PHOENIX—Cubs manager Mike Quade admittedly was wrong Saturday night. His timing right, though.Darwin Barney singled up the middle to score Geovany Soto in a wild top of the ninth inning that included Quade’s first career ejection and the Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3.Quade got heated after a close call on the bases. With Marlon Byrd on first, Soto bunted back to reliever J.J. Putz (0-1), who threw off-target second. Shortstop Stephen Drew made a dive to his right to catch the ball, barely keeping a toe on the bag to force Byrd.Quade argued with second-base umpire Dan Bellino and was ejected. Quade then retreated to the Cubs’ clubhouse and saw the replay.After Quade departed and Tyler Colvin walked, Kosuke Fukudome grounded back to the mound. Putz threw to Drew for the second out of the inning but the shortstop double-clutched the throw to first baseman Russell Branyan and Fukudome was safe while Soto advanced to third.Barney followed with a sharp single off the mound to give Chicago a 4-3 lead. Starlin Castro then singled to make it a two-run game.Alfonso Soriano hit his 10th home run, tying him with Ryan Braun for the NL lead, and Matt Garza threw eight solid innings for the Cubs, who have won two straight after being routed 11-2 by the Diamondbacks on Thursday.Garza (1-3) scattered three runs on six hits with 10 strikeouts and two walks over a season-best eight innings for his first win with the Cubs.Carlos Marmol pitched a hitless ninth for his seventh save.Gerardo Parra tied the score in the sixth off Garza, hitting a wind-aided triple off the left-field wall just beyond the outstretched glove of Soriano that allowed to Chris Young to score standing up.Justin Upton gave the Diamondbacks a 1-0 lead in the first, doubling to left and scoring on Drew’s line single up the middle. Soriano’s second-inning home run, his third in two games, bounced off the bottom of the mammoth scoreboard over the center-field batters’ eye and tied the game at 1-1.Soriano added a two-out RBI single in the fourth following Castro’s leadoff double, and Aramis Ramirez doubled home Barney in the fifth to put the Cubs ahead 3-1.Despite hitting .258 in the season’s first month, Soriano has 20 RBIs.Diamondbacks starter Ian Kennedy allowed three runs on six hits over 7 2/3 innings with a walk and six strikeouts.

NOTES—Jeff Baker left the game in the top of the eighth with left shoulder soreness after jogging into second on a two-base error….Soriano extended his own Cubs’ single-season record for home runs in April……Carlos Pena was held out of the starting lineup for the second straight game. Pena is hitting .159 with no home runs and only five RBIs in 22 games. He entered the game after Baker’s injury.

No. 9 hitter Robert Andino supplied some power, aggressive baserunning and a great play at shortstop to help the Baltimore Orioles send the White Sox to yet another defeat.Andino’s antics were pivotal in the Orioles 6-2 victory Saturday night, but manager Buck Showalter pointed to the work of reliever Mike Gonzalez as the key.The hard-throwing lefty pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam with only one run scoring in the sixth. He struck out Adam Dunn and A.J. Pierzynski to stop a potential big inning by the struggling White Sox, who’ve lost 14 of 17.Leading 2-1, the Orioles tacked on four runs in the eighth, an inning featuring a passed ball and error on Pierzynski, some daring baserunning by Andino and a two-run single by Vladimir Guerrero.White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen missed the game, completing his two-game suspension for tweeting comments about an umpire after he was ejected three nights earlier in New York. Bench coach Joey Cora ran the team for the second straight game.With or without their manager, the White Sox can’t win and finished April 10-18 — the most losses in April in franchise history. They’ve dropped four straight.Baltimore’s Chris Tillman (1-2), who had to skip his previously scheduled start because of a sore groin, had a 2-0 lead and was pitching well into the sixth when he gave up singles to Alexei Ramirez and Carlos Quentin and walked Paul Konerko to load the bases with no outs.Showalter went to the bullpen for Gonzalez, who struck out Dunn looking. Alex Rios then hit a fly ball to medium center field and Adam Jones made a strong throw to the plate that appeared to be in time to get Ramirez, but Orioles catcher Jake Fox couldn’t hold the throw, making it 2-1. Gonzalez then fanned Pierzynski to end the threat.Phil Humber (2-3), who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his previous start against the Yankees, had another solid outing, giving up three hits and two runs in seven innings.Andino led off the third with his first homer of the season — and seventh in parts of seven major league seasons — to put Baltimore up 2-0. The Orioles took an early lead when Brian Roberts doubled to lead off the game, went to third on a fly ball and scored on Humber’s wild pitch, a low delivery that eluded Pierzynski.Andino also blunted a Sox rally in the fourth when the White Sox had first and second and no outs. He made a diving stop on Rios’ grounder behind the bag and started a double play with a nice flip to Roberts.Andino singled in the eighth off Matt Thornton and stole second. When Roberts struck out, the ball got by Pierzynski, who retrieved it and threw low to Dunn at first. Dunn caught the one-hop throw but his relay to the plate was too late to get Andino, who scored all the way from second.Nick Markakis followed with a single and Derrek Lee walked to load the bases before Guerrero delivered a two-run single past third. Luke Scott’s sacrifice fly made it 6-1 and Thornton was booed as he left the mound.Rios hit his first homer of the season in the ninth to make it 6-2.

