Lee Elia, former Cubs manager remembered for profane rant, dies at 87
Lee Elia, who managed the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs for two seasons apiece but is perhaps best known for a profane postgame rant critical of Chicago fans, died on Wednesday. He was 87.
The Phillies announced his death in a statement on Thursday, though they did not say where he died or cite a cause.
A middle infielder who played in parts of two seasons for the Chicago White Sox and the Cubs, Elia spent several years in a variety of coaching and scouting roles.
“The Phillies mourn the loss of Lee Elia, who managed the club from 1987-88,” the Phillies said in their statement.
The team added, “Elia, a former infielder, played in 95 major-league games with the Chicago White Sox (1966) and Chicago Cubs (1968) before managing the Cubs from 1982-83. Affiliated with 10 different organizations throughout his distinguished career, he always considered himself a Phillie at heart.”
The team noted that Elia was a Philadelphia native who signed with the Phillies in 1958. He was in the organization on and off throughout the decades, including as a minor league player, manager, scout and director of instruction. He was the third-base coach for the Phillies team that won the 1980 World Series.
Elia also served as a hitting coach, bench coach and special assistant for the Seattle Mariners from 1993 to 1997, 2001 to 2002 and in 2008.
“Lee was special,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson, a Barrington native, said in a statement released by the Mariners. “Baseball has lost a giant. A great baseball man and an even better human. He was like a father to me and taught me how to be a big leaguer. Known to most of us as Uncle Lee for his kind demeanor and the love he showed everyone. We will all miss him dearly.”
Though his managerial record was 238-300 during his time as skipper for the Cubs and Phillies, Elia left his mark with a postgame rant on April 29, 1983, after his Cubs lost 4-3 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. His ire was mostly directed toward Cubs fans who attended games at Wrigley Field.
“As I’m walking with my paperwork after a tough loss, some fan gets all over Keith Moreland,” Elia recalled to the New York Times in 2016. “Moreland goes toward the stands a foot or two, and security guards break it off. Then we walk another six or seven yards, where the tarp is, and someone says something to Larry Bowa. He jumps in there. There’s a lot of shoving.”
In talking to reporters after the game, Elia strung together obscenities while criticizing the fans and their behavior. “He was just sticking up for his players,” Joel Bierig, formerly of The Chicago Sun-Times and one of the few reporters present for the outburst, told The Athletic in 2023.
Elia said that he wished the memory of his profanity-laced tirade “would all go away,” but it became a beloved chapter in baseball history.
“I know it will never change,” Elia told an interviewer in 2008. “But I hope it’s a little softened now. I hope there’s some warmness over it now. I hope they understand.”
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