We're paying homage to Dock Ellis' no-no with an inning-by-inning depiction of his infamous performance. Get ready for a hell of a trip.
Dock Ellis dropped acid in the San Diego International Airport terminal, timing his dosage so that as his short flight to LAX was landing, his long journey would begin. It was Wednesday, June 10, 1970. The top Pittsburgh Pirate starter was on the West Coast for a series against the Padres, and had decided to hop a flight to Los Angeles for a quick visit with a friend two days before he was scheduled to pitch.
With gum-chewing swagger and excellent drop to his fastball, Dock was pitching the first game of a doubleheader against San Diego on Friday, June 12.
Neither team had started the season well. The Padres were 26-35 in their second major league season, while the talented Pirates had begun the year 28-29. This was the Bucs’ chance to get back to .500, and their 25-year-old right-hander, already a star in his third season, was essential.
Dock awoke in Los Angeles on the morning of Friday, June 12th. Feeling the effects of the previous evening’s festivities wearing off, he popped another tab of acid. The woman he was staying with hurried into the room. “You need to get to San Diego immediately,” she said. “You’re pitching tonight.” “No,” Dock replied, “I’m pitching on Friday night. It’s Thursday.” Then he saw the date on the morning paper. Acid time travel was inconvenient as ever. It was Friday. He’d lost an entire day.
Doc’s female companion – the unsung hero of our tale – dressed the 205-pound hallucinating athlete, poured him into her car, and hauled him back to LAX, while tripping herself.
No one knows how Dock ultimately wound up in the visitor’s clubhouse mere hours before the game, but there he was, ambling to his bag in the corner, ready to begin his pregame ritual, and the first of three strategies for surviving this game: amphetamines.
Dexamyl, or greenies, had been in clubhouses since the 1950s, and Dock often used them to pull himself out of drug-induced valleys. Although he’d pitched stoned before, he’d never taken the mound while on LSD. Dexamyl needed a sidekick. So Dock added Benzedrine white crosses to the greenies and swallowed them down. The combination was unsafe, but he had to land the Lysergic spaceship – or at least bring it into the troposphere.
The second key to navigating the experience wasn’t a drug, but a man: catcher Jerry May.
The Pirates’ starting catcher in 1967 and 1968, Jerry was demoted to backup in 1969. Having a backup catch the high-flying Dock seemed risky on the surface, but Jerry had been behind the plate for the two most important games of Dock’s career. He caught Dock’s first major league start in 1968. And he’d been the catcher in the most dominant game the pitcher had ever thrown, on April 9, when Ellis struck out 13 batters – a total he would never match.
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Dave Roberts took the mound for the Padres in the top of the first. Like Dock, he was a six-foot-three 25-year-old from the Pirates’ farm system. In fact, Dock and Dave were rotation-mates for the AAA Columbus Jets in 1967-1968. A quiet man from Columbus, Roberts was shuttled between the bullpen and rotation after he went to the Padres in 1969.
Though the Pirates fielded a strong lineup, Roberts swept through them, 1-2-3.
Dock began the bottom of the first wild. He couldn’t see the hitters, only silhouettes on the right or left side of the plate. Sometimes, he could barely see his catcher. But Jerry knew the solution. He wrapped his fingers in reflective white tape. Dock focused on the bright white patterns, so he’d know what to throw, and where.
His two walks weren’t unusual. Padre third baseman Steve Huntz, was a walk specialist, finishing in the National League’s top ten in walks per plate appearance that year. Ellis’s other free pass went to Nate Colbert, the Padres’ star slugger.
With two runners on base, Dock found the white reflective tape at the end of the tunnel and struck out Ollie Brown.
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Willie Stargell, the big heart of the Pirates for two decades, started the scoring by blasting a solo home run in the top of the second.
With the Pirates in the lead, Dock found momentary control, setting the Padres down in order, though the second out came thanks to a running stab by nimble center fielder, Matty Alou.
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Dock, a switch-hitter who couldn’t hit from either side of the plate, led off the third. Watching an approaching major league fastball is terrifying when sober. But on LSD? Interstellar Ellis struck out.
In the bottom of the inning, Dock walked Huntz again, but then got his first swinging strikeout, cutting down Al Ferrera for the third out.
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Roberts was in the zone, striking out Roberto Clemente and Stargell. He now had five Ks and no walks.
Dock started out hot as well, striking out the first two batters, but then hit Ivan Murrel with a pitch, sending him to first.
Hitting batters wasn’t unusual for Ellis. He was second in the league in HBs in 1970. And intimidation was the third key to getting through this game. It was part of his style. He didn’t have a blazing fastball, nor could he paint strike zone edges. But players often knew he was on something stronger than green tea, and that his control was questionable. That fear was strategic.
