April 29, 2008
Lee Elia Night At Wrigley
If anybody wants to know why Chicagoist became a Sox fan, in spite of our North Shore roots, it's because of crap like this. The Cubs and their fans, who have actually had plenty of happy events to commemorate this year—a division title, unveiling of the Ernie Banks statue, their 10,000th win—are instead focusing on commemoration of the absurd and reminders of their loser legacy.
All month long, the Trib's been running a special features about Lee Elia's infamous rant. And tonight, on the 25th anniversary of his outburst, the Cubs will host the former manager at Wrigley Field.
At the time of his expletive-filled tirade in 1983, his team was just 5-14. But Elia took exception with the brutal treatment the Wrigley fans dished out to his players. Among his most famous quotes:
Eighty-five percent of the people in this country work. The other 15 percent come here and boo my players. They oughta go and get a job and find out what it's like to go out and earn a living.
Of course now, those without jobs could never afford to attend a game... so they instead just call in sick from their public relations and and investment bank jobs to get drunk and heckle the players. And lately, because the Cubs have been winning, it's been targeted toward the opponents. But just ask Corey Patterson -- Cubs fans turning on their own is certainly not something relegated to the past.
While Cubs fans haven't matured much in the past 25 years, Elia will nonetheless be in attendance at Wrigley to make amends for his outburst insulting them.
Additionally, for just $89.95, Cubs fans can purchase an apology from Elia himself in the form of an autographed baseball with talking base that professes his love for Cubs fans for an entire 20 seconds. An full 10% of proceeds goes to charity... meaning that Elia's looking to make some serious bank on Cubs fans.
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They're celebrating the anniversary of a tantrum by a grown man?
Classy.
It's the media that's really celebrating it. they've been talking about it since last week. I'm sure you're just angry because you think this is more pro-Cubs media coverage. You'd think you'd be OK with it though since it sums up exactly what most Sox fans feel about the Cubs.
Nice points, except for the fact the White Sox do the exact same thing, unless you don't count "celebrating" the Disco Demolition Night anniversary.
I'm not bothered by Lee Elia night in the least. He's a baseball lifer who has been coaching and managing in the 25 years since the rant. He's a long-time colleague of Lou Piniella. It's not as if the Cubs are retiring his number and putting up a statue of the guy, they're hosting him for a night at Wrigley Field. It's a way for Elia to ask for forgiveness, and for Cub fans to embrace the man who lost his temper and said some unfortunate things.
Benjy -
While I can look past your treachery, the high-handed, condescending tone you often take with Cubs fans and the organization does get old...
For better or for worse, the Lee Elia blowup is a classic in Chicago sports lore, not unlike Disco Demolition Night or Ditka giving a reporter the finger at a press conference. If we can't laugh about it 25 years later, when can we? Just let it go...
The only real difference between Sox and Cubs fans (aside from you guys stubbornly holding onto your mullets ten years after they went out of style) is that you guys have had a taste of winning recently, and we have a more fan-friendly setting for our ballpark, with no shortage of bars, restaurants and other drinking establishments...
If Comiskeyville were ever to get built, I would expect the drunken and obnoxious fan behavior to significantly increase on the Southside as well...
Right, to think that somehow the address of the ball park seat your ass is in has a direct relation to your nature as a human being is totally logical. I would bet the percentage of assholes and/or douche bags is the same on the south side as it is on the north side.
Isn't it obvious at this point that there are just jerks everywhere? The Cubs fan smear campaign is getting a little old. I know Sox "fans" who are completely baseball ignorant too but I don't feel compelled to call them out on it or use them as a basis to judge every fan... because that's stupid.
Here's to both teams being in 1st. Can't we have some Chicago unity and just bash Cardinals and Tigers fans?
I've pointed out before that there's a compelling argument to show that the Cardinals are Illinois' favorite team.
