CLASSIC: Dock Ellis and the Legend of the LSD No-hitter - Ridiculous History

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[00:00]
Ben
We have a fascinating, or we hope fascinating classic episode for you ridiculous historians. If you are a fan of baseball, if you are a fan of lsd, this is the episode for you.
[00:15]
Nolan
Yeah, I mean it's almost like, need we say more? Doc Ellis and the Legend of the lsd no hitter, anyone out there that's a sports fan knows how hard it is for a pitcher to achieve an entire game where nobody hits the ball that they have thrown, not to mention while tripping, sipping on a heavy psychedelic.
[00:36]
Ben
So join us as we dive into this thoroughly ridiculous, absolutely true story of how Doc Ellis became Beat me here Max a legend.
[00:52]
Nolan
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Ben
From festive performances and great gift ideas to tips for the perfect holiday feast.
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Nolan
Join us every morning on NBC and make today your home for the holidays.
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You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways.
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And all the styles that show off.
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[03:57]
Nolan
Foreign.
[04:17]
Ben
Switch at the top of the show. Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, you may have thought you are tuning into a podcast, but for the moment, you are at a baseball game. Hear the crowd smell the popcorn, the hot dogs, the distant crack of a baseball bat.
[04:34]
Nolan
The stale urine.
[04:35]
Ben
The stale urine. The beer that somehow smells both like beer and stale urine.
[04:41]
Nolan
Sort of a melange, really. It all sort of comes together and. What's the word? Miasma.
[04:45]
Ben
Miasma. Yeah. A collage for the senses.
[04:49]
Nolan
A nose collage.
[04:50]
Ben
A cavalcade of experience. Hello. My name is Ben.
[04:54]
Nolan
My name is Nolan. We love words.
[04:56]
Ben
We love words. Almost as much as we love our super producer, Casey Batterup. Pegram. Noel, I was wondering, now that we're at this hypothetical baseball game, were you much of a baseballer?
[05:12]
Nolan
Yeah. I mean, I played outfield when I was, like, in elementary school, but I was, you know, I was a turd to put it to Arrested Development. Yeah, I was no good. I was just looking around, you know, just smelling the pee. Not really being a very effective part of the team.
[05:29]
Ben
Wait, you were in a stale, urine soaked Little league team?
[05:34]
Nolan
They all. They all smell like that, Ben. From the little leagues to the minor leagues to the major leagues, they all smell like pee.
[05:40]
Ben
Well, we did grow up. I do love that unintentional rhyme. We did grow up in different towns. I associate with the smell of peanuts. I was also an outfield guy. Uh, so maybe I was right.
[05:51]
Nolan
That's what I meant peanuts. Peanuts.
[05:53]
Ben
There we go.
[05:53]
Nolan
I'm. I'm sorry, I was confused.
[05:55]
Ben
No, no, not at all. So it's strange because one of the most. One of the most beautiful series of memories that I have from growing up is that in the early 90s you could get very, very cheap field side seats. And that was my primary informative experience with baseball until we started doing ridiculous history and exploring some of the strange baseball stories, most particularly Curse of the Colonel. But even if you haven't played baseball, or even if you hate baseball, ridiculous historians, you have probably experienced one of the most amazing cognitive things that humans are capable of experiencing.
[06:39]
Nolan
Dropping acid.
[06:41]
Ben
I was going to say flow state.
[06:42]
Nolan
Oh, cool.
[06:44]
Ben
It's one of those.
[06:45]
Nolan
That too, yeah.
[06:47]
Ben
There are many roads to the Rome known as the flow state. Meditation exercise, lsd. And today our story encounters all three. Baseball, LSD and the flow state.
[07:04]
Nolan
It's true.
[07:05]
Ben
At least it is commonly accepted as true. Right. So, Noel, could you set the scene? Could you take us there?
[07:11]
Nolan
Yeah, I will take you there. It was a Friday on June 12th of 1970, right on the tail end of the roaring 60s. That's not what they were called. That was the 20s. What were the 60s? What's a good adjective for the 60s?
[07:29]
Ben
The vibrant.
[07:31]
Nolan
The vibrant. Unbridled, unhinged. Tune in. Free turn off, dropout, free love, free. All that stuff. And you know, a big part of that was a guy named Timothy Leary who was. He worked at Harvard in the laboratories there, but he researched with the effects of psychedelic drugs on the mind. And he became this kind of svengali of the 60s and of psychedelic experiences. Right. A guru figure, it's true. And there was another guy named Doc Ellis on that day, June 12, 1970, who was a fantastic pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And he had just arrived at the stadium in San Diego, California to be the starting pitcher for a game against the San Diego Padres.
[08:27]
Ben
But here's the problem. He got there just an hour and a half, 90 minutes before he's supposed to be on the field. And he is not sober because he's coming in. And he had no idea that he was supposed to play today. In fact, he has partied to a cartoonish degree the night before. Right. He's dropped acid. He drank like a fish and he woke up the same day. And I think it was about what, about noon that he took another hit of acid.
[09:02]
Nolan
Yeah, he was in Los Angeles, it was his hometown. The game was in San Diego. He thought he had a day off. He did have a day off. But he burned through that day, day off, as you just described. And then he woke up at around noon after having taken another hit. And it was a friend, a girlfriend of one of his childhood friends, who he was hanging out with and then crashed over there with. Showed him the newspaper, the day's newspaper, the sports page more specifically, which said, hey, you're the starting pitcher for this game that's about to happen today in San Diego. So he got all his stuff together, ran to the airport while tripping an lsd, mind you, caught an afternoon flight and a cab directly to the stadium.
[09:49]
Ben
And here's the. There's this great article on ESPN by Patrick Hruby that explains it this way. And this is according to Doc Ellis himself. He landed in the San Diego airport. He hopped in a cab outside, and all he said was, casey, can you beat me on this? Get to the stadium, I gotta pitch.
[10:10]
Nolan