Meanwhile, Murrel noticed that Dock wasn’t paying attention to baserunners, so he promptly stole second base, where he was stranded when Chris Cannizzaro popped out.
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Dock and rookie Dave Cash began joking about this “No-No”, much to the horror of their teammates. Speaking about no-hitters while the event is in progress is verboten in baseball. And now, Cash and the space cadet were talking about it out loud, every inning.
Perhaps the superstition started to pay off, or another wave of LSD arrived, because Dock struggled mightily in the bottom of the fifth. He still couldn’t see the batters, yet occasionally Richard Nixon’s face appeared on the home umpire’s shoulders. The fact that the ball changed weight and size in his hand also didn’t help.
Dock walked two batters again. First, Dave Campbell, who also stole second base without trouble, then Huntz who walked for the third time. Two runners were on base again when Al Ferrara hit the ball back at Ellis. Dock gathered it up and threw him out at first. He’d say later that he had no memory of doing so.
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In 1970, Jerry May led all catchers in cutting down attempted base thefts. The Padres had only stolen three bases twice that year. The Pirates only once let the opposing team go 3 for 3 in stolen bases in a single game that season, and today was the day. Nate Colbert was no speedster, swiping only two bases in his other 155 games, but after Ellis walked him again, Nate nabbed second. Clearly, Dock was distracted.
He struggled to see Jerry’s tape, walking another batter. Eight runners across 5 ⅔ innings wasn’t the sign of a solid game, but manager Danny Murtaugh gambled, keeping Dock on the mound. And it paid off. Ellis struck out Tommy Dean to end the inning.
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Roberts was pitching the better technical game until Willie Stargell backed up Dock’s clutch K with another mammoth homer, lifting the score to 2-0.
After the big strikeout and Stargell’s home run, the Pirates gathered more momentum when aging second baseman Bill Mazeroski leapt to his right, making an airborne backhanded catch of a scorched liner. Then Steve Huntz finally swung his bat, shooting a ground ball to first baseman Al Oliver. To everyone’s surprise, Dock raced to cover first base, catching the throw for the third out.
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Despite his well-pitched game, Dave Roberts was lifted for reliever Ron Herbal. As further proof that Dock was somewhere in the vicinity of San Diego, Ellis hit one of Herbal’s pitches into his favorite groundout.
Matty Alou’s fielding skills were required again in the bottom of the eighth as he chased down a dipping line drive for an out. Dock then walked Ollie Brown, the ninth baserunner, but retired the next batter.
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The score remained 2-0, and it was up to Dock to close out the game. With one out, Padres manager Preston Gomez tried to shake things up by putting in two consecutive pinch hitters, men Dock hadn’t seen during this game. Of course, Dock hadn’t seen anyone on the field, so that gambit was limited.
Pinch hitter Van Kelly zipped a ball to the first baseman, and again Dock found his way to first in a straight line, gloving the throw for the out.
Ed Spiezio, one of the Padres’ best hitters, came to the plate with two outs. Spiezio kept his bat on his shoulder, gambling on the pitcher’s wildness, driving the count to three balls and two strikes. Dock unleashed his most controlled pitch of the game, hitting the corner and striking Spiezio out looking.
Dock Ellis had pitched a no-hitter.
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Dock was ready to party again, but the team had to hurry back to the field to play the second game. Beat reporters found him to be unusually open during postgame interviews. Maybe it was because he was on LSD. Or maybe it was because he had just pitched a no-hitter.
Perhaps both.
Dock Ellis said he never pitched another game on acid. He had his best season the following year, when he started the All Star Game for the National League, and the Pirates won the World Series. He was traded to the Yankees in 1976, and helped them reach the World Series. He was shipped from team to team until finishing his career back with the Pirates in 1979. Teammates again, Dave Roberts pitched in relief in Dock’s final start. But perhaps nothing in Dock’s entire career came close to the day he pitched the no-no, while tripping on acid, in stratospheric orbit.
-- Michael Kravitz
Sources:
Hall, D. & Ellis, D. Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball. New York, NY. Simon & Schuster Inc. 1989.
Epstein, Dan. Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s. New York, NY. St. Martin’s Press. 2012.
No-No: A Dockumentary. Directed by Jeffrey Radice, Arts+Labor, 2014.
Baseball Reference. “Pittsburgh Pirates at San Diego Padres Box Score, June 12, 1970.” https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN197006121.shtml
Puerzer, Rich. “June 12, 1970: Pirates’ Dock Ellis throws a no-hitter.” Society for American Baseball Research. https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-12-1970-pirates-dock-ellis-throws-a-no-hitter/