Comments on: How to pitch a no-hitter while on acid.

How to pitch a no-hitter while on acid.

thebigpoop — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:17:07 -0800

How to pitch a no-hitter while on acid. Lessons from the career of baseball legend Dock Ellis.

By: The Dryyyyy Cracker

The Dryyyyy Cracker — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:28:15 -0800

Double post. But I'm always happy to read about Ellis' no-hitter, and this is one of the better re-tellings I've come across.

By: mert

mert — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:30:26 -0800

Awesome... I bet the speed was the more potent perormance enhancer on the day he pitched the no hitter.

By: Item

Item — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:48:47 -0800

I remember hearing stories of Ellis as a teenager, and in those pre-internet days I could only wonder. The first time I thought to look him up on the net I couldn't believe it was actually true. Dallas is a shithole of a town, my least favorite American city (barring its surrounding suburbs which, I have to say, sink even lower into nothingness), devoid of anything resembling actual culture or coolness, but the Observer somehow manages to overcome its location and continually host top notch writers and intelligent, wonderfully written and interesting material. One of the best Voice-styled weeklies around. Cracker, it's not really a double when it's an entirely new article on the subject matter.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:52:46 -0800

Dallas is a void. So is your soul. Mix them together and you've got good company.

By: Item

Item — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:54:49 -0800

Help me out here, Satapher: my soul is a void? What the fuck did I say to offend you?

By: Satapher

Satapher — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:58:50 -0800

all souls, friend. culture is whack. we need more gadgets.

By: Item

Item — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:01:05 -0800

I see yr zip listed as 75***, so you're in the metroplex. I lived there from ages one through eighteen and still have family and friends there. I know/knew the area quite well. I used gadgets as an escape while living there. Gadgets and drugs, much like Mr. Ellis.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:02:18 -0800

Stories like this should be remembered when people get all uppity about steroids and the legislation to ban them. Good idea, but hey, how bout we deal with greenies and the other amphetamines, which are much more prevalent, at the same time rather than pretend they don't exist. Either way, great story. Anyone who beans Reggie Jackson in the face is a swell cat in my book.

By: Specklet

Specklet — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:04:18 -0800

Wow. I've only taken acid once, but I can tell you, amphetamine help or not, that's a pretty amazing feat. Satapher, hope that bug crawls outta yer ass soon.

By: jikel_morten

jikel_morten — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:16:36 -0800

File under Ellis, D.

By: First Post

First Post — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:44:59 -0800

What the fuck did I say to offend you? Maybe it's the offtopic rant about what a "shithole" Dallas is? As for that, I'd say you just weren't hanging out in the right places ;) Great article.

By: dersins

dersins — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:49:51 -0800

Geez, and I thought Bill Lee was f'ed up....

By: Item

Item — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 12:30:56 -0800

My rant was close to the topic, First Post. I was singing the praises of the source of thebigpoop's post and to get there I had to explain how I felt about the region that spawned the paper. Here's what off topic looks like: I definitely hung out in the right places. I spent many a schoolnight in sweaty underground punk clubs (Common Ground, Slipped Disk, the Storefront, the Yellow House - to name but a few), many of which were fly-by-night. I also clocked in many hours in the few (at the time) nonyuppified Deep Ellum venues & coffeehouses and the even fewer Lower Greenville locations. These places were undeniably fun for a teenager stuck in the sprawling wasteland of the Metroplex, but paled in comparison to comparable clubs in other cities I've visited and lived in. Yes, there are likely lamer cities than Dallas in the U.S., but for a city of its size and magnitude it's pretty terrible. Back on topic: So, Dock Ellis was a pretty interesting character, huh?

By: First Post

First Post — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 13:00:04 -0800

Fair enough, item...Slipped Disk! Ah the memories. If you hung out in those places you probably heard me playing guitar with somebody or another :) I guess it's just that I see a lot of that type of sentiment around. I can understand it on some level, and everybody's got a different take on stuff, but I've just had a pretty good time over the years living here. Admittedly there's a lot of artifice that surrounds life in the dee eff dub, but I suppose I've always been able to look past that. It's all good tho. But yes, Dock Ellis pitching a no-no on acid. I wonder how many games Darryl Strawberry played on crack?

