Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Incredible Accomplishment of Doc Ellis

By Phil Erickson

Dock Ellis was not the biggest name in baseball history, but he was a piece of it in 1970 when he fired a no-hitter. This is easily one of the weirder stories in sports history, and if you haven't heard about it before, you're in for a treat.

It wasn't until 1984 that Ellis shared his secret with the world, so none of his teammates had even known that he was on LSD during this game. Still, this is something cray that people had a hard time believing after he revealed this.

Why would a pitcher ever take drugs on the day of his start, you ask? Well, it wasn't as if he purposely did this. He actually mistakenly believed that his next start wasn't for a few days, so he had taken LSD on his day off, not thinking he would have to pitch until a few days later. When he learned that it was his turn to start, he rushed to the stadium immediately.

He would later say he remembers very little about the game. He focused solely on the catcher's glove, and was pretty wild the entire game. He had numerous walks and hit batters, but no one could actually hit him.

There were points in the game where his teammates had to remind him what was going on. He'd forget where he was in the count and he ran away from the ball scared a few times when it was hit in his direction.

As amazing as Ellis's accomplishment is, this can't be praised. No professional athlete should be taking drugs, especially one who had worked with children telling them not to take drugs. Nonetheless, this is a story that people will talk about for a long time.

One thing is for sure. This is something that will most likely never happen again in the future of baseball.

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