“What happened to yesterday?”
November 26th, 2009 at 4:43 pm by NigelUh…drugs are bad. But sometimes they’re good. As in this animated short which tells the story of Dock Ellis and his 1970 LSD-enhanced no-hitter against the San Diego Padres:
If our evaluation of the records of athletes like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds needs to be revised downwards with an asterisk, we submit that that Dock Ellis record deserves a giant exclamation point. Of the 263 no-hitters ever thrown in the Big Leagues, we can only guess how many were aided by steroids, but we can say without question that only one was ever thrown on acid.
Sadly, the great Dock Ellis died last December at 63. A year before, radio producers Donnell Alexander and Neille Ilel, had recorded an interview with Ellis in which the former Pirate right hander gave a moment by moment account of June 12, 1970, the day he no-hit the San Diego Padres.
More interesting stuff from the producers of the video…
November 26th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
I think I’ve mentioned before that it’s my opinion that LSD can be one of the most powerful tools for personal and emotional development in the proper setting.
An amazing story. I don’t believe anyone would categorize acid as a performance enhancing drug but it helped him to conquer the fear of failure in front of a stadium full of people.
November 28th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Brian, the only thing wrong with that theory is that the stadium wasn’t exactly “full”. There were less than 5,000 people in attendance.
They should make a movie about Dock Ellis. That LSD trip was not his only colorful moment. He was a nasty competitor who had no trouble sticking a pitch into the ribs of anyone who dared dig in hard against him. LSD was not his only experimental drug and he battled the bottle until his death. There are Wilt Chamberlain-esque stories of his escapades with “Baseball Annies”. Given the kind of protection by the press that he could NEVER get in today’s TMZ environment, Ellis got away with a lot…