Jeez, if you hate it so much, why don't you cry about it? Go have fun at Beef Jerky Night down at the ol' Cell.
Cubs fans are fucking neuorotic. Let it GOOOOOO
And give Steve Bartman another chance. Christ. Alou WAS NOT going to catch that ball.
Also WSOX2008! WOOOOOOOOOO!
Your right Chuck, a map created by Strange Maps clearly demonstrates which team is favored by more Illinois residents. Solid source.
How exactly does this Cubs fans neurotic and then what do we need to let go? And also, it's Sox fans who keep bringing up Bartman, or Cardinals fans. The whole thing was a creation of the media. There's no way for you to know that all Cubs fans hate Bartman or blame him for 2003 or would kill him at a moment's notice if he walked in front of him. These stupid Cubs/Sox arguments are all based on the unprovable statements of whatever man-child is spouting them at that moment.
And Sox fans -- as demonstrated quite handily by this article -- can't stop talking about us. What, then, does that make them?
I wrote this on a blog some time ago...still applies today....
So I live on the North Side of Chicago, about fifteen city blocks away from the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field. I grew up in a National League city (Denver), and I cherish the culture of baseball and a good time at the park. I should have every reason to be a Cubs fan. But I am not. Why?
Because I believe in good baseball. I like teams that at least try to win. And I refuse to go to a baseball game where the "fans" show up more in support of the baseball field than the team itself. Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard? Well, it's true. Cubs fans could care less about the team, they just want to take their Ohio / Michigan / Wisconsin transplant bleach blond girlfriend-of-the-hour to the park, get sloshed, and ogle other guys' girls. Which makes Wrigley Field no different than the local dive bar down the street.
Seriously. You can put a sixth grade intramural tee ball team on the field and Cubs fans will show up. And the sad thing is that the tee ball team will probably win a championship.
Fundamentally, what's wrong with the Cubs is that they represent the ultimate in yuppie greed, in boomer entitlement, and in frat-boy excess. The owners of the Cubs -whomever they will be - know that as long as fans who could care less continue to show up, that they don't need to make the effort to try hard. Same goes for the players- they never play as a team, they all seek individual glory. As long as they keep selling tickets, ballcaps, and hot little baby-t's, then all is well. Who needs a championship?
So, Cubs fans aren't fairweather enough for you, Nax? And the park isn't generic enough? My head is about to explode.
Nax, sorry the Cubs and their fans are such phonies and don't have the cherished culture of the Rockies' whole fifteen years in existence. Thanks for being astute enough to realize we're all frat boys and yuppies. I'll attribute your keen insight to the lower oxygen levels in Denver.
Unemployment was 15% back then. Damn, I guess Bush isn't that bad after all.
hey nax,
for your info, Denver's not a National League city. It's a triple-a city that grew big enough to get an expansion team.
ahhh more cubs fan flame bait...
To be a Sox fan means that you lose and nobody boos you because no one shows up to your games.
Cubs fans still show up and thats why they get such shoddy treatment when they don't live up.
More likely reasons Benjy turned to the darkside:
1) Spurned in love by a Cubs fan
2) Really likes obnoxious advertisements in his stadium
3) has a mullet
4) contrarian world view
Actually, the unemployment was 9.6% in 1983 -- not the 15% Elia threw out there but high by historical standards.
I wouldn't go giving the credit to Bush just yet though... while 5% was considered "full employment" historically, I tend to believe that the internet have streamlined the job search/hiring process so substantially that the basis for baseline natural unemployment needs to be reduced because the time it takes to locate approriate jobs, send in resume, wait for response, etc. have been cut from weeks to hours. Also, unemployment doesn't factor in the quality/pay of work relative to skills/employment, simply whether one has a job or not.
1) Spurned in love by a Cubs fan
2) Really likes obnoxious advertisements in his stadium
3) has a mullet
4) contrarian world view
5) Prefers watching the Jumbotron to watching an actual game
100 years. No World Series win.