NOTES—The Orioles have won four of their last five. … Guillen said he watched Friday night’s 10-4 loss on TV. He said that more difficult than from the dugout because he has to watch replays and can still hear the booing. He said he was in the parking lot and then went home Friday night. “It was painful to watch as a fan,” he said. … Dunn, who underwent an appendectomy and was 7 for 61 over his previous 17 games, got his first start at first base for the White Sox after serving for 20 games as a DH. He went 1 for 4 Saturday night. …Jake Peavy (shoulder) is scheduled to make his next rehab start on May 5 for the White Sox’s Triple-A Charlotte team and throw 100 pitches. … Orioles’ DL update: SS J.J. Hardy (left oblique) hit off a tee, ran the bases and took ground balls Saturday. RHP Justin Duchscherer (left hip) threw 30 pitches in batting practice and said he felt great afterward. LHP Brian Matusz (back) threw 45 pitches in a side session Saturday and reported no problems.

PHOENIX — Alfonso Soriano hit a pair of leadoff homers and Carlos Zambrano bounced back from his first loss in 18 starts, lifting the Cubs to a 4-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.Soriano led off the fifth and seventh innings with homers against Armando Galarraga (3-2), and Geovany Soto hit a solo shot of his own to help the Cubs end a four-game losing streak.Zambrano (3-1) was sharp after his 10-game winning streak ended against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, settling in after giving up a long two-run homer to Justin Upton in the first inning to win his ninth straight road start.Carlos Marmol worked a perfect ninth for his sixth save in eight chances.Arizona took a step toward erasing its first-inning woes this season against the Cubs in the series opener on Thursday, scoring seven runs — four on Stephen Drew’s grand slam — off Ryan Dempster on the way to an 11-2 win. The Diamondbacks had been outscored 26-9 in the opening frame the previous 23 games.Arizona did it again against Zambrano, though not as emphatically, getting two runs in the first on a homer by Upton that almost landed in the restaurant at the back of the second deck in left. The shot, estimated at 455 feet, was one of three hits for Upton.Zambrano shook off the early drive and settled into a bit of a rhythm, stranding runners over the next four innings before pitching a perfect sixth. He was lifted for a pinch-hitter the next inning after allowing two runs on four hits and walking three.The Cubs went up 4-2 in the eighth when Aramis Ramirez squibbed a fielder’s choice against Esmerling Vasquez.Galarraga was solid through the first four innings, scattering three singles, including two that didn’t get out of the infield.He found trouble to start the fifth, when Soriano dug out a 1-2 breaking ball from just above the dirt and lined it over the wall in left-center. Soto followed with a no-doubt shot in the same vicinity, giving the Cubs back-to-back homers for the first time this season. Soriano did it again in the seventh, hitting Galarraga’s first pitch just over the wall in right-center for his ninth of the season to put the Cubs up 3-2. Galarraga was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the seventh after allowing three runs and six hits. Decent, but Zambrano was just a little better.

NOTES—Carlos Pena, stuck in a 2-for-25 slump, was held out of the lineup and entered the game as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning. … Soriano has 27 career multihomer games. … Arizona had scored 21 runs in 21 innings for Galarraga in his first four starts.

