Dock Ellis passed away on December 19, 2008. He was perhaps the coolest pitcher Major League Baseball ever knew. He pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams, and in 1971 he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates. He was also the NL starting pitcher for that year’s All-Star Game. However Ellis and his legacy is better told through a couple of outrageous but also hilarious stories…

Dock was known for his gritty and aggressive competitiveness but also sometimes silly demeanor on the field. He would preach to fellow teammates that it was better to psyche out your opponent than actually conquer them athletically. In order to prove his point  following a heated debate over the topic with a handful other Pirates players, Ellis attempted to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup during a regular season start in 1974. Ellis first hit Pete Rose, then Joe Morgan, and then Dan Driessen in the top of the first. The clean-up batter Tony Perez dodged the throws in an animated plate appearance and managed to draw a walk by narrowly ducking out of the way of very high and inside fastballs. Ellis then threw two pitches aimed at the head of Johnny Bench - which means 3 current Hall of Fame members were all targeted in the head by Ellis (one day that number will be 4 once they finally let Rose in). Amazingly it was manager Danny Murtaugh who pulled Ellis and not the home plate umpire - who apparently saw no problem with the head-hunting pitching tactics. Ellis’ box score for the game reads: 0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.

The REAL gem of Ellis’ past is his LSD no-hitter and it is best told in his own words… “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 1pm, his girlfriend and trip partner looked at the paper and said, “Dock, you’re pitching today!”

“That’s when it was $9.50 to fly to San Diego. She got me to the airport at 3:30. I got there at 4:30, and the game started at 6:05pm. It was a twi-night doubleheader.

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 dust. 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.”

The Pirates won the game, 2-0, although Ellis walked eight batters. It was the highpoint in the baseball career of one of the finer pitchers of his time, and arguably, one of the greatest achievements in the history of sports. Rest in peace Dock.