"A classy guy who, one day, had just had enough."

Twenty five years ago Tuesday afternoon, manager Lee Elia retreated to the clubhouse following his Cubs' fifth loss in 19 games to open the season.

He hung up his hat and jersey, sat down and leaned his chair back against the wall.

Cub (lowercase) reporter Mark Giangreco lit Elia's cigarette. The 45-year-old rookie skipper took a long drag and kicked his feet up onto his desktop.

Giangreco and fellow scribe Les Grobstein fired up their tape recorders. And Elia let.er.rip.

Pound-for-pound this has to be the best managerial meltdown on record; an unmatched mix of rage, verve, inventiveness, spontanaiety, sociology(!) and fatalism.

Local comemoration here, here and hackneyed provincial preenster here.

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I'm a big fan of the Lasorda rant following Dave Kingman's three-homer performance in either 1976 or 1978, but it it has an air of calculation to it. And he actually apologizes toward the end of it - major minus points.

This one re: Kurt Bevacqua is pretty awesome too, but if the reporters are laughing at you, it just doesn't carry the same weight. It's like if Santa Claus had a meltdown or something.