Matt Wieters is starting to figure things out at the plate, and that’s not good news for opposing pitchers.The Orioles’ catcher homered and drove in four runs Friday night as Baltimore beat the White Sox 10-4 in the series opener.Wieters hit the ball well in his first two at-bats, but found himself 0-for-2 with two fly outs when he came to bat in the sixth inning.With a 3-0 count and a runner on, Wieters delivered a two-run shot off of starter John Danks to give Baltimore a 5-3 lead.Wieters doubled in two more runs in a five-run seventh to help the Orioles put things out of reach.Starter Jake Arrieta (3-1) pitched five innings for the win but was pulled early due to right hip soreness, though he said after the game the injury was not serious. Arrieta gave up three runs in the second inning before settling down and keeping the White Sox in check. He gave up five hits and two walks, striking out two.The loss was the 13th in the last 16 games for the Sox, who slipped to 10-17 overall.Danks fell to 0-4 after giving up five earned runs on eight hits.White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was suspended by Major League Baseball before the game after an ejection and derogatory comments made on Twitter earlier in the week. Bench coach Joey Cora managed in his place.The White Sox opened a 3-0 second inning lead as A.J. Pierzynski lined a 2-0 pitch from Arrieta to right for a two-run home run. With one out, Mark Teahen doubled and scored on Juan Pierre’s bloop single to left.Danks gave up a pair of third inning runs, first on a one-out RBI single by Brian Roberts that scored Mark Reynolds. Derrek Lee‘s two-out single to right then scored Robert Andino.Luke Scott tied it at 3 in the third with a homer to right, his fourth of the season.Wieters gave the Orioles a 5-3 lead in the sixth with his fourth homer.Brent Lillibridge hit his second home run in the sixth. He lined a 1-1 pitch off reliever Clay Rapada to left-center to trim the Oriole lead to 5-4.Danks left in favor of reliever Jesse Crain after six innings. He gave up five earned runs on eight hits, walked one and struck out three.The Orioles sent 11 batters to the plate in a five-run seventh. They loaded the bases and Crain walked in one run with two out before being relieved by left-hander Chris Sale. Wieters greeted Sale with a double to right that scored two runs for a 8-4 lead.Roberts then singled home another run.

NOTES—Andino was 3 for 3 with a run scored for the Orioles….Jake Peavy pitched 5 2/3 innings in a rehab start at Charlotte on Friday, giving up three runs while striking out eight. He’s been on the DL recovering from surgery to repair of detached right latissimus dorsi muscle…..Roberts, Markakis, Lee and Vladimir Guerrero have batted 1 through 4 in each game to date. The last time that happened for the Orioles was 2003…..The White Sox unveiled a plaque saluting longtime TV broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson, now in his 26th season with the team…..The White Sox send RHP Phil Humber (2-2, 3.20 ERA) on Saturday against Orioles RHP Chris Tillman (0-2, 6.16 ERA).

DEERFIELD—Bulls forward Carlos Boozer sat out Friday’s practice because of turf toe on his right foot.Coach Tom Thibodeau said “it’s hard to say” if Boozer will be ready for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Atlanta on Monday but “I’m thinking that he will be able to.”   Losing Boozer would be a big blow to the Bulls, even though he did have difficulties in the first round against Indiana. They won that series in five games, but he got bogged down by foul trouble and struggled at times when he was on the court. The Bulls took two days off after knocking off the Pacers.

