Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Dock Ellis tidbits from various internets
One of the things on Dock's resume is attempting to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup on May 1, 1974. He felt his teammates had lost their aggressiveness and were too easily intimidated. He announced before the game that "We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I'm going to hit these motherfuckers." In an effort to prove a point to teammates, Ellis hit Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Driessen in the top of the first. The clean-up batter Tony Perez avoided Ellis' attempts, instead drawing a walk, and after two pitches aimed at the head of Johnny Bench, Ellis was removed from the game by manager Danny Murtaugh. Ellis' box score for the game reads: 0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.
Of course, the big one is when he pitched a no-hitter on acid on June 12th, 1970. Ellis spent the morning relaxing in his hometown of Los Angeles, under the mistaken belief that it was an off day. Ellis dropped the acid at noon and an hour later his girlfriend noticed in the newspaper he had to pitch a game against the Dodgers that night in San Diego. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark, took some amphetamines to mitigate the effects of the acid, and then threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. According to Ellis, catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers, which helped Ellis to see his target.
"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 [cather'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 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."
One of the things on Dock's resume is attempting to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup on May 1, 1974. He felt his teammates had lost their aggressiveness and were too easily intimidated. He announced before the game that "We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I'm going to hit these motherfuckers." In an effort to prove a point to teammates, Ellis hit Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Driessen in the top of the first. The clean-up batter Tony Perez avoided Ellis' attempts, instead drawing a walk, and after two pitches aimed at the head of Johnny Bench, Ellis was removed from the game by manager Danny Murtaugh. Ellis' box score for the game reads: 0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.
Of course, the big one is when he pitched a no-hitter on acid on June 12th, 1970. Ellis spent the morning relaxing in his hometown of Los Angeles, under the mistaken belief that it was an off day. Ellis dropped the acid at noon and an hour later his girlfriend noticed in the newspaper he had to pitch a game against the Dodgers that night in San Diego. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark, took some amphetamines to mitigate the effects of the acid, and then threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. According to Ellis, catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers, which helped Ellis to see his target.
"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 [cather'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 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."