By: killdevil

killdevil — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 13:21:24 -0800

Great article -- and I don't even like baseball.

By: Debaser626

Debaser626 — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 13:29:27 -0800

seconded killdevil..... nice read...

By: clevershark

clevershark — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:25:51 -0800

Didn't Ross Grimsley also do this for the Expos back in the day?

By: Thayer-P

Thayer-P — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 15:27:02 -0800

I can only imagine

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:39:43 -0800

pssssstttttttt: item, Big D is just missing a coastal port to make the place more on track to cities that follow it in size. You may be surprise the Arts it has now; and pitching a no hitter on anything seems priceless.

By: joe_murphy

joe_murphy — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 17:07:22 -0800

I love this story, but I hadn't read it in years. Thanks for reminding me.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 17:30:06 -0800

This is the best piece I've read on Dock Ellis; thanks for posting it.

When the Cincinnati Reds taunted the Pirates after beating them in the 1972 National League Championship Series, Ellis decided to motivate his team by hitting every single batter in the Reds' lineup. He hit the first three and walked two before he was pulled. He had, in short, that certain combination of raw talent and insanity that very rarely creates Hall of Famers but almost always creates legends.

Gotta disagree with spicynuts, though: hitting anybody in the face with a fastball is a shitty thing to do, and deserves being prosecuted for assault with a deadly weapon. Aside from that, I admire the man. (I still say Bob Gibson is the pitcher I'd least have liked to face, though.)

By: gohlkus

gohlkus — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 18:35:53 -0800

jikel_morten, that was a highly amusing comment lost in the snark. great post, thebig--uh--poop.

By: angry modem

angry modem — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 18:57:46 -0800

Sort of brings back a memory of the time I dropped and forgot that I had to be at work at a movie theatre. So for most of my shift I stood there and talked to this retarded guy who hung out/worked there for a couple of hours while taking tickets. After I've come down for the most part, he turns to me and says 'You talk too much'. Sure, it's not a no-hitter, but I think a lot of us have been there and managed to not completely screw up whatever we were doing somehow. Great article.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 20:43:58 -0800

spacket is a n00b... I am the bug up my own ass

By: tsarfan

tsarfan — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 00:36:01 -0800

languagehat, pitchers plunking hitters is part of baseball. just like rushing the mound and beating their ass to a pulp is also part of baseball. what i consider chickenshit is the DH rule which makes it so that the pitcher doesnt have to get into the batters box and get his payback. in the AL the retaliation to a headhunting pitcher usually takes place against the offending team's star player. if only the checks and balances in Government were so instantly gratified. either way Doc Ellis is a frickin stud and i'm glad he told his story.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 10:08:37 -0800

the (insanely well-known) superstition that a pitcher never talks about a no-hitter until it's complete Yeah, but the rest of the superstition is: unless the pitcher is on acid!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 10:50:03 -0800

pitchers plunking hitters is part of baseball. Absolutely, and I have no problem with it; I often complain about the tut-tutting that accompanies it these days (along with the endless time getting "ready" for the pitch on both ends, the non-stop music... don't get me started). But "plunking" means hitting a guy in the ass, leg, arm, or other painful but relatively harmless spot. You can kill someone hitting them in the head (ever heard of Ray Chapman?). Totally different thing; don't confuse the issue. gohlkus, thanks for calling my attention to jikel_morten's comment—it went right by me (and into left field).

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 12:18:40 -0800

I got one of my best scores playing Defender on acid. Just one hit tho. Good thing Ellis had been drinking screwdrivers, he'd've been wiped without the extra vitamin C. Hoffman rode a bike on what, ~100,000 hits? That's amazing.

By: afroblanca

afroblanca — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 15:17:01 -0800

languagehat - thanks for calling my attention to gohlkus's calling of your attention to jikel_morten's comment. I'm going to remember that one. And also, thebigpoop- thanks for calling my attention to Dock Ellis, even though someone else on Mefi had already called attention to him... back in May of 2001!

By: intermod

intermod — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 20:33:55 -0800

Barbara Manning did a song about this, called "Dock Ellis", with her group The S. F. Seals.