PHOENIX—After taking a called second strike he didn’t like, Stephen Drew took matters out of the umpire’s hands.Drew hit his first career grand slam to spark Arizona’s seven-run first inning, a franchise record, and the Diamondbacks routed the Cubs 11-2 on Thursday night.Drew finished with a career-best five RBI and Miguel Montero also homered and drove in three runs. Barry Enright (1-2) earned his first win since Sept. 1 for the Diamondbacks, who have won three of four.Ryan Dempster (1-3) had the shortest outing of his 266-start career, recording only one out and allowing seven runs, four hits, four walks and a hit batter. Dempster’s ERA ballooned from 7.63 to 9.58. The Cubs have lost four straight and six of seven.Enright, who had been 0-7 with a 7.40 ERA in nine starts since his previous victory, allowed one run and three hits in the first six innings before tiring in the seventh. He gave up two runs, five hits and four walks. He struck out four in a season-high 6 2/3 innings.Enright also hit a looping RBI single to right for his first hit of the year, and Chris Young added a two-run single to left in the first. Arizona sent 12 batters to the plate in the inning against Dempster and reliever Justin Berg. The seven runs were the most for the Diamondbacks in any inning this season and topped by one the franchise mark of six first-inning runs accomplished seven times, most recently on Aug. 28 against San Francisco.Arizona had scored nine first-inning runs in its first 23 games combined.Montero hit an RBI double to left in the second and homered to right in the third against Berg to give the Diamondbacks a 10-1 lead. Koyie Hill hit a solo homer in the third and Marlon Byrd singled and scored on a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by Reed Johnson in the seventh against Enright. Drew drove in Young with an RBI groundout in the seventh to make it 11-2.Josh Collmenter allowed only a walk in 2 1/3 innings in relief of Enright.

NOTES—Arizona drew a season-high nine walks…..Dempster failed to get out of the first inning only once before, recording just two outs on Oct. 5, 2001, for Florida against Atlanta……Dempster is 2-8 with a 6.72 ERA in 19 career appearances and 15 starts against Arizona…..Drew’s grand slam was the 46th in Diamondbacks history and the first since Sept. 1, when Brandon Allen hit one against San Diego…..Young became the 23rd Diamondbacks player to have two hits in the first inning…..Arizona third base coach Matt Williams made his season debut in the coaching box after missing nearly a month because of a broken foot.

NEW YORK—With the bases loaded and a favorable count in the third inning, Nick Swisher had one thing on his mind: home run.He took a a big swing and hit a meek foul ball before walking for his first of four RBI in the New York Yankees’ 12-3 win over the White Sox on Thursday night.In the seventh inning, after a couple of slump-busting hits, Swisher drove a pitch into the right field seats for that long-awaited clout, a two-run shot, with a controlled easy swing. The drive ended his career-worst 75 at-bat streak without a home run, according to the. Gardner went deep again for the Yankees — his third in six games — leading off a six-run fifth inning with a homer for their first hit of the game.CC Sabathia (2-1) pitched seven sharp innings to beat a familiar foe and help New York gain a split of the four-game series. Swisher, Nunez and Gardner scored three runs apiece. Every Yankees starter except Nunez had at least one RBI.Curtis Granderson tripled, Alex Rodriguez and Nunez each hit a double, and Swisher broke an 0-for-19 slump with a single in the fifth. New York sent nine batters to the plate before making an out in the inning.The White Sox never awoke from their hitting slumber in this series but won the first two games thanks to solid starting pitching. The Sox head home after a 3-8 road trip in which it scored more than three runs in only one game.With Derek Jeter getting a planned day off and Mark Teixeira out with a sore shoulder, the Yankees struggled against Edwin Jackson (2-3) through the first four innings. But they did score twice in the third when Jackson walked four and threw a wild pitch as a light drizzle fell at Yankee Stadium. Robinson Cano, moved to third from fifth in the lineup, hit a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.Sabathia improved to 17-4 against the White Sox in 30 career starts, a team he faced often with Cleveland in the AL Central. He is one of two pitchers in big league history who has at least 25 starts and four or fewer losses against the Sox. Filling in at shortstop, Nunez made two errors, a fielding mistake to start the game and a throwing miscue that led to three unearned runs in the seventh.Sabathia gave up seven hits and no earned runs. He struck out six and walked one. He got out of a first-and-third jam with no outs in the first and stranded four runners in the first two innings.On Monday, Phil Humber held New York hitless into the seventh, and the Yankees had scored just five runs in the first three games of the series.That all changed in the fifth.Gardner led off with a homer. Nunez hit a liner to left field that Brent Lillibridge, Tuesday’s star for making two acrobatic, game-saving catches in the ninth, took a step in on. The ball deflected off his glove as he slipped on the slick grass for a double. Granderson followed with a triple and Swisher had an RBI single.Jackson was done, having given up four hits and six runs in four-plus innings. He walked a season-high five.Tony Pena relieved and gave up a single to Cano. Rodriguez followed with a run-scoring double off the wall. A-Rod stood on second, hands on hips, watching the replay of his drive. Eric Chavez was intentionally walked ahead of Russell Martin’s RBI hit and Jorge Posada’s bases-loaded walk.Pena left with discomfort in his right elbow and Will Ohman retired three straight to end the 32-minute inning.

