Les Grobstein Obituary, Death – Les Grobstein, a radio legend in Chicago who was 69 years old and had a career in broadcasting that stretched more than 50 years, passed away recently. Grobstein held the position of sports director at WSCR for ten years in addition to his role as nightly anchor of the station’s radio program. On the other hand, he was most famous for being the one who recorded on his tape recorder the infamous profanity-filled diatribe delivered by Cubs manager Lee Elia during a particularly trying game in 1983.
“Elia responded by asking, “What the (expletive) am I meant to do, go out there and let my (expletive) teammates get slaughtered every day and be silent about it? For the (expletive) cheapskates who bother to show up? The effing things don’t even function properly. Because of this, they decided to go watch the game in the bar. They need to learn what it’s like to go out into the world and work in order to obtain a (expletive) living, so they should get a (expletive) job. Eighty-five percent of the population of the globe is employed at some point in their lives. The remaining fifteen percent of people can be found here.”
Grobstein was one of four reporters who were there in the manager’s office when Elia exploded after his team’s record plummeted to 5-14 following a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that afternoon. Grobstein was one of the reporters who was present. Grobstein recalled the incident in an interview he gave in 2018 to The Athletic, in which he discussed how he requested that a producer at WLS radio record a copy of Elia’s comments for Grobstein’s show later that day, despite the fact that the station wasn’t permitted to play tape live on the air:
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