Wake Up With Dock Ellis Throwing A No Hitter While High On LSD
Pound for pound, I think this is the greatest athletic achievements ever. Nothing will ever beat this. In 1970 Dock Ellis of the Pirates casually dropped LSD before a game when he pitched due to him confusing the days. He was drinking and doing other drugs and got the days mixed up, and ended up taking another hit of LSD a few hours before he was supposed to start, he thought it was still the previous day. Classic LSD mistake! Fast forward to him finding out he was actually pitching that night. I’m surprised he could even put his jersey on, but low and behold, he goes out and throws a no-hitter. He did say he was high on some substance for every game he pitched, but a fresh high off LSD? I’ve never taken LSD, but that has to be a different animal. Maybe the best part of the story is he was in LA that day and the game was in San Diego. He landed in San Diego an hour and a half before first pitch.
Ellis walked 8 Padres, hit another one, and struck out 6. In the first video above he said he couldnt even see the batters, he only knew which side they were on. How on earth do you throw a strike if you don’t know where the batter is? I was cracking up at him saying he thought the ball was so much bigger and trying to hide from it too. He was probably TERRIFIED on the mound.
I read that at one point while pitching he thought Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire, and Jimi Hendrix was the batter. The shit this guy must have been thinking while on the mound probably read like a mad lib.
How do you feel if you’re his teammates? Playing softball with or against guys who are hammered is annoying AF, imagine some guy thinking he has to strike out Hendrix while throwing a beachball? He was diving out of the way of balls that weren’t coming anywhere near him. How does the manager now take him out once he finds out HE’S ON LSD? He said people knew, I’m sure it was no secret in the dugout.
Regardless, I think this is the greatest athletic achievements ever. It will never ever be done again, or even attempted. The fact that he no-hit a team when he thought his hands were the size of tennis rackets and he was throwing beachballs, just unreal. Maybe one of my favorite MLB stories ever, it’s a shame there is no real footage of the game either. I’d love to see the shots of him sitting in the dugout just bugging out.
Ellis died in 2008 from cirrhosis of the liver, and after he retired he became a counselor for people with drug addictions. Glad to see he had cleaned up his life and was doing something positive with his life.
Attack your weekend like Dock Ellis attacked that Padre team.