Article by Oana Enemănescu – published on Thursday, June 12, 2025, 15:15 / Updated Thursday, June 12, 2025 15:15
On June 12, 1970, now fixed 55 years, at a baseball match between American San Diego Padress and Pittsburgh Pirates teams, one of the host players, the Docock Ellis, he forgot to play and took LSD, just a few hours before the start of the match.
Ellis, then 25 years old, was drugged in Los Angeles, his hometown, where he stopped for a short visit, then realized it was the day of the match, so he took the plane to get on the field at 6 o'clock in the afternoon.
And the result was one contrary to all expectations. Instead of putting in the way of Ellis's sports achievements, the chemical compound with psychedelic effects actually helped the player in the match with opponents in San Diego.
“The ball was too small, too big”
Ellis later told the states that he went through: “I know I was focusing intensely on the glove. The ball was too small, too big. Sometimes I saw the captain, sometimes not. I was trying to look at the captain carefully and throw while staring at him.
I chewed my gum until it turned into dust and powder. I also remember that I threw myself out of a ball that seemed to be in a straight line. I jumped as far as the ball had not been hit hard and couldn't hit me. “
Trip continued: “Through the fourth half, it began to seem to me that the referee is no one but Richard Nixon. And at one point I had the feeling that I was throwing Jimi Hendrix, who, instead of a bat, had a guitar in his hands.
Dock Ellis entered history, though some say that the drugs that helped him are just a myth
In the years that followed, the bizarre Pățanie to Dock Ellis transformed him into a true legend of the Major League Baseball. On that 55-year-old day, none of the Batterii Adverși have caught his throwing, that is, the match was a so-called no-Hitter.
The story of Ellis's life, which died in 2008 by cirrhosis, while waiting for a liver transplant, is anyway very complicated and controversial. At the end of his life he had no medical insurance, but all the invites from hospitals were paid by friends and former teammates.
Born in Los Angeles, in 1945, Dock Ellis began to consume alcohol and drugs at 14. He started his sports career as a basketball player but, After being caught smoking marijuana in the high school bath, he had to choose: the baseball team of his school or the definitive expel.
Dock Ellis (Pittsburgh Pirates)
At the age of 17, Ellis was diagnosed with siclymia-also known as falciform anemia, this is a genetic disease that affects the red blood cells, causing them to change their appearance and gain a harvest form.
This abnormal form of erythrocytes makes them less flexible, obtaining the transport of oxygen and leading to serious complications.
MLB champion in 1971 with Pittsburgh Pirates, Dock Ellis has been married four times. Had two daughters and a son. Both girls died, one of complications of diabetes, the other of cancer.
In 1980, the baseball player gave up alcohol and drugs, when his son was very young. Also in that year he was withdrawn from baseball, saying he has no interest in this sport.
The addiction of Dock Ellis on various substances was so serious that he came to say, in 1973, that he was awake on the ground and had a panic attack: could not throw the ball without alcohol or drugs on board.
“When heating, I was not able to recreate the throwing movements. So I returned to the locker rooms, where I consumed amphetamines with coffee,” the baseball player told the story.
In fact, after his own testimonies, Dock Ellis did not enter or undrogated on the field at any of his Major League Baseball matches.
