philly-itis and all that s---. It’s sickening.

It’s unbelievable. It really is. It’s a disheartening f------ situation we’re in right now. 5 and 14 doesn’t negate all that work. Got 143 f------ games left.

What I’m trying to say is don’t rip them f------ guys out there — rip ME! If you want to rip somebody, rip my f------ a— but don’t rip them f------ guys cuz they’re giving everything they can give.

Once we hit that f------ groove, it’ll flow. And it will flow — the talent’s there.

I don’t know how to make it any clearer to you? I’m frustrated, I’ll guarantee I’m frustrated. It’d be different if I walked into this room every day at 8:30 and saw a bunch of guys who didn’t give a s---. They give a s--- and it’s a tough National League East.

It’s a tough National League period.

What did Grobstein do with the tape?

Grobstein, then working for WLS-AM, hustled back to the press box. On the way, he played the tape for Joe Mooshil of The Associated Press and broadcasters Harry Caray, Lou Boudreau and Vince Lloyd. The three were stunned.

Grobstein sarcastically asked Caray: “You think tomorrow’s Lee Elia pregame show might be preempted or canceled?”

What was the fallout?

Green, the Cubs GM, summoned Elia to his office after hearing the damaging postgame tape. Elia at first told Green that he did not have time to talk because he was scheduled to umpire a softball game involving his daughter in Park Ridge. Green then told Elia in no uncertain terms that if he didn’t come to the office immediately, he might as well have clubhouse man Yosh Kawano start packing up his belongings because he would be fired.

After gaining a temporary reprieve from his old college roommate at the University of Delaware, Elia deftly guided the Cubs into the division race by the All-Star break that year.

If it had happened in the age of Twitter, Tribune columnist Paul Sullivan wrote in 2013, Elia likely would’ve been fired within 24 hours. But it was a different era, and after apologizing to Cubs fans, Elia remained on the job for four more months.

Elia was fired by the Cubs on Aug. 22, 1983, with Green telling reporters, “I told Lee he didn’t manage up to his capabilities.”

How did the Tribune cover it?

One quote from Elia’s rant made it into the next day’s newspaper nearly cost then-Tribune sports editor George Langford his job, Mitchell wrote in 2008. It was on the cover of the paper’s sports section on April 30, 1983, atop a story written by Markus.

The quote that caused such a stir: “If those are the real Chicago fans, they can kiss my a— right downtown.”

“Oddly enough, George Halas had said something very similar just a few weeks before, and we had no reaction to that whatsoever,” said Bill Parker, an editor in charge of designing the sports section that night along with editor Marla Krause. “So as we were talking about (the Elia story), that was one of the things that I sort of hung my hat on.

“You can’t always say that what’s OK in one situation is OK in another. Obviously, each situation is unique. But on the other hand, there was a recent precedent. It made me feel reasonably comfortable. You don’t want to use profanity in a gratuitous way, but it wasn’t gratuitous. The whole point of this story was (Elia) going off completely. I felt comfortable with it and I think I would feel comfortable today if I had to do it over again.”

The Tribune printed an apology to readers on the cover of the Sports section in the May 1, 1983, edition. It read, “The decision (to publish the quote by Elia) was made under deadline pressure without consulting sports editor George Langford or other news executives, which was regrettable.”

“I think the shock value is actually gone by now,” said Langford in 2008, who served as the Tribune’s public editor from 1994-2000. “I think it has pretty much gone full cycle. Nobody is surprised. We cleaned up the language (from quotes) for years and years. And the one time we didn’t do it, we really caught it.”

Not everyone, however, regarded Elia’s tirade negatively

According to former Cubs public relations man Bob Ibach, former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson often would ask his press secretary Dave Gilbert to “play the tape of Lee Elia” just before he gave an important speech to give him added inspiration.

Even Elia later used the humiliating experience for good. In 2008, he worked out a deal with A&R Collectibles of Prospect Heights to sell an autographed baseball that contained a 20-second recordable sound chip featuring a sanitized, uplifting version of Elia’s message for Cubs fans. A portion of the proceeds of its sale benefited Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities.

How does Elia look back on his termination?

On his first return to Wrigley Field in April 1985 — then as a coach with the Phillies — Elia told the Tribune it was a gut-wrenching moment when Green fired him.

“I don’t think you ever really get over it,” Elia said. “Not the first time it happens. That was the first time it had happened to me in any capacity. Initially, I was surprised it happened when it happened. We were just getting prepared for the kids to come up in September, and I knew we were going to make some positive changes over the winter and things were going to get better. I was looking ahead to that, and that’s what surprised me. But I have to admit I was mentally drained going into August.”

Have any Chicago managers come close to Elia’s rant since?

No.

How did the Cubs fare after Elia’s departure?

The Cubs hired Jim Frey as manager in October 1983, traded for Rick Sutcliffe in June 1984, won the East Division title and went to the postseason for the first time in 39 years. It was arguably the most exciting season in modern day Cubs history, Sullivan later wrote.

Tribune Co. took a premature bow, and Tribune columnist Mike Royko mocked San Diego fans as bandwagon jumpers. Royko reveled in the Cubs’ 13-0 win over the Padres in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at Wrigley Field.

“Bullies, that’s what we’ve become,” Royko wrote. “Big, bad, mean bullies. And, oh boy, does it feel great. Why didn’t we think of this years ago?”

The bullies blew a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

•Fred Mitchell: Trio of trades paved way for Cubs’ 1984 division title

•Fred Mitchell: When the Cubs clinched the NL East title in 1984

•Oct. 7, 1984: Low of losing 1984 NLCS overwhelms high of Walter Payton rushing record

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krumore@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @rumormill