http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sugCwMxwPRkDock Phillip Ellis, Jr. (born
March 11,
1945, in
Los Angeles, California) is a former professional
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.
However, Ellis is better-known for several bizarre incidents:
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.
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 centerfielder
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-- in spite of 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]According to Ellis:
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]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]On May 5 1972, Dock Ellis engaged in an argument with a security guard who barred him from entering through the players' gate at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium and then maced him. The guard maintained that Ellis had failed to adequately identify himself, "made threatening gestures with a clenched fist," and was carrying a half-empty bottle of wine. Ellis denied that he had intended to punch the guard or was holding a bottle of wine and claimed he was denied entrance (and maced) despite showing his World Series ring as proof of identity.
Ellis went on to play for the
New York Mets,
New York Yankees,
Oakland Athletics, and
Texas Rangers, 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.
Dock Ellis retired to
Victorville, California and a career as a drug counselor.
[6] He was diagnosed with
cirrhosis of the liver in
2007 and currently sits on the list for a transplant.
[7]
