The Absolutely True Story of the LSD No-Hitter

Dock Ellis, in his own words.

Dock Ellis, former pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, speaking to inmates at Marantha Correctional Facility, Adelanto, California:

“When you get to the big leagues, you start getting big-league dope.

“So here’s what happened to me. I was functioning as a baseball player, but I was addicted to drugs and alcohol. I wanted you to understand that my life was no different than yours–my arena was just different. I was in baseball but I was in the streets too. Like I was saying, it’s all the same. We experience the same kind of stuff, some more than others, but it’s all the same.

 “I played baseball from 1964 to 1979. I was in two World Series…. After I got out of baseball, I ended up in treatment…. I went to school, the University of California, Irvine, to become a substance abuse counselor.

 “Yeah, I threw a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the San Diego Padres in 1970, under the influence of LSD. Want to hear the story? I was in Los Angeles, and the team was playing in San Diego, but I didn’t know it. I had taken LSD… I thought it was an off day, that’s how come I had it in me. I took the LSD at noon. At 1 PM, my girlfriend looked at the newspaper and said, “Doc, you are pitching today!”….

“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 3 to 4 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. The Pirates won the game 2-0, although I walked eight batters. It was the high point of my baseball career.”

[From “The Harder They Fall: Celebrities Tell Their Real-Life Stories of Addiction and Recovery,” by Gary Stromberg and Jane Merrill.]

Graphics credit: http://slanchreport.com/