Yeah. And pitch he did. You know what's funny? I'm thinking about all this, and I'm thinking about just the stress of going to the airport in general and, like, being on a tight timeline and being worried about missing your flight or being worried about missing your appointment or whatever. Can you imagine that with the added stress of, you know, being in an altered state?
[10:31]
Ben
Yeah. I was thinking about this because, you know, stress can be such a personal thing, and I was wondering how much would it stress him out? To me, being late for something is more stressful than going to an airport. I hate being late for stuff. But regardless of which way you look at it, compounding that with a altered state of consciousness, and then also compounding that with the fact that you are a public performer, you're an athlete. Right. Who's going to be performing in a crowd. It's not like you're late to your job as an archivist in a basement where no one will see you for eight hours. He was also 25 years old, known for his curveball and his partying days. That's another thing that makes me wonder about his state of stress in this moment was because it wasn't like this was his first bender. Not at all.
[11:25]
Nolan
No, not at all. And we will get to that. But let's hear a little clip that does a really good job of summing up how it might have felt to be standing in that particular situation, in that particular state of mind. There was one guy, one guy who had an amazing claim to fame in terms of drugs and sports. His name was Doc Ellis. And Doc Ellis did an incredible thing. The one person who knows. Thank you Doc Ellis pitched a no hitter on lsd. Those who've taken lsd, tell the others how hard that might be. If I took lsd, I'd be talking to every blade of grass like, sorry, sorry, sorry. To walk into a major league baseball stadium like the whole field is like, okay, so you a little creative license there from Robin Williams. But he did tip us off to the outcome of this thing that Doc Ellis did. He pitched a no hitter.
[12:28]
Ben
Yes, and this is an incredibly rare feat. In 136 years of baseball history, only 276no hitters have ever been recorded. And as far as we know, this is the only one that occurred under the influence of lsd. And it's strange because you would expect maybe he would call out of the game, maybe he would show up and have an abysmal performance, but he played on acid not only well, but spectacularly. He also did walk quite a few batters, but no one hit a ball that he threw. And additionally, no one knew that he was on LSD. Or virtually no one. It wasn't until 14 years later that Ellis confirmed to a reporter at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that he had played the game on acid. And the reporter, Bob Smisek, brought this up because he was working off a tip. Somebody had told them there was a rumor. Also, Ellis didn't just say that he took acid. He said he took acid that he received from Tim Leary, the guru himself.
[13:44]
Nolan
He did say that thing, Ben. It's very true. And it's a problematic story for a few reasons that come from that ESPN article that we. But it's called the Long Strange Trip of Doc Ellis. But it wasn't smizik that Doc told that particular part of the story to. It was later when he was inducted into something called the Baseball Reliquary Shrine of the Eternals. That was in Pasadena, California. And he was talking to the executive director, a guy named Terry Cannon, who he told that Leary, that former Harvard psych professor, had given him the drug because he wanted to see. He wanted to test how it would affect a professional athlete.
[14:30]
Ben
That's a weird claim though, isn't it?
[14:31]
Nolan
It's a very weird claim. A claim that has several serious problems that are outlined beautifully in this article. One of the big ones right off the bat was that during this time Leary was in fact, incarcerated. And that comes from his biography, Robert Greenfield.
[14:46]
Ben
Yeah, and then another thing is he said that he got the acid from a UCLA laboratory. And also people on Leary's side don't agree.
[14:58]
Nolan
Yeah, Leary actually has a personal archivist, a guy named Michael Horowitz, that said this was just almost definitely bogus based on, I think, probably most specifically the fact that he was in jail. But he did say that Leary knew about the nil hitter and found out about it, and that he had purchased Leary some of Doc Ellis's baseball cards and that Leary carried one around with him for the rest of his life to show off to fans of psychedelics and sports.
[15:25]
Ben
Right. So if we look at the timeline here, that makes it sound much more likely that Leary, while a fan, learned of this experience afterwards rather than beforehand. You know what I mean?
[15:40]
Nolan
I do know what you mean. And it's interesting too, because Ellis had, as you said, Ben, a reputation that was not only about partying, but was just about being kind of his own kind of free spirit in general. He kind of did things his own way. March to his own drummer and you know, you get the gist.
[16:01]
Ben
Yeah, yeah. He described himself as arrogant, flamboyant and controversial. There's an article from the Washington Post by Matt Schuttel that explains some of Ellis's erratic behavior, or at least depicts it. He was known for throwing balls directly at batters, arguing with managers and players from other teams, and he even chased hecklers in the stands. So, you know, there are a lot of fans of sports who will heckle the opposing team's players. This was a guy who had come.
[16:34]
Nolan
After you, oh, big time, which is crazy. And he came up in the minors. He was like, I think 18 years old when he got recruited, maybe 19 when he first started playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And this was during a time of horrible racial inequality in the United States.
[16:51]
Ben
He refused in many ways to fit in that stereotypical cookie cutter image that mass media and the culture of the time would try to force people into based on what they perceived as what this person should be like or what they were doing. One of my favorite examples, he once showed up in the Pirate's bullpen wearing hair curlers. Cuz he said that the resulting moisture on his head would help him throw his signature and illegal spitball.
[17:21]
Nolan