NOTES—Teixeira said he received treatment and is planning to play Friday…..Jake Peavy is scheduled to make a rehabilitation start for Triple-A Charlotte on Friday. His outing in Double-A on April 18 was cut short because of discomfort in his surgically repaired right shoulder…..The White Sox will unveil a plaque to commemorate the “Hawk Harrelson Broadcast Level” at U.S. Cellular Field. Harrelson is in his 26th season as a White Sox broadcaster…..George Pipgras was 19-4 against the White Sox in 28 career starts,

TOMORROW(Friday April 29th) is the 28th anniversary of LEE ELIA’s TIRADE HEARD ROUND THE WORLD. On the SCORE after midnight this evening,and again after 4am,we’ll play a special music laced(with profanity reversed)version of the then Cub Manager’s post game explosion at Wrigley Field after a one run loss to the Dodgers dropped the Cubs to 5-14. “AND PRINT IT!”

GROBBER and LEE ELIA during the April 29,2008 25th ANNIVERSARY of the TIRADE HEARD ROUND THE WORLD at Harry Caray’s Downtown. The Mic in this photo is the same one used and still works great today!

On Friday April 29,1983 the Cubs hosted the Dodgers before a small crowd and entered the game 5-13. Most reporters who were there were planning to talk to local guy,Rookie Mike Marshall from Buffalo Grove who was making his Wrigley Field debut(he was also dating Belinda Carlisle of the Go Go’s at that time). The Cubs led by a run even though Marshall homered in that game. Lee Smith,who often came in for save tries earlier than the ninth inning, came on and gave up the tying run,and then the go ahead tally for LA by uncorking a wild pitch. That run held up and the Dodgers won.

After the game, most media members went to the Dodgers Clubhouse to talk with Marshall and of course Tommy Lasorda. For some reason, I decided to go to the Cubs side and see what Manager Lee Elia had to say. The only others in Elia’s office at the time were the three beat writers, Robert Marcus of the Tribune, Joel Behrig of the Sun Times and Don Friske of the Daily Herald. We entered the old Clubhouse in the left field corner and the only sound you could hear was that of hair dryers. Elia called us in and seemed very calm. He simply said “Hi fellas”. Once the four of us were in there, I started rolling tape and said “Another tough one”. He calmly nodded and then started with the now famous “WE’RE MIRED IN A LITTLE DIFFICULTY. WE’VE GOT ALL THOSE SO CALL F***** FANS,WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BEHIND YOU, RIPPING EVERY F***** THING YOU DO! I KNOW ONE F***** THING, I HOPE WE GET F***** HOTTER THAN S***, JUST TO STUFF OF UP THE 3000 F***** PEOPLE WHO SHOW UP EVERY F**** DAY. BECA– USE IF THERE THE REAL CHICAGO F**** FANS, THEY CAN KISS MY F***** A**, RIGHT DOWNTOWN, AND PRINT IT! THEY’RE REALLY REALLY BEHIND YOU AROUND HERE, MY F***** A**! AND IT’S NOBODY’S FAULT HERE,BECA– USE YOU GUYS HAVE WRITTEN GOOD.”

After he paused for a moment, I checked my cassette recorder to make sure it was indeed rolling,while the print guys were writing stuff down as fast as they could.

