Dock Ellis - Legend in the Sky of Diamonds

As a lifelong Pittsburgh Pirate fan – borne in opposition to my grandpa’s love of the New York Yankees, smelly cigars, Mel Allen and Ballentine Blasts – I have known the legend of Dock Ellis for many years.

For the uninitiated, Dock Ellis (1945-2008) was a pretty good major league pitcher on some pretty good Bucco teams in the late ’60 and ‘70’s before he started to bounce around to other teams – this owing largely to his tendency to wear out his welcome for reasons not always related to winning baseball games.

A militant man in a militant time, Dock demanded to be accepted raw and unfiltered.  For those who took exception to his stridency,  you took a pass.  This may have been a reflection on the fact that he was merely a good but not great pitcher or the simple fact that he just did some pretty damn strange things for the day, such as wearing hair curlers at the batting cage. 

He later collaborated on a book, Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball with the poet, Donald Hall, in which they took turns with Don waxing well … poetic, and Dock ranting away at whatever. Of the two, Dock was far and away the more interesting.

As a fan, Dock’s most endearing accomplishment came on May 1, 1974 when he tied an MLB record by hitting 3 batters in a row. It’s a record shared by many but no one ever ascended the heights in quite the same manner as Dock.

It seems that, following three successive years of heartbreaking playoff losses Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine. Dock decided he had had enough. He announced to the world, "We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I’m going to hit these motherfuckers."  And so he did.

In the first inning, Ellis drilled leadoff batter Pete Rose in the ribs. He then did the same to Joe Morgan. Then he did it again to Dan Driessen loading the bases. Tony Perez, the clean up hitter, dodged four pitches all thrown with evil intent to draw a walk and force in a run.  The next hitter was Johnny Bench.  "I tried to deck him twice," Ellis recalled. "I threw at his jaw, and he moved. I threw at the back of his head, and he moved."  At this point, Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh mercifully removed Ellis from the game. But Dock’s strategy worked: the Pirates won a division title in 1974, while the Reds failed to win their division for the first time in three years.

Not only did Dock "do the do", but he got away with it! It was the most gratifying small victory moment for me as a sports fan until the Celtics Robert Parrish laid out the Pistons’ Bill Lambeer with two thunderous chops to the face - without being called for a personal foul!

But the real reason Dock resides among the immortals is for accomplishing what is easily one of the most truly unique feats in the history of sports. On June 12, 1970  Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter –on LSD.

Follow the link below as Dock tells the tale accompanied by a heart rending animation to illustrate how far he journeyed among the stars on that diamond. 

Long live the legend of Dock Ellis!