Yeah, very illegal. A spitball is an illegal pitch where the pitcher actually changes the way the ball contacts the hand by putting spit or some kind of like foreign substance like petroleum jelly or in this case, the sweat off of the back of his neck. But yeah, he actually got issued a letter from the commissioner of Major League Baseball ordering him not to wear hair curlers. And the thing with him was he just didn't like being told what to do. And he might have come off as erratic or just willful, but he kind of knew what he was doing. According to a lot of his childhood friends, people that had known him his whole life. They were interviewed in a really cool movie called no, no, A documentary, Dock D O C K, which is excellent and a really good deep dive into this very divisive and interesting man's life. So in the film, another pitcher named Steve Blass said that in those days, which was the 60s, they were playing a lot of day games, so everyone was showing up completely hungover. And one way that you dealt with that was by taking amphetamines.
[18:37]
Ben
Yeah. See, history today remembers Doc Ellis primarily as the guy who pitched a no hitter while he was on lsd. But there are a couple of things that are misremembered there. One is the nature of LSD or acid and how high he would have been actually. And then the second thing is, that was not the normal thing. It was much more normal for players to be consuming amphetamines.
[19:09]
Nolan
Yeah. Several players from that era were interviewed for this film, and I think the number got as high as, like, 96%. These guys are obviously, you know, editorializing here a little bit. There's no poll that was taken, but they were in the game. You know, they were around these guys and they knew what was done. And it wasn't like people weren't juicing in those days. They weren't taking steroids necessarily. They were popping bennies and greenies or dexamil.
[19:37]
Ben
Right. Which was a drug of choice. And this was kind of before the era of widespread steroid use.
[19:44]
Nolan
That's right.
[19:46]
Ben
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[25:06]
Ben
So one thing we absolutely want to do in the exploration of this story is establish that, yeah, Doc Ellis may have been the only person on the field on lsd, but that doesn't mean he was the only person on the field on drugs in an altered state. In an altered state.
[25:22]
Nolan
Right. Because I mean, the thing about, you know, those kinds of amphetamines is the kind of stuff that fighter pilots would take, you know, during World War II. Hitler was quite fond of them. Not to equate baseball players from the 60s with Adolf Hitler, but it was certainly a tool of war. And sports are nothing if not organized war where nobody dies.
[25:43]
Ben
You know, that's one of the more popular philosophical interpretations of athleticism that goes back into ancient days.
[25:52]
Nolan
Yeah, bread and circuses. Right?
[25:53]
Ben
Right.
[25:53]
Nolan
We don't have to chop heads. Although people might die of like heat stroke or, you know, some sort of traumatic brain injury over time, but typically you would not see people carried off of the field of baseball in a stretcher.
[26:07]
Ben
And there was also a pro cannabis culture at the time. Right. It was not uncommon for athletes to also smoke weed.
[26:13]
Nolan
It's true. And I'm wondering, Ben, I couldn't quite find this, but when did it, like, if this was such common knowledge or it just seemed so obvious. I did see a trainer saying, I didn't want this in my locker room. Don't let me see you doing it. But certainly seemed quite pervasive. When was it that widespread drug testing became a thing in major League Baseball?
[26:33]
Ben
Yeah, you have to wonder if it was a result of widespread drug test policies. Maybe players only stopped doing this stuff when it became a firable or fineable offense. Right. Other than someone writing a angry letter to you. There's also a question about how much drug use really has dwindled. According to an article by Huffington Post written by andy Martino In 2017, current and former baseball players have said that as many as 25% of major league baseball players have used cocaine. So is it a situation where there are fewer altered states, or is it a situation where the type of drug changes but drug use still exists?
[27:21]
Nolan
Yeah, I'm not quite sure.
[27:23]
Ben
I'm not quite sure either. But it's mystifying because as a fairly square person myself, I would just imagine that these all have radically different effects. Right?
[27:33]
Nolan
I would think so. Ben, here's the thing too, about Doc Ellis. We talk about the drug use. We talked about him being a bit of a loose cannon. But he. He was described by a lot of his friends in this documentary as being controlled crazy. They called him controlled crazy. He knew how to keep his wild behavior in check and to do it just enough so that it could make him money like Dennis Rodman style.
[27:59]
Ben
Right. So there might be some marketing there, some focused application of eccentricity or insanity.
[28:04]
Nolan
That's right. Because you have to think, too, in those days, especially during this no hitter, African American pop culture had really infiltrated the mainstream. And Doc was a flashy guy. He had fashion sense. He liked to wear big, loud colors and big, you know, clunky clogs and bell bottoms. And he was like one of the first guys to wear an earring. Very ahead of his time, culturally at least in terms of baseball. Because he actually was quoted as saying when Talking about the 1971 All Star Game that. That baseball was pretty backwards when it came to black players. Yeah. And there was a controversy because he really liked to stir stuff up. And in the press, he came out and said, you are not gonna put two brothers against each other in this All Star game. Meaning they had already said that they were going to start the American League team with Vita Blue, who was a black pitcher. And Doc thought that he was gonna not get to start for his league because a guy named Sparky Anderson, a white, was probably going to get that privilege. So he got the media all stirred up and was kind of able to bait them into getting him exactly what he wanted. And he started in the All Star Game, right?
[29:19]
Ben
Yeah. And it's strange because looking back in his later interviews when he sobered up, Ellis said that he did not remember a lot of these activities. Not only did he not remember a lot of the details of his legendary no hitter run, he also said he didn't remember much of 1969 and 1970 in general.
[29:45]
Nolan
Yeah, it's like, what is it? Matt LeBlanc and friends. He said he couldn't remember like a whole season of that show cause he was on so many pills the whole time. Yeah, I can't imagine not remembering like a whole year.
[29:56]
Ben
I mean, it could happen for a number of reasons. I got a few fuzzy ones. I think I'm gonna take us down a really brief side trail here that listeners from some of our other shows are familiar with. Regardless of what sort of substances you may or may not take throughout your life, your memory is treacherous and it works against you.
[30:13]
Nolan
Oh, for sure.
[30:14]
