Lee Elia, former major league manager known for profane rant, dies at 87

Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia signals the bullpen to send in a right-hander during a game against the Atlanta Braves in Chicago, May 19, 1983. (AP Photo/Fred Jewel, File)

Lee Elia, a former major league player and coach who was managing the Chicago Cubs in 1983 when he famously criticized the team’s fans in a memorable postgame rant, has died. He was 87.

The Philadelphia Phillies said Elia died on Wednesday. No further details were provided by the team.

Elia, a Philadelphia native, had a 238-300 record in four seasons as a big league manager, two with the Cubs and two with the Phillies. He was a shortstop during his playing career, batting .203 with three homers and 25 RBIs in 95 games with the White Sox and Cubs.

On April 29, 1983, Elia was the skipper for the Cubs when they dropped to 5-14 with a 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Wrigley Field crowd of 9,391 threw garbage at Keith Moreland and Larry Bowa as the Cubs made their way to the clubhouse.

Elia responded with an expletive-filled rant that lives on in censored versions still being played on various programs years later. As part of his remarks, he declared that 85% of the world is working and that “the other 15 come out here.”

Back then, there were no lights at Wrigley Field and the Cubs played only day games at home.

“At the moment, it was very, very difficult,” Elia said 25 years later while revisiting that day as part of a charity drive. “But you sit here and you’re 70 years old and you look at it and you say to yourself, ‘You know, yeah, it was unfortunate.’ But for crying out loud, we’re human beings and you make mistakes sometimes.”

Elia, who went to the University of Delaware, managed the Phillies in 1987 and 1988. He was the third base coach when the Phillies won the 1980 World Series.

“Affiliated with 10 different organizations throughout his distinguished career, he always considered himself a Phillie at heart,” the Phillies said in their statement.

Elia also worked for the Seattle Mariners from 1993-97, 2001-02 and in 2008 as a hitting coach, bench coach and special assistant to the field manager.

Seattle manager Dan Wilson, who played for the Mariners from 1994 to 2005, called Elia a special man and coach.

“Lee really taught me how to play in the big leagues,” Wilson said Thursday. “He taught me how to hit in the big leagues. He was like a father to me in the game and just really dearly missed. He treated everybody with so much love. When you’re called and referred to as Uncle Lee, he made a lot of impressions with people and that’s how he was known to us and we are going to miss him dearly.”