WHAT THE F*** AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, WATCH MY F***** PLAYERS GET DESTROYED EVERY SAY, AND BE QUIET ABOUT IT, FOR THE F***** NICKLE AND DIME PEOPLE THAT SHOW UP? THE MOTHER F****** DON’T EVEN WORK! THAT’S WHY THEY’RE OUT AT THE F***** GAME! THEY OUGHT TO GO OUT AND GET A F***** JOB AND FIND OUT WHAT’S IT’S LIKE TO WORK FOR A F***** LIVING! 85% OF THE F***** WORLD’S WORKING, THE OTHER 15 COME OUT HERE! A F***** PLAYGROUND FOR THE C*** S*****! RIP THEM MOTHER F*****, RIP THEM COUNRTY C*** S*****, LIKE THE F***** PLAYERS! YOU’VE GOT GUYS BUSTING THEIR F***** A** AND THEM F***** PEOPLE BOO! AND THAT’S THE CUBS? MY F***** A**!!! THEY TALK ABOUT THE GREAT F***** SUPPORT THAT THE PLAYERS GET AROUND HERE. I HAVEN’T SEEN IT THIS F***** YEAR!

By this time, DAVID SCHUSTER(now of course with the Score, then with Sportsphone), RICH KING(then with WBBM-AM), and MARK GIANGRECCO with his NBC-5 crew(he was with Channel 5 at that time)all arrived and at first had no idea what they were getting into.

Everyone LIKED Lee Elia, he was a good guy,and I knew he was burying himself. I also knew I had way more than enough tape and wanted to get out of there, so I interuppted him with a simple “See you tomorrow.” He nodded, smiled and said “OK!” Before I could head out, Lee started up again and continued for another three of so minutes. More reporters started arriving,but I headed out. I got outside and the first guy I saw was legendary AP Writer JOE MOOSHIL(whom I also did some work for in the late 70′s and the 80′s). Joe was obviously in a hurry since he was on deadline, but I stopped him right in the left field corner and said, “Joe, I know you are in a hurry,but you have to listen to this.”

And I proceed to play it for him. His eyes started to roll and after about four minutes, he said “Oh my god” ottered a few explites,then said he would hear the rest upstairs. I had about an hour until my 4:55pm Sportscast with TOMMY EDWARDS(now the Bulls P.A.Announcer). As I was about to enter the old Press Box(which then was on the level where today the Luxury Boxes are), who were exiting the Press Box? HARRY CARAY,VINCE LLOYD and LOU BOUDREAU. I stopped them and said “Guys, I’m sure you are all in a hurry to get out of here,but I think you should hear this.” They stopped and I played it for them. Vince had a cigar the size of a treetrunk in his mouth and as the tape played, he rolled that stogie around as if he was Poppeye the Sailor Man. Harry was just stunned. Vince looked at Boudreau and said “GEEZOUS LOU, HE’S GONNA GET HIS A** FIRED!” Lou then uttered his signature “Ah this is true good kid!” They all headed out and I went into the press box, grabbed my phone and called the WLS newsroom

I had been told that morning that our engineers were going to be too busy to receive tape and so I would have to do my sportscasts without sound that afternoon. BUT things of course changed. I talked to Renee Tondelli, our engineer(Union restrictions back then prohibbed anyone from playing their own tape live on the air, an IBEW engineer had to take it in and edit it for air play). Renee told me that I should know they could not take any tape in on this day. I politly told here to just be quiet, and roll tape, that I would be responsible. She said “OK,but this BETTER be good”. I repeated to here to “Just Roll!” After about the first two minutes, I hit the pause button, she gat back on the line and said “OH MY GOD!” I asked here how long it would take to edit it for air play. She said it was about two hours of work. By that time we had about twenty minutes until air play. She did miracle work and got the first minute or so bleeped out for air play, and we played it with Tommy Edwards. The FM side also received it for use with STEVE DAHL and GARRY MEIER. You know what hit the fan after that! Our phone, and those at the Cubs offices at Wrigley,lit up!

After I aired it, Cubs Public Relations Director Bob Ibach(a good friend to this day)came into the press box and said to me that he needed a favor.I asked him what that would be(knowing full well what he was about to ask me). He said “I need to borrow your tape”. I responded, “What, to play it for Dallas(Green, the GM)?” He nodded yes. My first response was “Hell no, I’m not about to get the guy fired!” Then Friske,who was also back upstairs,said I should indeed get them the tape so they could have Elia apologize. Had this festered overnight, he would have to be terminated in the morning. I thought for a second, then told Bob “OK, but don’t try to confiscate the tape,since it’s already been dupicated.” Bob said he would never do that, but I responded ‘No,but your f***** boss would!”.