Ben
Because every time you're remembering something, you're not remembering the event, you're remembering the last time you remembered it. So you're playing a game of telephone with yourself. That's why you will see even in accounts we've presented in this show. That's why you'll see people who, who years later claim that a myth about them is true even when it is demonstrably not the case. And I had a question with Ellis. I don't know how you feel, Noel, but I believe the LSD story. I think it's true.
[30:44]
Nolan
Yeah. In fact, you can hear Doc himself describe all of this in a really cool animated short by an outfit called no Mas that's illustrated by a guy named James Blagdon and has audio from an interview that Ellis in 2008 on NPR with Donnell Alexander and Nyli Ilel. And it's a really, really cool video. And why don't we play a little clip of that audio right now?
[31:11]
Ben
I didn't see the hitters. All I could tell was if they was on the right side or the left side. The catcher put tape on his fingers so I could see the signals. We had a rookie on the team at that particular ticker term named Dave Cash. And he kept saying after the first inning, he said, you got a no, no going.
[31:32]
Nolan
No, hit it. I said, yeah, right, yeah. I don't know, Ben, but hearing him tell that story, it sure sounds like somebody telling a story they actually believe happened. But it's hard to say. We also know that he was probably not telling the truth about the whole Timothy Leary thing. So, you know, I guess the jury's out. But I would like to believe that it happened.
[31:52]
Ben
So I don't know about you fellow ridiculous historians, but I largely believe the bones of this story, the structure of it. However, I have some pretty pertinent questions, one being the degree of alteration that applied. If you look at the timeline of the LSD was taking, the way LSD works, was he taking a larger hit? You know, was he off his cantaloupes? Or was he experiencing the equivalent of what Silicon Valley and Burning man fans would call a microdose?
[32:28]
Nolan
Yeah. From hearing him tell it, this was his second tab that he had taken. And in those days, that stuff probably would have been pretty potent. So I would lean more towards what the kids call tripping balls.
[32:40]
Ben
So this LSD probably would have come from a source similar to Owlsley, the legendary LSD supplier. And the reason wondering about the microdosing is because preliminary studies, which have only occurred quite recently, seem to indicate that there may be some sort of relationship between what we call the flow state and the use of small amounts of hallucinogens, not just lsd, but psilocybin. So without getting too into it, I have some pretty fascinating studies. But I'd like to hear from you folks. Do you think that there was a relationship between the LSD that Doc Ellis consumed? Did it put him in a flow state similar to the experience people would have when they practice the use of transcranial direct current simulation or meditation or what have you? Or do you think it was a coincidence? Do you think he succeeded in spite of this? This episode of ridiculous history is brought to you by ebay Motors.
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Ben
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[38:24]
Nolan
You know, I did hear or I read that that year the Padres were not particularly good. They had lost like 90 something games in that season. So you know, could have just been a bad performance on their part. But either way it's pretty impressive that a guy could perform that well under the influence of such a mind altering.
[38:45]
Ben
Yeah, and Ellis's importance and his influence were not just confined to the field of play. He was influential and important on the US Cultural stage. And other people acknowledged this, right?
[39:01]
Nolan
Very much so. I mean, we talked about how he was able to influence that decision of starting two black pitchers against one another in the 1971 All Star Game. Also that year he went on to win the World Series with the Pirates. And one of his mentors was a Puerto Rican player, also black by the name of Roberto Clemente, who was himself an outspoken opponent of racism in baseball. And he and Ellis ended up being on a version of the Pirates that had nine black players. And it really kind of was right on this turning point of culture where black culture became much more mainstream like we talked about earlier and players on the team talk less about this being a historic thing and just being about the fact that everyone was fantastic baseball players. So he really helped turn that conversation around to the point where he actually got a very important letter from Jackie Robinson and actually, here's a clip of Doc reading a bit of this letter from that documentary called no News.
[40:11]
Ben
I read your comments in our paper the last few days and want you to know how much I appreciate your courage and honesty. In my opinion, progress for today's players will only come from this kind of dedication.
[40:25]
Nolan
I'm sure also you know some of the possible consequences.
[40:29]
Ben
The news media, while knowing full well you are right and honest, will use every means to get back at you. There will be times when you will.
[40:40]
Nolan
Ask yourself, is it worth it all? I can only say, Doc, it is. And even though you will want to yield in the long run, your own.
[40:49]
Ben
Feeling about yourself will be most important. Try not to be left alone. So he goes on to say, try to get more players to understand your views and you will find great support. You have made a real contribution. I surely hope your great ability continues. That ability will determine the success of your dedication and honesty. I again appreciate what you are doing. Continued success Jackie Robinson and you can read the full letter on various sites online. Just search for Jackie Robinson and Doc Ellis. This leads us to perhaps one of the most important points of the story, which is the following. It is very easy, it is tempting, and it is, yes, fun to think of Doc Ellis solely as a guy who said, I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire. I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, and so on. But that is a mischaracterization. We are defining an entire person by one afternoon in their life. And as Brittany de la Cretaz argues in a Rolling Stone article, how Doc Ellis, player who pitched a no hitter on LSD is misremembered. It is better, and more importantly, it is more accurate to remember him as an outspoken advocate not just for racial equality, but also for sobriety. Doc Ellis retired from baseball in 1980 and he didn't have some egregious injury that rendered him physically incapable playing the game. According to him, he lost interest in the game. And in that same year he entered rehab. He stayed for 40 days at a location in Wickenburg, Arizona known as the Meadows. And it wasn't until 1984 that he revealed he had pitched this no hitter under the influence of lsd. And once achieving sobriety, he spent the rest of his life helping other people escape drug addiction. Which is commendable, you know, and he spent 28 years doing this.