Sorry Cubs fans. No matter how you market it, package it or wrap it, that is, as the kids say FAIL.
@AlbanyParkist:
Relevance? Did you see the word Wrigley in the title and just scroll down to the comment box?
Either way, I have no idea what you mean by
"that is, as the kids say FAIL."
Kids are using the word 'fail' as an adjective? Like the word 'scene'?
I love how one World Series title turns the White Sox into dynasty that rivals that of the Yankees, Celtics, UCLA, Patriots. C'mon!
And Nax, your post is asinine. Again, it's full of unprovable conjectures based on hearsay and stereotypes. If you went to Cubs games on a regular basis you'd see that Cubs fans do care, that they do know the game and that they do want to win. Moreso than Sox fans or Cardinals fans or whoever? Probably not. I'm sure it's about equal. I"m sure every team that's popular has it's share of fairweather fans who are just there to be there. For some teams the popularity is based on success, for others it's a beautiful stadium. But to distill all Cubs fans into yuppies and meatheads is just taking the easy way out.
Very relevant. The Cubs promotion and hype has always been far superior to their actual teams. This latest stunt is another in a long line of showboating non-events.
The Cubs organization learned a number of years ago that they have a very nice open-air bar that happens to have a baseball team attached. They're not serious about baseball up there. Most cubs fans enjoy "the experience" of Wrigley Field. Go ask the average Cubs fan rolling out onto Addison and Clark after a loss about the game. They might be lucky to know who pitch and who hit a home run, but that's all.
See, the Sox fans, we like to win. Call us "Mullet-headed" and make fun of our park all you like. Until the Cubs seal the deal and bring home a trophy you're AAA ball with a fancy park.
You also apparently like to spend inordinate amounts of time complaining about the Cubs -- a team the Sox will play all of six times this year. So please, spare us the holier-than-thou pseudo-purist BS: If you really did care more and know more about baseball than us Cubs fans, you'd realize that whining about a team that has next to zero impact on yours is more than a little ridiculous and doesn't do anything other than make you look like the "second-class citizens" that it apparently bothers you so much to be considered.
Temper, Temper. You sound very defensive there Reverand Slappy.
Whining? No. I think it's funny actually. How the Cubs can field losing teams year after year, decade after decade, century after century and yet still maintain popularity. It does irk some Sox fans, to the point of distraction in some cases, but I simply think it's humorous.
Add to that the Cubs organization having a theme night to "celebrate" the 25 year old tirade of some mostly forgotten enfent terrible. This is the kind of nonsense that the Cubs front office is up to, rather than, say, building a winning team, or controlling unruly fans.
We're not all the LeGuie's down on the South Side, and no, you're not all the yuppie/preppie snobs either.
But you are being had by an organization that has failed you 99 times out of a hundred.
Come to the Cell sometime, watch some real baseball be played.
Sad that ol' Lee is apologizing, because what he said was so true.
Look, it's no secret that Cubs fans are generally posers in general. Sure, they all have some story about how their "grandfather was a huge cubs fan" or that it was the first game they went too or some other crap, but most of them are just in it because it's the trendy thing to do.
That, and let's face it: they're mostly from the burbs.
benjy, I can't believe you let a good bash-the-cubs, bash-the-sox, bash-the-rockies comment board devolve into a serious conversation about unemployment rates and Bush
sigh, leave it to a Sox fan to take the wrong things seriously
How does one WOrld Series in 89 years make the White Sox a winning organization? Sure they've had some good seasons recently, but 1 world series in all that time? That's not winning. That's the same kind of losing the Cubs did...sometimes they'd make the playoffs and then they'd get knocked out.
i think it's strange that they're having a night to celebrate such a spiteful rant.
however ... (there's always a however with me) i'm SO effin' sick and tired of the same old sad song about cubs fans not caring about the game and it being an open air bar (because no other professional sports league/stadium sells alcohol? bears games, what?) and all that crap.
