That Time Pirates Pitcher Dock Ellis Threw a No-Hitter on LSD
He wrapped it up at around 9 PM on the night of June 12, 1970, just about 10 or so hours after dropping acid at a friend’s house in Los Angeles.
Ellis himself, who would no doubt be an infamous legend of the game even without this story as part of his legacy, is the lone primary source for what is now an immortal piece of baseball lore, but he was never proud of it, and didn’t end up revealing any of the details about that night until 14 years later, in an interview with the Pittsburgh Press.
It all started the day before the game, at around noon on July 11th, just after the Pirates team plane touched down at San Diego’s international airport ahead of a weekend series with the Padres at bygone San Diego Stadium. It was a long flight, about 6 hours, so they made the trip on an off-day. That meant the players had the freedom to do whatever they wanted for the next 26 hours, when it would be time to report to the park. Ellis decided to spend his day with some old friends in nearby Los Angeles, where he was originally born and raised. So, he rented a car, and started the three hour trip north at around 1, but not before dropping a couple tabs of acid. Who knows why. To spice up the drive, maybe.
When he pulled up to the house he’d ultimately spend the night, the owner of the place, Mitzi, the girlfriend of a childhood friend, immediately noticed something was off about him.
‘Dock,’ he remembered her asking, ‘what’s wrong?’
‘I'm as high as a Georgia pine…’
The two of them stayed up all through the night, pounding back screwdrivers and smoking copious amounts of weed until the sun finally came up the next morning. Ellis passed out sometime soon after, but it turned out to just be a nap. He woke up at 11, he remembered, and immediately dropped a couple more tabs of acid. Again, who knows why. Then, he got some pretty unwelcome news from Mitzi, who rushed into his room at around noon with a newspaper in her hand.
‘Dock, you better get up. You gotta go pitch!’
‘What are you talking about? I pitch tomorrow.’
She handed him the sports section, flipped open to the preview for that nights game:
‘Pirates-Padres, Game Time: 6:05. Game 1 starter: Dock Ellis.’