[43:07]
Nolan
Yeah, he was no joke about it either. I mean, he brought that same bravado and intensity that he brought to the game and that he used to not take any crap from anybody in terms of the way he dealt with racism. He brought that same energy to helping people escape their demons and their addictions and not. Not taking no for an answer and not putting up with anyone making excuses for themselves.
[43:35]
Ben
Yeah, and he had worked as a counselor in Beverly Hills. He had worked in jails and institutions and juvenile detention centers. And you know, you kind of have to wonder, and I don't know whether there's an answer to this, but you kind of have to wonder why out of the almost three decades of work he did helping people achieve sobriety, he is still known for one. Granted, one amazing game, but one LSD influenced game in 1970? I don't know what the answer is.
[44:12]
Nolan
I mean from his own mouth. Apparently one of his favorite phrases around the house was F baseball. He apparently, according to this fantastic ESPN article, felt very used up and abused by it. Having started at it at such a young age and despite achieving such great success, it being a very big part of his young adult life that possibly led to some of these substance abuse problems to help deal with pain that he had in his arm from throwing the ball so hard all the time, from traveling around, being constantly on the road feeling a little uprooted and isolated. And these are his own words from the documentary. So you know, I could see how that would be a complicated relationship. It's something that gave him much success and accolades. But he never played a game sober. He did try to one time in 1973, gave it a shot and started warming up in the bullpen, only to realize that he had, quote, forgotten how to throw.
[45:17]
Ben
It's interesting cause it ties into something that people call state dependent learning. Have you heard of this?
[45:22]
Nolan
I have.
[45:23]
Ben
It's the idea that the substances influencing your body when you are learning or engaging in a certain skill then have an effect on your performance in that skill. So for instance, a more wholesome version of this would be the idea that when you drink coffee and you're studying something, then you are going to be more likely to successfully recall it it when you are drinking coffee again. Right. That's a very at base explanation, but it can extend to other substances as well. Oh, I should also mention he was an advocate for the treatment of sickle cell.
[46:05]
Nolan
That's right. He was able to get funding in somewhere in the neighborhood of $140 million for that disease that was largely misunderstood and a huge problem for the African American community.
[46:18]
Ben
In 1989, he sort of returned to baseball when he served as a player and coach for the Saint Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. But that was, I think, more for the love of the game.
[46:31]
Nolan
He also had a little stint in acting, I think, where he was in a movie with Michael Keaton.
[46:35]
Ben
Yeah, Gung ho, which was 1986, directed by Ron Howard. In 2007, Doc Ellis was diagnosed with cirrhosis and was placed on the list for a liver transplant.
[46:49]
Nolan
And he did pass away in 2008 because unfortunately, he had already sustained some damage to his heart and it was too risky to do a liver transplant. And yeah, you can't help but think that liver problems like that were the result of a lifetime of that substance abuse, despite having dealt with that and been a huge beacon of hope for others that were dealing with those problems. That stuff does catch up to you.
[47:15]
Ben
It's absolutely true. And it's a shame that he was not around to see no no, a documentary which came out in 2014, a few years after his passing. He was interred at the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. And although Doc Ellis may have physically left us today, his legacy continues on. And it's not just a story about, again, an amazing afternoon in baseball. It's a story about a man who struggled first to save himself, then to improve society, and then ultimately to save others that he met in similar situations. That's beautiful.
[48:01]
Nolan
It really is, and we hope that you think so too. This is a fun one to look into. Cannot recommend enough that ESPN article from outside the lines called the Long Strange Trip of Doc Ellis. Meet the Man Behind Baseball's Most Psychedelic Myth. You can find that online in full by Patrick Ruby. It's also got some fantastic photos and illustrations by Joe Ciardello. Also cannot recommend enough the documentary. No, no, a documentary. You can stream that on Amazon Prime. I think it's like a couple bucks.
[48:36]
Ben
And well worth it. It's money well spent in the meantime. Although the podcast is over for today, if you have a hankering to encounter more history of the ridiculous variety, you can find us on Instagram, you can find us on Facebook, you can find us on Twitter. We'd especially like direct recommend our community page, Ridiculous Historians, where you can interact with your fellow listeners, all of whom, as far as I have found, are witty, funny and insightful.
[49:05]
Nolan
It's true. Memes aplenty. A lot of fun to be had there. So check it out and also do us a solid and leave us a nice review on itunes because it makes us feel good in our tummies and.
[49:15]
Ben
Stay tuned when we return very soon in our next episode episode to crack the case for a question you might not have known you had when did Fido become a stand in name for dogs?
[49:27]
Nolan
Here boy. Here boy.
[49:29]
Ben
While you're waiting for a dog that heard that through your headphones to run toward you, we would like to thank super producer Casey Pegram. We would like to thank our research assistant Christopher Haciotes.
[49:41]
Nolan
We'd like to thank Alex Williams, friend of the show who composed our theme. And most importantly, we'd like to thank you for hanging out with us and being a lot of fun. We'll see you next time. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. The flavor, the tradition and the spirit.
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Summary5 min read

