Doc Ellis Pitches a No Hitter on LSD

I saw this story on Digg yesterday that I had never heard before and just had to share it.

The year is 1970. The Pittsburgh Pirates are scheduled to play a double header against the Padres in San Diego. Pirates star pitcher Doc Ellis
is in his home town of Los Angeles taking it easy with some friends because he thinks the Pirates don't play that dat. Being that this was the 70's, relaxing with your friends means taking a hit of LSD.

His girlfriend who happens to be reading the newspaper sees that not only are the Pirates playing that day, it's a double header and Ellis is scheduled to pitch game one.

Ellis hops on a plan and heads for San Diego. One can only speculate as to his actual state of intoxication by game time at 4:30.

In Ellis' words "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 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."

In the end Doc Ellis ends up pitching a complete game no hitter and the Pirates won 2-0. Despite winning he was unusually wild this game, hitting one batter and walking eight. It was not until almost 15 years later that Ellis admitted in an interview with a reporter that he pitched on LSD that day.

So there's the story of Doc Ellis pitching on acid. Not surprisingly it's pretty much what he's best known for despite being a good pitcher. He is also known for one other strange incident. On May 1, 1974 he announced to his teammates that he was going to get revenge on their opponents that day, the rival Cincinnati Reds, who knocked them out of a chance to win the world series a year earlier.

Once again we'll let Doc Ellis speak for himself: "We gonna get down. We gonna do. I'm going to hit these Motherf***ers. And he backed it up. He hit future hall of famer Pete Rose to start the game. Then he hit the next batter, future hall of famer Joe Morgan. Then he beaned batter number three Dan Driessen. Number four hitter Tony Perez jumped out of the way of his pitches and took a walk on four pitches. The next batter Johnny Bench ducked out of two pitches in a row thrown at his head and then the Pirates manager pulled him from the game. Perhaps he was on something that day as well?

Anyway, Doc Ellis, here's to you, the only major league player who has admitted to pitching on LSD and throwing a no hitter. Quite a feat my friend.

DUH



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Sources:

Wikipedia
SirBacon.org (story and photo)
Snopes