Bob played the tape for Green,who nearly flipped out. He called the Clubhouse looking for Elia who had gone to his car to leave and umpire his daughter’s softball game,but since he forgot his keys,he went back inside. THAT is when Green called,and by shear luck caught Lee before he departed for good. Keep in mind that cellphones did not hit the market for two more years. Green told Elia to get up to the GM’s office. He said he was late for his daughter’s game. Green responded that that if he(Elia)did not get upstairs fast, he should plan on cleaning out his office Saturday Morning,because he would be gone.

Other media types who had not covered this game,started making a bee-line to Wrigley to cover a 6:30pm newsconference so Elia could apologize.

He kept his job for a while,and the Cubs got hot.

The next day,the Cubs bombed the hottest pitcher in baseball Fernando Valenzuela. But many fans showed up with signs such as ‘Hey Lee, I HAVE a job and still come the the games!”. Another had a sign that said “Elia, You’re Fired, AND PRINT IT!”.

He kept his job until August when the team nose dived again, and Green finnally had to fire his good friend.

Green and others tried to blame me, in fact to this day Dallas has not gotten over being pissed at me.He told me I should have put the tape in my pocket and not aired it. Well excuse me! The print guys were going to put it in the Saturday morning papers(remember, no internet exsisted back then either),and it was my job to get this on the air-so I did.

Elia and I are on great terms to this day. Yes he was also mad for a while,but he came to town two years ago for the 25th Anniversary News Conference at Harry Caray’s downtown.

Lee also had prostate Cancer about 12 years ago and beat it. I made my mind up at the time that I would not air the “tirade” until I found out he was out of danger and was cured.

One other note: Again, no cell,phones or internet, BUT we got confirmation that the TIRADE HEARD ROUND THE WORLD had reached every Continent on Earth except Antarctica, but then it was also confirmed that a Naval Submarine near the South Pole had also received a transmission of the tirade. AND PRINT IT!

LES

NEW YORK—Bartolo Colon looked like the ace of old, shutting down the White Sox over eight crisp innings, and Robinson Cano hit an early three-run homer to give the New York Yankees a 3-1 victory Wednesday night.A pleasant surprise for the Yankees thus far, Colon (2-1) escaped a bases-loaded jam with nobody out and outpitched Mark Buehrle, giving him two wins in two starts this season — his first in the majors since 2009.The husky right-hander, who won the 2005 AL Cy Young Award for the Angels, signed a minor league deal in February and was brought to spring training to provide pitching depth. He had a strong camp and made the team as a long reliever, but has quickly become an April savior for a New York rotation missing injured All-Star Phil Hughes.The 37-year-old Colon, who beat Toronto 6-2 last Wednesday, flashed an overpowering fastball that had been missing for years as he struggled to overcome injuries. Hitting 94-95 mph on the stadium radar gun, he struck out six and walked one against his former team.Colon allowed seven hits, including Adam Dunn’s RBI single in the sixth, and threw 65 of his 99 pitches for strikes in a game that took just 2 hours, 11 minutes. It was the first time he pitched more than seven innings since Sept. 22, 2007, with the Angels against Seattle in a 3-2 loss.Mariano Rivera worked a perfect ninth for his eighth save after blowing his previous two chances.The victory made Joe Girardi the ninth manager to reach 300 regular-season wins with the Yankees. He is 300-207 since taking over before the 2008 season.Buehrle (1-3) pitched well but failed in his fifth attempt at career win No. 150. The left-hander gave up six hits in seven innings, dropping to 1-8 against the Yankees in his career. He struck out five and walked two.Before the game, Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen joked that he was surprised to learn Colon had showed up at the ballpark — a reference to Colon’s injury-plagued 2009 stint with the White Sox during which he was away from the team for long stretches and sometimes hard to find, Guillen said.Guillen wasn’t around to see most of Colon’s impressive outing – the outspoken manager was ejected in the first inning for arguing a called third strike against slugger Paul Konerko. Guillen immediately took to Twitter during the game, calling the ejection pathetic and saying it would cost him a pricey fine.It was Guillen’s 26th career ejection and first this season.Buehrle walked leadoff batter Derek Jeter in the first and Alex Rodriguez blooped a two-out single that put runners at the corners.Cano lined a 1-1 pitch into the right-field stands — not far from where late substitute Brent Lillibridge made two dazzling catches in a row Tuesday night to rob the Yankees of a ninth-inning comeback in a 3-2 loss.Cano has homered in two straight and four of his last five home games.Colon wriggled out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the second. He gave up three straight one-out singles in the sixth and feigned firing his glove away when Dunn’s base hit went through the box and into center field.Colon recovered by getting Alex Rios on a flyball and throwing a called third strike past A.J. Pierzynski.