Ridiculous History: CLASSIC - Dock Ellis and the Legend of the LSD No-Hitter

Host: Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown
Podcast: Ridiculous History by iHeartRadio
Release Date: December 21, 2024

Introduction

In this classic episode of Ridiculous History, hosts Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown delve into one of baseball's most extraordinary and bizarre tales: Dock Ellis pitching a no-hitter while under the influence of LSD. Blending the worlds of sports and psychedelics, the episode explores the veracity of the story, the cultural backdrop of the era, and Dock Ellis's enduring legacy both on and off the field.

The Story of Dock Ellis' LSD No-Hitter

[00:36] Ben Bowlin:
“We dive into this thoroughly ridiculous, absolutely true story of how Doc Ellis became Beat me here Max a legend.”

Dock Ellis, a dynamic pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, is said to have thrown a no-hitter in 1970 while experiencing the effects of LSD. The episode sets the scene on June 12, 1970, a time when the vibrant and unbridled culture of the 60s was still palpable.

[07:11] Noel Brown:
“It was a Friday on June 12th of 1970, right on the tail end of the roaring 60s... Doc Ellis had just arrived at the stadium in San Diego, California to be the starting pitcher for a game against the San Diego Padres.”

However, Ellis was not in a typical state of readiness. He had spent the previous day indulging in partying and had taken LSD, leading to a highly altered state of consciousness. Unaware that he was scheduled to start the game, Ellis was alerted by a friend as he was coming down from the drug.

[09:02] Noel Brown:
“So he got all his stuff together, ran to the airport while tripping on LSD, caught an afternoon flight, and a cab directly to the stadium.”

