Posts tagged LeeElia at FanHouse

In the last few weeks rumors have been swirling in Seattle that general manager Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren weren't long for their jobs. Then team president Chuck Armstrong gave them the dreaded votes of confidence, and it appears he actually meant it, because they haven't been fired...yet.

So since the Mariners still suck, and Bavasi and McLaren don't look like they'll get fired during the season, somebody has to pay the price. That somebody is hitting coach Jeff Pentland.

The slumping Seattle Mariners fired hitting coach Jeff Pentland on Monday and replaced him with special assistant Lee Elia.

Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi said he hoped a "different voice" would help the team with the worst record in the majors. Elia, who turns 71 next month, was Seattle's batting coach from 1993-97 and is perhaps best known for a tirade he once unleashed as manager of the Chicago Cubs.

I have no idea if Elia is going to be able to get the Mariners bats turned around, but my first reaction to this was that it's still a great move by Seattle. With Lee around, at the very least he'll be able to help teach McLaren how to throw a real post game tantrum. Not one of those forced, transparent ones.

You think Lou Piniella has tantrums? You think Tony La Russa gets ornery with the press? They pale in comparison to the master, Lee Elia. We're a day late from hitting the relevance on the head, but as Ben Maller points out, yesterday marked the 24th anniversary of Elia's famous tirade to reporters about Wrigley Field's bleacher bums.

(Warning: lots and lots of explicit language is in the following clip -- 43 curse words in three minutes, to be exact -- but that's kind of the point, really.)

"The MF'ers don't even work! That's why they're out at the F-ing game! ... Eight-five percent of the F-ing world is working -- the other fifteen come out here!"

Can you imagine a manager calling out the fan base like that today? I'm not sure if he'd even make it out of the clubhouse before getting canned. Elia kept his job, though, at least for a little while: he was eventually fired later that summer after posting a 54-69 record.

Elia is still in baseball, bouncing around various organizations as a coach and scout (most recently serving as Baltimore's bench coach last year), but I'm guessing his bosses these days try to keep him as far away from the media -- and season ticket holders -- as possible.