Dock Ellis and the LSD No-Hitter

Just in case you haven’t heard it before, we offer the following true story, told by Dock Ellis, former pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, to inmates at the Marantha Correctional Facility in California. “When you get to the big leagues, you start getting big-league dope.... I was functioning as a baseball player, but I was addicted to drugs and alcohol…. “Yeah, I threw a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the San Diego Padres in 1970, under the influence of 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 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…. 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.” You can say that again.