Despite these unusual circumstances, Ellis pitched remarkably well, recording a no-hitter—a rare feat in baseball—with 276 recorded in 136 years of history. Astonishingly, no one knew about his LSD use at the time.

[12:28] Noel Brown:
“He pitched a no hitter... And as far as we know, this is the only one that occurred under the influence of LSD.”

This astonishing performance wasn't confirmed until 14 years later when Ellis shared his experience with a reporter, adding layers of intrigue and skepticism to the legend.

Verification and Controversies Surrounding the Story

[14:29] Ben Bowlin:
“That makes it sound much more likely that Leary... learned of this experience afterwards rather than beforehand.”

Ellis attributed his LSD use to Timothy Leary, a prominent figure in the psychedelic movement. However, this claim is fraught with inconsistencies. Leary was incarcerated at the time Ellis alleged he provided the LSD, leading many to question the authenticity of Ellis's account.

[14:46] Ben Bowlin:
“And people on Leary's side don't agree.”

Leary's archivist, Michael Horowitz, dismissed the claim as "almost definitely bogus," further muddying the waters around Ellis's legendary game.

[25:06] Ben Bowlin:
“Doc Ellis may have been the only person on the field on LSD, but that doesn't mean he was the only person on the field on drugs in an altered state.”

The episode highlights that while Ellis's performance on LSD is exceptional, drug use in baseball during that era was not uncommon. Amphetamines were prevalent among players as a means to cope with the demands of the game.

[19:50] Ben Bowlin: “Picture this. You're in the garage, your favorite room in the house, and you're tuning up your engine with parts you found on eBay.”

(Note: The above timestamp seems to lead into an advertisement and should be excluded. The discussion on amphetamines and other drug use continues thereafter.)

Dock Ellis' Life and Legacy

Beyond the no-hitter, Dock Ellis was a pivotal figure in baseball and American culture. Known for his flamboyant personality and outspoken stance against racism, Ellis used his platform to advocate for social change.

[16:34] Noel Brown:
“He was a flashy guy... one of the first guys to wear an earring.”

Ellis's actions off the field were as impactful as his performance on it. He played a significant role in promoting racial equality within baseball, influenced by mentors like Roberto Clemente.

[40:28] Ben Bowlin:
“Try to get more players to understand your views and you will find great support.”

After retiring in 1980, Ellis overcame his struggles with addiction and dedicated his life to helping others achieve sobriety. Despite his tumultuous career, he left a lasting positive impact on countless individuals battling addiction.

[43:35] Ben Bowlin:
“...you are telling a story about a man who struggled first to save himself, then to improve society, and then ultimately to save others that he met in similar situations.”

Ellis's legacy is a testament to his resilience and commitment to making a difference, transcending the singular, sensational story of his LSD no-hitter.

Conclusion

Dock Ellis's story is a multifaceted narrative that intertwines athletic prowess, personal struggles, and social activism. While the legend of pitching a no-hitter on LSD captivates the imagination, it's essential to recognize Ellis's broader contributions and the complexities of his life. Ridiculous History not only recounts an extraordinary baseball anecdote but also honors the enduring legacy of a man who used his experiences to foster positive change.

Notable Quotes:

Ben Bowlin [00:36]:
“We dive into this thoroughly ridiculous, absolutely true story of how Doc Ellis became Beat me here Max a legend.”
Noel Brown [12:28]:
“He pitched a no hitter... And as far as we know, this is the only one that occurred under the influence of LSD.”
Ben Bowlin [43:35]:
“...you are telling a story about a man who struggled first to save himself, then to improve society, and then ultimately to save others that he met in similar situations.”

Further Resources

ESPN Article: The Long Strange Trip of Doc Ellis: Meet the Man Behind Baseball's Most Psychedelic Myth by Patrick Hruby.
Documentary: No, No: A Documentary available on Amazon Prime.
Documentary Clip: Animated short by No Mas featuring audio from Ellis's 2008 NPR interview.

Connect with Ridiculous History:

Instagram: @ridiculoushistory
Facebook: Ridiculous History
Twitter: @ridiculoushist
Community Page: Ridiculous Historians for engaging with fellow listeners.

Leave a Review:
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on iTunes to help more history enthusiasts discover our tales of the absurd and the unbelievable.

This summary captures the essence of the podcast episode, focusing on the intriguing story of Dock Ellis while excluding advertisements and non-content sections. For a deeper dive, listeners are encouraged to explore the recommended articles and documentaries.