NOTES—After the game, Girardi said a battery of tests revealed that Hughes has a low-level risk of a circulatory problem. The team is sending him to St. Louis to see a specialist, Dr. William Thompson. … New York 1B Mark Teixeira was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth. Girardi said Teixeira has a sore shoulder. … Colon hit Carlos Quentin with a pitch in the third, the seventh time Quentin has been plunked this season. No other major league player had more than four going into Wednesday. … Quentin hit his major league-leading 13th double in the first. … 44-year-old Omar Vizquel started for the Sox at third base. … Girardi said he’s confident that struggling setup man Rafael Soriano will find his form. “I believe this guy is too talented for this to continue,” Girardi said.

Derrick Rose scored 25 points, Luol Deng added 24 and the Bulls finally played like a top seed, knocking off the Indiana Pacers 116-89 in Game 5 to wrap up their first-round playoff series Tuesday night.The top-seeded Bulls can breathe a little easier after getting a dominant performance by their MVP candidate and an emphatic win that came on the heels of four dramatic games.They can also turn their attention to the Eastern Conference semifinals, where they’ll meet Atlanta or Orlando. Rose seemed just fine after spraining his left ankle in Game 4, hitting 8 of 17 shots. He dominated in the early going and came up big in the third after the Pacers pulled within four. He scored 10 points over the final six minutes, and the Bulls ended the quarter on a 23-8 run to blow the game open. The Bulls hit 14 of 31 3-pointers, including five by Keith Bogans (15 points) and three each by Deng and Rose. Deng also had seven assists and six rebounds.Joakim Noah added 14 points and eight rebounds, and the Bulls won a playoff series for the first time since they swept Miami in the first round in 2007 even though Carlos Boozer scored just two.Danny Granger scored 20 for the Pacers. Tyler Hansbrough added 14 points and 11 rebounds, but the Pacers trailed the entire way and committed 21 turnovers.The Pacers had just scored seven straight to pull within 61-57 midway through the third when Rose and the Bulls put them away.Taj Gibson actually started the barrage with a 19-footer. Then, Rose went to work.He hit a 3-pointer, blocked Hibbert down low, and hit another 3. Then, he stole the ball from Nick Collison and got fouled on the break, hitting 1 of 2 free throws to make it 70-57 with 4:32 left in the quarter.Rose nailed another 3 two minutes later to make it 75-60, and Bogans buried two more as the lead hit 82-65 with 42 seconds left.Things took a nasty turn in the closing seconds when Josh McRoberts threw an elbow at Noah and got ejected.The two were starting to run the other way after a missed 3-pointer by Rose. McRoberts swung his right elbow at Noah and missed, but he got called for the flagrant foul 2 and got tossed. Noah hit both free throws with 2.5 seconds left to make it 84-65.The series win is another big step for a rebuilt team that leaped into the championship picture, igniting the fan base in a way not seen since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were leading the way.How they got here is well documented: – The firing of coach Vinny Del Negro and hiring of Tom Thibodeau after back-to-back 41-win seasons and first-round exits; – The roster overhaul that brought in Boozer and a deep rotation after LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh joined in Miami; – The continued climb of Rose from Rookie of the Year to All-Star to possible MVP. Where they go from here remains to be seen. This much is certain, though. Anything less than a deep run would be a disappointment, and the Bulls can exhale for now.The Pacers, meanwhile, can take some satisfaction knowing that they improved in the latter half of the season after interim coach Frank Vogel replaced Jim O’Brien, then pushed the Bulls before bowing out.

NOTES—Noah’s grandfather Zacharie Noah received a nice ovation when he was shown on the video screen after the first quarter. The elder Noah, a former pro soccer player, lives in Cameroon and was watching his grandson in person for the first time since he entered the NBA.