Twenty years ago Tuesday, then-Cubs manager Lee Elia could have never known that his expletive-laced rant after a loss to the Dodgers would live on for years to come. How well do you know it? Fill in the blanks because we can’t:
“( ) those ( ) fans who come out here and say they’re Cub fans that are supposed to be behind you, ripping every ( ) thing you do. I’ll tell you one ( ) thing, I hope we get ( ) hotter than ( ) just to stuff it up them 3,000 ( ) people that show up every ( ) day, because if they’re the real Chicago ( ) fans, they can kiss my ( )
( ) right downtown and PRINT IT.
“They’re really, really behind you around here. My ( ) ( ). What the ( ) am I supposed to do, go out there and let my ( ) players get destroyed every day and be quiet about it? For the ( ) nickel-dime people who turn up? The ( ) don’t even work. That’s why they’re out at the
( ) game. They ought to go out and get a ( ) job and find out what it’s like to go out and earn a ( ) living. Eighty-five percent of the ( ) world is working. The other 15 percent come out here.
A ( ) playground for the ( ). Rip them
( ). Rip them ( ) like the ( ) players. We got guys busting their ( ) and them
( ) boo. And that’s the Cubs? My ( )
( ).”
COACHES GONE WILD II: The
Des Moines Register reported that Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy partied at a student’s after-hours party near the Missouri campus after the Cyclones lost to the Tigers this year. Photos show the 47-year-old married father of two with a beer in hand, embracing and kissing young women on the cheek. Hey coach, your eligibility ran out a long time ago.
NOT THAT IT MATTERS: Eustachy told Iowa State officials he used “poor judgment.” Eustachy makes more than $1 million a year through 2011. You decide who used poor judgment.
DEPRESSION ERA: The Detroit Lions could very well make the Super Bowl before the Chicago Bears do.
BE HONEST: How many of you spent more time with Mel Kiper Jr. than you did with any family member this weekend?
HOUSE RULES: No one is allowed to use the word “upside” for the rest of the year. Yes, that includes you, Mom.
REALLY BORED: You just know the Lakers are making their best-of-seven series, tied at 2-2, interesting for themselves. That said, go Kings.
LITTLE TIP: NHL guru Roy MacGregor notes no team with a European captain has ever won the Stanley Cup. Vancouver and Ottawa, it’s too late to switch now.
MILESTONE: Remember Japan’s Sadaharu Oh, the greatest home-run hitter never to play in North America? With 868 homers as a Yomiuri Giant, Oh just got his 900th victory as a manager, another thing Babe Ruth never did.
A HORSE TO ROOT FOR: Buddy Gil will be the first horse from Idaho to race in the Kentucky Derby, and it will be a special moment for all 117 Idaho residents.
CONSPIRACY ALERT: Despite the spread of SARS in Toronto, the Blue Jays just drew their second-, third- and fourth-biggest crowds of the season, and that’s some of the best baseball those mannequins have seen in some time.
WHO BROUGHT SNACKS? Still rehabbing his dislocated shoulder, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter hit off a tee Monday. Then he ran the bases in the opposite direction while parents cheered for all four left-fielders to stop staring at the birds and chase down the ball. Good times.
ccmalcolm@tribune.com
