Lee Elia
Lee Elia | |
---|---|
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
MLB debut | |
April 23, 1966, for the Chicago White Sox | |
Last MLB appearance | |
September 13, 1968, for the Chicago Cubs | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .203 |
Home runs | 3 |
Runs batted in | 25 |
Managerial record | 238–300 |
Winning % | .442 |
Teams | |
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Career highlights and awards | |
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Lee Constantine Elia (born July 16, 1937) is an American former professional baseball infielder, who played only sparingly in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox (1966) and Chicago Cubs (1968). Following his playing career, he managed the Cubs (1982–1983) and Philadelphia Phillies (1987–1988), and served as a coach for the Phillies, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Baltimore Orioles, and Seattle Mariners. Elia was hired by the Atlanta Braves as a special assistant to general manager Frank Wren in November, 2010.[1]
Early life
Elia was born on July 16, 1937, in
Playing career
Elia played most of his career through the minor league system. He was signed by his hometown team the Philadelphia Phillies in 1958 as a shortstop. He played eleven seasons in the minor leagues and nine of those seasons being in AAA. He played in the Phillies minor league system for six years, totaling 72 home runs, about 300 runs batted in (RBI) and a .260 combined batting average. He was then signed by the Chicago White Sox organization in 1965. He played out the entire 1965 season in AAA, and began the 1966 season in AAA as well, before being called up to the Major Leagues. He was on the roster with the Chicago White Sox for 80 games in the 1966 season, and played in 77 of those. He played shortstop in 75 of those games. That season he hit .205 with three home runs and 22 RBI. That 1966 White Sox team finished fourth in the American League with a record of 83–79. The following season he was dealt to the National League's Chicago Cubs. He played the 1967 season in the minors and finished with 14 home runs, 59 RBI and a batting average of .267. The following season he was called up to the Cubs major league roster, only appearing in fifteen games racking up only three RBI and a .176 batting average. After the season, he played in twenty AAA games, three with the Cubs and seventeen with the Yankees. Shortly after he stopped playing baseball before coming back at the age of 35 in 1973 and playing AAA ball with the Phillies. However, he only appeared in 16 games and retired after. He was efficient in the field with a career fielding percentage of about .940.
Coaching career
Elia was hired as a bench coach for the 1980 and 1981 Philadelphia Phillies major league team. They finished the season NL East Champions with a 91–71 record, one game ahead of the Montreal Expos. That season he helped lead the Phillies under manager Dallas Green to the peak of all the sport, a 1980 World Series Championship. The following year in 1981 the Phillies finished with a 59–48 record. They won the NL East first half with a 34–21 record, however, finished third in the second half with a 25–27 record. They still qualified for the playoffs however and were matched up with the NL East second-half winners, the Montreal Expos. The series went to all five games and the Expos knocked out the defending Champions 3–2 in the NLDS. Some notable players he coached in these two years with the Phillies include Larry Bowa, Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt, and Ryne Sandberg.
Elia was hired once again as a Phillies bench coach in 1985 and 1986. In 1985 his Phillies finished 75-87, which was fifth in the NL East. Then in 1986 they finished 86–75, good for second place in the NL East however they finished a remarkable 21.5 games back of the New York Mets who were 108–54. Elia was still a bench coach through the first 61 games of the 1987 season, but the Phillies were 29–32 at that point and manager John Felske had been fired mid-season. Elia was hired as the replacement manager.
Elia was a New York Yankees coach in 1989.
Since ending his managing career he has worked as many different smaller positions within organizations. He was a special assistant to the manager, scout, and hitting coach with the Seattle Mariners. After that, he was a special assistant to the general manager, and scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was also a bench coach and scout in the Baltimore Orioles organization.
Managerial career
In 1975, at the age of 37, Elia had begun his managing career in the
In 1982, at the age of 44, Elia was hired as the manager of the Chicago Cubs. He was hired by Dallas Green, who had been his manager the previous two years in Philadelphia. That season they brought players such as Ryne Sandberg, Keith Moreland, and Dickie Noles over from the Phillies roster. They finished the season with a 73–89 record and finished fifth out of six in the NL East.
Elia is often remembered for a infamously profanity-filled tirade directed at the fans at
I'll tell you one fuckin' thing—I hope we get fuckin' hotter than shit just to stuff it up them three thousand fuckin' people that show up every fuckin' day. Because if they're the real Chicago fuckin' fans, they can kiss my fuckin' ass, right Downtown, and print it! They're really, really behind you around here. My fuckin' ass! What ... what the fuck am I supposed to do? Go out there and let my fuckin' players get destroyed every day, and be quiet about it? For the fuckin' nickel/dime people that show up? The motherfuckers don't even work! That's why they're out at the fuckin' game! They ought to get a fuckin' job and find out what it's like to go out and earn a fuckin' living. Eighty-five percent of the fuckin' world is working. The other fifteen come out here. A fuckin' playground for the cocksuckers. Rip them motherfuckers! Rip those country cocksuckers, like the fuckin' players! We've got guys bustin' their fuckin' asses and those fuckin' people boo ... and that's the Cubs? My fuckin' ass! They talk about the great fuckin' support that the players get around here, I haven't seen it this fuckin' year![2][3]
After being fired by the Cubs, he was hired as manager for the Triple-A Portland Beavers (Phillies organization) in the Pacific Coast League. Elia's tenure in Portland is perhaps best remembered for his role in an unusual incident during a May 30, 1984, game against the Vancouver Canadians. Elia was ejected for arguing a called third strike and subsequently threw a chair onto the field before leaving the dugout; this in turn led to the ejection of the team's batboy, Sam Morris, when he refused (acting on instructions from Beavers players in the dugout) umpire Pam Postema's demand that he retrieve the chair that Elia had thrown on the field.[4] Elia led the Beavers to a 62–78 record. He was hired as a bench coach for the Phillies the next season.
In 1987, 61 games into the season, Elia was hired as manager for the 29–32 Phillies. He proceeded to lead the team to an 80–82 record to finish fourth in the NL East. The team was 51–50 that season once he took over as manager. He remained the head man in 1988, but a very disappointing season led to his firing once again as manager. They finished with a 65–96 record and that was good for last place in the NL East.
Elia was named manager of the
In 1992, at age 54, he was hired as the manager of the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, the
Awards
Elia was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.
Personal life
Elia resides in
References
- ^ "Braves' hires include ex-managers Elia, Trembley | Atlanta Braves". Archived from the original on 2010-11-16. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
- ^ Drehs, Wayne (April 29, 2008). "Fans won't let Elia forget meltdown". ESPN.com. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
- ^ Jaffe, Jay (April 26, 2013). "Happy anniversary, Lee Elia and Hal McRae (NSFW)". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
- ^ Kindred, Dave (June 1, 1984). "To obey or not to obey?". The Atlanta Constitution. p. D1. Retrieved September 8, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Lee Elia".
External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
- Lee Elia managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
- Lee Elia at Baseball Almanac
- Lee Elia at Baseball Gauge
- ESPN.com article: Elia's tirade becomes part of Cubs' lore