Hits produce No Hitter

Pitcher high on Acid throws a no hitter. This here inneresting to Goliath

Ellis consumed the LSD that would generate his greatest performance the afternoon of June number twelve, nineteen seventy, the year of our Lord. Ellis woke up that morning hung over from twenty plus hours of screwdrivers, reefers and amphetamines. He was back in his hometown of Los Angeles enjoying some leisure time prior to a Pittsburgh series with the San Diego Padres. By his own admission, Ellis was a regular day-off connoisseur of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. He had christened a room in his Hollywood home "The Dungeon" where he would enjoy mind-expanding experiences guided by the LPs of Iron Butterfly and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. His indulgence in the L.A. generated "Purple Haze" strain of acid was an easy choice for the devoted Hendrix buff. Such rituals had him prepared, to some degree, for the notorious experience that went down at Jack Murphy Stadium on a caliginous San Diego day.

Ellis described sports' most psychedelic event on NPR in the spring of 2008, "We flew out of San Diego and I asked the manager could I go [to my home in Los Angeles] cause we had an off day. So he said, 'Yeah,' so I took some LSD at the airport cause I knew where it would hit me. I'd be in my own little area where I knew where to go, so that's how I got to [my friend's] house. She said, 'What's wrong with you?' I said, 'I'm high as a Georgia pine!' The next day, which I thought was the next day, she told me, 'You gotta get up, you gotta go pitch!' I said, 'Pitch? I pitch tomorrow. Hell, what are you talking about?' Cause I got up in the middle of the morning and took some more acid. She grabbed the paper, brought me the sports page and showed me... THUNK. I said, 'Ah, wow. What happened to yesterday?' She said, 'I don't know, but you better get to that airport."

The Dallas Observer recounted that Ellis estimated the LSD would not last until the evening's game, which was scheduled to start later than usual. Then Ellis remembered why the game was scheduled late, "The pirates had a doubleheader. And he was pitching the first game. He had four hours to get to San Diego and pitch."

Dock Ellis: "Now this was in the seventies and greens was Dexamyl. That was the drug of choice back then ... a stimulant. Over ninety percent of the major league was using Dexamyl when I was playing. When I got to the game, there was a lady down there in San Diego who used to always have the Bennies for me - Benzedrine ... I went out to the dugout and reached up 'cause .... she always stood over the rail. Had a perfect little gold pouch. So I got the Bennies, went back over to the clubhouse, took them. The game started and the mist started. Misty rain. So all during the game was a little mist. The opposing team and my teammates, they knew I was high but they didn't know what I was high on ... They had no idea what LSD was other than what they'd see on TV with the hippies.

"I didn't see the hitters. All I could tell was if they were on the right side or the left side. The catcher put tape on his fingers so I could see the signals. We had a rookie on the team at that particular time named Dave Cash and he kept saying after the first inning, 'You got a no-no going,' a no-hitter. I said, 'Yeah, right.' Around the fourth inning he'd say it again ... I'd look, 'Yup.' But I could also feel the pressure from other players wanting to tell him to shut up. It's a superstition thing where you're not supposed to say nothin' if somebody's throwing a no-hitter. There were times when the ball was hit back at me. I jumped because I thought it was coming fast but the ball was coming slow. Third baseman would come by and grab the ball and threw somebody out ... I thought there was a big old ball and then sometimes it looked small ... I covered first base and I caught the ball and I tagged the base all in one motion and I said, 'Ooh, I just made a touchdown.'

"I didn't pay no attention to the score, y'know, I'm trying to get the batters out. I'm throwing a crazy game. I'm hitting people, walking people, throwing balls in the dirt, they're going everywhere. It was easier to pitch with the LSD because I was so used to medicating myself. That's the way I was dealing with the fear of failure, the fear of losing, the fear of winning, it was part of the game. You get to the major leagues and you say I got to stay here... what do I need?" It is widely believed no footage of the game exists, however an HBO Documentary crew apparently dug up a black and white copy for Ellis to show to a group of prisoners for a drug counseling session a couple years ago. The footage was missing a few innings but it did include a post-game interview with Dock veering into abstract philosophical rambling - naturally leaving the group of prisoners that viewed it howling.

Here the Web site for whole story: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/09/just-what-the-doc-ordered-lsd-and-the-strangest-moment-in-major-league-history.html