Fraters Libertas

Bums at a Ballpark

Yesterday, in a third hour segment of the NARN show, we were discussing American skanks with Mike Nelson. The conversation went pretty far a field, but I must say that I think we covered most of the bases in the very rich subject matter. While talking about how our leading skanks influence the clothing choices that young women make, we asked how parents could let their kids leave home in some of the skank fashion outfits that are so popular these days. Mike mentioned that his Dad used the phrase "Looking like bums at a ballpark" to describe the way he and his brothers would sometimes appear as they headed off to school.

This lead us (or at least me) to ponder the origin of the phrase. King said that it was because bums often attended day baseball games in the "good ol' days" as a way to pass the time and that tickets were often as little as fifty cents. Saint Paul chimed in and mentioned the infamous "Bleacher Bums" of Wrigley field and even recalled that a Cub manager had once publicly excoriated these fans for not having jobs after a day of them lustful booing the pathetic Cubs.

This of course lead to a quest to find out more about said incident, and, after a few minutes of Googling, Saint Paul had the goods on Cubs manager, Lee Elia and his notorious 1983 outburst to the media:

Cubs manager Lee Elia erupted in late April, 1983, during a press conference after another early-season loss. The rant mostly consists of dozens of F-bombs strung together. Here's a sample:

Lee Elia: F--- those BLEEP'n fans who come out here and say they're Cub fans that are supposed to be behind you rippin' every BLEEP'n thing you do. I'll tell you one BLEEP'n thing, I hope we get BLEEP'n hotter than BLEEP, just to stuff it up them 3,000 BLEEP'n people that show up every BLEEP'n day, because if they're the real Chicago BLEEP'n fans, they can kiss my BLEEP'n BEEP right downtown and PRINT IT. ... All right, they don't show because we're 5-14... and unfortunately, that's the criteria of them dumb 15 BLEEP'n percent that come out to day baseball. The other 85 percent are earning a living.

But just knowing what Elia said wasn't enough. We wanted to hear it for ourselves. And now you can too. Be warned however that to call this clip "profanity filled" is a gross understatement. It's probably easier to count the non-profane words. But it is funny and well worth a listen.

Go here for a link to the audio.

Whew. The amazing thing is that Elia actually kept his job after weaving this tapestry of profanity that still probably hangs over the Windy City to this day:

Contrary to popular belief, Elia was not fired shortly after the incident. He held on long enough to post a 54-69 record that season before getting run. He only earned one more managing gig, going 111-142 with Philadelphia from 1987-88.