the bleachers? yeah. i don't like to sit out there, because even though i go to watch. the. game., it's hard to pay attention with all the commotion and the craziness and the fact that i'm too removed from the field (and the 'good' scoreboard is behind me).
but when i'm sitting in the stands? i don't know what the hell you're talking about. even the people drinking are paying attention. shit, if you're sitting anywhere along the base lines, you'd BETTER be paying attention lest you get creamed by a nice foul shot to the head ... or the people scrambling to get the ball.
i always see a ton of people with scorecards and people with headphones on listening to ron and pat on the radio. so, who's the real fan(atic)? people who come out and rally around a journey song? or people who stand by a team, always dreaming, ever hoping?
go cubs, go!
Mike its actually one world series in the last 3 years And it was glorius
Yeah!!! Sox fans aren't nearly as fanatical as Cubs fans.
Whatever. Sox fans have had tough for SO LONG. We were the white trash of the American League. The Cubs threw that in our face. After we won a world series we have some comeuppance to do.
And I too am a northshorer who grew up a sox fan.
Again, 1 World Series win in 89 years...you're not exactly a dynasty. I really thought things would change after the Sox won. Certain fans would stop caring so much about the Cubs and their fans, they'd stop acting like redheaded stepchildren. but nothing has changed. they're still bitter for whatever reason.
@dan l
That video is absolutely not at Wrigley. If you'd ever been, you might know that there are no open air bathrooms with wood walls. Nice try though.
And as for your other comment, since when is a story required to be a fan of a baseball team. Plus, the phrase "it's no secret that.." is usually followed by a fact, not some idiotic biased opinion. At least you're not a poseur though, right?
And as for your other comment, since when is a story required to be a fan of a baseball team. Plus, the phrase "it's no secret that.." is usually followed by a fact, not some idiotic biased opinion.
Well it's always interesting as there's so many hard core cubs fans from Podunkia. As a matter of fact, that's like the standard, right?
You are ALL missing the point.
We can thank GWB (and his supreme indifference to the current economic situation) for making sure there are enough unemployed people to fill the bleachers.
As "W" himself might say, "Don't misunderestimate the Cubs."
Or their fans.
Come on....I want the first "I'm not from Podunk. I'm from Naperville" of the night.
Gimme!
I've been to the Cell plenty of times. But if you think that "real baseball" is being played in any AL ballpark then you're clearly beyond help.
And believe me, I'm not being defensive at all; one doesn't have to be when they're right.
"If Comiskeyville were ever to get built, I would expect the drunken and obnoxious fan behavior to significantly increase on the Southside as well..."
Even as a Sox fan, I have to admit this is probably true. Of course, I don't think the carpetbagger dynamic would be so strong as it is with the Cubs. Wherever I've worked, people move here from out of state for a job, settle in on the north side and just become Wrigley fans by default. In addition to the pervasive "Cubbies" miasma that swirls through most offices, invariably someone has a rooftop party or two and folks just go along with it because they know nothing else. Sox fans really just need to be far more evangelical if they want in on the newcomer action.
"How does one WOrld Series in 89 years make the White Sox a winning organization? Sure they've had some good seasons recently, but 1 world series in all that time? That's not winning. That's the same kind of losing the Cubs did...sometimes they'd make the playoffs and then they'd get knocked out."
In fact, in terms of overall winning percentage, the Sox have been much better than the Cubs for the last 50 or 60 years. That said, I DO wish Sox fans would stop proactively dogging the Cubs whenever the subject comes up. I mean, when Cubs fans make their little attacks (And don't kid yourself, the BS flies in both directions...), by all means fire back. But too many Sox fans do seem to worry more about rooting against the Cubs than rooting for the Sox.
lolz,
Yeah, the National League Central's such a 'tough' division.................
Yeah that's a real tough division The Cubs are in........sure, that's the ticket........