Lee Elia Night At Wrigley

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Apr 29, 2008 3:10PM

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.