Over at Slanchreport.com, they are publicizing an online petition they have put together asking MLB network to air footage of the no-hitter that Dock Ellis threw on June 12, 1970 against the San Diego Padres. This is the infamous game where Dock Ellis allegedly pitched while under the influence of LSD.
I know that it is pretty universally accepted that Ellis did throw this no-hitter while tripping on acid but frankly I still have nagging doubts about the veracity of this claim.
As background, here are some quotes from Dock Ellis from Wikipedia on his condition while pitching that game, "The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home umpire, and once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate."
Whoa!
Do you know how hard it is pitch a no-hitter sober? Dock Ellis pitched one in this condition? If we take him at his word, he thought he was pitching to Jim Hendrix with a guitar and Richard Nixon was calling balls and strikes. Was Spiro Agnew catching? Was Jim Croce on deck?
I want to believe this because it is such a great story but I am a little skeptical. How awful were the Padres that day to get no-hit by a guy having an acid trip? Have you ever seen that Woodstock movie? Do you think those people could throw a baseball....... or even bat around a beach ball? Some of them are still coming down.
Actually, there is a better Dock Ellis game that the MLB network could show.
In 1974, Dock Ellis thought that the Pirates had lost their aggressiveness that drove them to three straight division titles from 1970 to 1972 and were intimidated by the Cincinnati "Big Red Machine". Dock Ellis was determined to do something about it.
"Cincinnati will bulls..t with us and kick our ass and laugh at us. They're the only team that talk about us like a dog. We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I'm going to hit those mother.....rs."*
On May 1, 1974, Dock Ellis attempted to hit every batter in the Reds lineup. He hit Pete Rose who led off the game, then Joe Morgan and then Dan Driessen who followed. He then threw at clean-up hitter, Tony Perez who was successful in avoiding the beanballs and Perez took a walk. Johnny Bench then came up and saw two pitches right at his head. Ellis then was removed from the game by manager, Danny Murtaugh.
And Ellis did all of this (presumably) without dropping any acid!
That is the game I want to see. You only have to watch a half-inning of it too.
The MLB network should make it happen.
*baseballreliquary.org/ellis.htm
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7 comments:
The '74 Reds game would be an instant class. Wonder how that'd go over today?
Anyway, the acid story is a great story, but what I find strange about it is that there's no mention of it in the Ellis bio by Donald Hall. Ellis divulges enough that, realistically, the LSD no-hitter would only rank as mid-level craziness. Seriously. Dude managed to get maced by a security guard going into a ball park.
As for LSD's performance enhancing effects: for the right personality it wouldn't shock me.
I knew about the curlers in the hair on the field (actually I am saving that picture for an appropriate post one day) and Ellis' general rebellious attitude but if the LSD pitching game is only mid-level craziness in his autobiography, that is a book I am going to have to read.
I did a post about Doc Ellis months ago. It would be fun to see either of those games.
I think it's in the card blogger rulebook that you must do a post about Dock Ellis. I did one, too. I would PAY to see that Ellis-Reds game on TV.
That should have been Dock Ellis. I was thinking of Doc Holliday. Sorry for any confusion that was caused by the missing k.
The baseball card blogger Dock Ellis right of passage.
I have finally arrived!
While I have always doubted his story I will say the game was hardly a "gem". He walked 8 guys. Is it possible? Yes. Also it depends on how many times he had taken acid. At first acid really messed me up, to next to non functioning, but the last few times I did it I still got visuals and thought weird stuff, but I WAS able to function in society on some sort of instinctual level. If he had taken it a bunch before with all his pitching experience he might have pulled it off. Like I said though...I highly doubt it.
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