Whoa Dockta!

In 1971 Dock Ellis was a 19-game winner

By Scott A. Kantor

    In the history of baseball, there has been 268 no-hitters.  One of those belongs to Dock Ellis, who on June, 12, 1970, while starting for the Pittsburg Pirates, threw a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres.  What was crazy was that on the day of the game he was visiting friends in Los Angeles under the belief that he was not starting that day.  It wasn't until his girlfriend showed him the local sports section which slated him as the starting pitcher that night.  Dock hopped on a plane, made his way to the ballpark, and pitched himself into the records books.  While that is in and of itself a pretty "neat" story about baseball, what makes the story really interesting, is that Dock Ellis pitched his no hitter while high on LSD. 

    In April of 1984 Dock Ellis came clean about that crazy day in 1970.  Dock claimed that when the team plane arrived in San Diego for their game later that night Dock asked the manager if he could go visit some friends because Dock believed he had an off day to which the manager obliged.  It was then that Dock dropped the LSD under the belief that he could mellow out in L.A. with his friends.  After making his drive to Los Angeles the LSD kicked in and he was partying with his friends, as planned.  Dock's LSD trip must have been pretty heavy because as he puts it, it caused him to pass out.  His slumber was ended when his girlfriend woke him up telling him that he was to pitch that night.  After arguing with the girlfriend about what day it was, she showed him the sports section's probable pitchers for the night, and low and behold his name was on there.  Freaked out, he grabbed his things, an hopped on a $9.50 flight (if only that were the cost today) to San Diego still ripped out of his mind on LSD.

Dock was considered an eccentric

    Dock arrived at the park an hour and half before his 6:05 pm start.  Back in those days, and most likely still today, most baseball players were taking stimulants before games to give them a bit of a pep - it is a long season and often it is hard to play day in and day out.  Well, Dock was no different, and no stranger to drugs as we can tell.  Dock claimed that he had a person in every city who could get him the best stimulants.  Dock's contact was seated in the front row.  A blond lady with the best stimulants around passed him a golden bag with the golden stuff.  He popped yet some more drugs, and the game began.

    Dock claimed that he felt the LSD euphoria throughout his start.  He claimed that he never really saw what the batters were doing, just which side of the plate they were on.  He claimed that sometimes the ball looked huge, and other times really small.  Sometimes he could see the catcher, and other times he couldn't.  And when a slow roller came back at him, he freaked out thinking it was going to knock him down, so he jumped off the mound.  The ball just barely reached the shortstop who was forced to make a difficult play to first.  And when Dock went to cover first base later in the game, he made the routine play but in his mind it was like he had performed magic, and all he could think was, "man I just made a touchdown."

In 1971 Dock won a World Series Ring w/the Pirates

    Dock said that the players from both teams knew he was under the influence of some type of drug, but they didn't know what drug.  At the end of each inning Pirates rookie second basemen, David Cash, would make comments to Dock about the fact he was throwing a no-hitter.  To those who don't know, this is a baseball no-no, and Dock could sense the tension from the other players.  Tension that was causing Dock to freak out a bit.  By the fourth inning Dock's stuff began to get a bit wild.  He hit a couple of batters, loaded the bases, and even threw the ball directly into the dirt in front of him.  He was able to get out of these jams but all in all he walked eight batters in the game.  Despite these major glitches, that might otherwise end a starters day, Dock Ellis had completed a no-hitter and the Pirates won 2-0 all while high on LSD.