Dock Ellis

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Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr. (March 11, 1945 – December 19, 2008) was a Major League Baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams. His best season was 1971, when he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Playing career

Ellis is best-known for several incidents during his career:

[edit] Beaning Reggie Jackson

Beaning Reggie Jackson in the face in apparent retaliation for Reggie's monstrous home run off Ellis in the 1971 All-Star Game in Detroit.

[edit] June 12, 1970 no-hitter

No-hitting the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970 despite being, as he would claim in 1984, under the influence of LSD throughout the course of the game.^[1] Ellis had been visiting friends in Los Angeles under the impression he had the day off and was still high when his girlfriend told him he had to pitch a game against the Padres that night. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. Ellis claims catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers which helped Ellis to see his target. Ellis walked eight, struck out six, and was aided by excellent fielding plays by second baseman Bill Mazeroski and center fielder Matty Alou.^[2] During the game, Ellis is reported to have commented to his teammates on the bench between innings that he was pitching a no-hitter, despite the superstition that discourages mentioning a no-hitter while it is in progress. Because the no-hitter was the first game of a double header, Ellis was forced to keep track of the pitch count for the night game.^[3]

As Ellis recounted it:

"I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher's) glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. 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 I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me."^[4]

The incident inspired the songs "Dock Ellis" by indie rock singer Barbara Manning, "America's Favorite Pastime" by folk singer Todd Snider, and "Dock Ellis No-No" by Chuck Brodsky.

[edit] May 1, 1974 game against Cincinnati

Attempting to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup on May 1, 1974. In an effort to prove a point to teammates, Ellis hit Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Driessen in the top of the first. The clean-up batter Tony Perez avoided Ellis' attempts, instead drawing a walk, and after two pitches aimed at the head of Johnny Bench, Ellis was removed from the game by manager Danny Murtaugh. Ellis' box score for the game reads: 0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.^[5]

[edit] May 5, 1972 macing incident in Cincinnati

Arguing with and being maced by a Riverfront Stadium security guard on May 5, 1972. The guard claimed Ellis did not identify himself and "made threatening gestures with a closed fist"; Ellis countered that he was showing his World Series ring as evidence of his affiliation with the Pirates.^[5]

[edit] Later career

On December 11, 1975, Ellis was traded to the New York Yankees along with Ken Brett and Willie Randolph in exchange for Doc Medich. Ellis went on to play for the Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, New York Mets then ended his career back in Pittsburgh. He finished with a lifetime record of 138-119 and an ERA of 3.46.

Ellis collaborated with future U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall on a book, Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball, which was published in 1976. Although Hall knew of the LSD incident, it was not included in the first edition of the book; Ellis was playing for the Yankees when the book was published, and Hall worried that George Steinbrenner would react negatively to such an admission.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Retirement and death

Dock Ellis retired to Victorville, California and a career as a drug counselor.^[6] An alcoholic, he was diagnosed with cirrhosis in 2007, and was on the list for a transplant at the time of his death.^[7] ESPN.com reported on December 19, 2008, that Ellis had died at USC Medical Center in Los Angeles due to "a liver ailment." ^[8]

[edit] See also

• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Box score and play-by-play of Ellis' 1970 LSD no-hitter
• Box score and play-by-play for Ellis' 1974 beanball game against the Reds
• baseball-reference.com
• Excerpts from an August 1987 High Times article about the June 20, 1970 game. By Eric Brother.
• How to throw a no-hitter on acid, and other lessons from the career of baseball legend Dock Ellis. By Keven McAlester
• lyrics to "Doc. Ellis's No-No", a tribute written by Chuck Brodsky
• Dock Ellis Pitches a No-No on LSD, a sonnet written by Jilly Dybka at Elysian Fields Quarterly - The Baseball Review, from EFQ 22:1
• NPR Interview with Ellis: Pitching on LSD by Donnell Alexander and Neille Ilel
• "The Dock Ellis Experience", A Painting Exhibition By Jay Kaplan
• Obituary in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette