After news of Les Grobstein’s death became public earlier this week, plenty of friends and colleagues in and around Chicago offered public tributes and shared memories of him. Around the country, many people noted that Grobstein may be best known as the reporter that asked the question that inspired Lee Elia’s famous rant about unemployed Cubs fans.
On Thursday, that question and the piece of equipment it was recorded on were in the spotlight on 670 The Score. Former White Sox slugger Paul Konerko joined Parkins and Spiegel to share memories of his interactions with Les Grobstein. He said the iconic audio of Elia’s rant was shared in the clubhouse with regularity.
“When we first heard it, we thought it had to be an act or someone pretending,” the former first baseman said. “Then obviously we found out it wasn’t. I mean, that year alone, I probably listened to it a thousand times.”
Paul Konerko got very curious to learn more about the story behind the rant when he found out that Les Grobstein was the one that had recorded it. On top of that, he still had and used the same recorder to talk to Konerko and his teammates that he used to talk to Lee Elia in 1983. He joked that the recorder looked like it was already 40 years old when it captured the iconic moment.
“You know, Les wasn’t always around us, so when he came in it was like a special occasion, and it was clearly going to be the topic of conversation every time I saw the man.”
It wasn’t lost on Konerko that Grobstein’s presence gave him the chance to learn more about one of the more infamous moments in Chicago sports history. The presence of the recorder made it hard not to want to re-enact the exchange.
“To me, it’s like the Zapruder film in the JFK assassination, you know? It’s like such a famous piece of evidence that this really happened.”