Loading summary

Transcript196 lines

[00:00]
Ben
We have a fascinating, or we hope fascinating classic episode for you ridiculous historians. If you are a fan of baseball, if you are a fan of lsd, this is the episode for you.
[00:15]
Nolan
Yeah, I mean it's almost like, need we say more? Doc Ellis and the Legend of the lsd no hitter, anyone out there that's a sports fan knows how hard it is for a pitcher to achieve an entire game where nobody hits the ball that they have thrown, not to mention while tripping, sipping on a heavy psychedelic.
[00:36]
Ben
So join us as we dive into this thoroughly ridiculous, absolutely true story of how Doc Ellis became Beat me here Max a legend.
[00:52]
Nolan
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[03:07]
Ben
From festive performances and great gift ideas to tips for the perfect holiday feast.
[03:12]
Nolan
Join us every morning on NBC and make today your home for the holidays.
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Ben
Where'd you get those shoes? Easy. They're from dsw.
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Nolan
Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now.
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You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways.
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And all the styles that show off.
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[03:57]
Nolan
Foreign.
[04:17]
Ben
Switch at the top of the show. Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, you may have thought you are tuning into a podcast, but for the moment, you are at a baseball game. Hear the crowd smell the popcorn, the hot dogs, the distant crack of a baseball bat.
[04:34]
Nolan
The stale urine.
[04:35]
Ben
The stale urine. The beer that somehow smells both like beer and stale urine.
[04:41]
Nolan
Sort of a melange, really. It all sort of comes together and. What's the word? Miasma.
[04:45]
Ben
Miasma. Yeah. A collage for the senses.
[04:49]
Nolan
A nose collage.
[04:50]
Ben
A cavalcade of experience. Hello. My name is Ben.
[04:54]
Nolan
My name is Nolan. We love words.
[04:56]
Ben
We love words. Almost as much as we love our super producer, Casey Batterup. Pegram. Noel, I was wondering, now that we're at this hypothetical baseball game, were you much of a baseballer?
[05:12]
Nolan
Yeah. I mean, I played outfield when I was, like, in elementary school, but I was, you know, I was a turd to put it to Arrested Development. Yeah, I was no good. I was just looking around, you know, just smelling the pee. Not really being a very effective part of the team.
[05:29]
Ben
Wait, you were in a stale, urine soaked Little league team?
[05:34]
Nolan
They all. They all smell like that, Ben. From the little leagues to the minor leagues to the major leagues, they all smell like pee.
[05:40]
Ben
Well, we did grow up. I do love that unintentional rhyme. We did grow up in different towns. I associate with the smell of peanuts. I was also an outfield guy. Uh, so maybe I was right.
[05:51]
Nolan
That's what I meant peanuts. Peanuts.
[05:53]
Ben
There we go.
[05:53]
Nolan
I'm. I'm sorry, I was confused.
[05:55]
Ben
No, no, not at all. So it's strange because one of the most. One of the most beautiful series of memories that I have from growing up is that in the early 90s you could get very, very cheap field side seats. And that was my primary informative experience with baseball until we started doing ridiculous history and exploring some of the strange baseball stories, most particularly Curse of the Colonel. But even if you haven't played baseball, or even if you hate baseball, ridiculous historians, you have probably experienced one of the most amazing cognitive things that humans are capable of experiencing.
[06:39]
Nolan
Dropping acid.
[06:41]
Ben
I was going to say flow state.
[06:42]
Nolan
Oh, cool.
[06:44]
Ben
It's one of those.
[06:45]
Nolan
That too, yeah.
[06:47]
Ben
There are many roads to the Rome known as the flow state. Meditation exercise, lsd. And today our story encounters all three. Baseball, LSD and the flow state.
[07:04]
Nolan
It's true.
[07:05]
Ben
At least it is commonly accepted as true. Right. So, Noel, could you set the scene? Could you take us there?
[07:11]
Nolan
Yeah, I will take you there. It was a Friday on June 12th of 1970, right on the tail end of the roaring 60s. That's not what they were called. That was the 20s. What were the 60s? What's a good adjective for the 60s?
[07:29]
Ben
The vibrant.
[07:31]
Nolan
The vibrant. Unbridled, unhinged. Tune in. Free turn off, dropout, free love, free. All that stuff. And you know, a big part of that was a guy named Timothy Leary who was. He worked at Harvard in the laboratories there, but he researched with the effects of psychedelic drugs on the mind. And he became this kind of svengali of the 60s and of psychedelic experiences. Right. A guru figure, it's true. And there was another guy named Doc Ellis on that day, June 12, 1970, who was a fantastic pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And he had just arrived at the stadium in San Diego, California to be the starting pitcher for a game against the San Diego Padres.
[08:27]
Ben
But here's the problem. He got there just an hour and a half, 90 minutes before he's supposed to be on the field. And he is not sober because he's coming in. And he had no idea that he was supposed to play today. In fact, he has partied to a cartoonish degree the night before. Right. He's dropped acid. He drank like a fish and he woke up the same day. And I think it was about what, about noon that he took another hit of acid.
[09:02]
Nolan
Yeah, he was in Los Angeles, it was his hometown. The game was in San Diego. He thought he had a day off. He did have a day off. But he burned through that day, day off, as you just described. And then he woke up at around noon after having taken another hit. And it was a friend, a girlfriend of one of his childhood friends, who he was hanging out with and then crashed over there with. Showed him the newspaper, the day's newspaper, the sports page more specifically, which said, hey, you're the starting pitcher for this game that's about to happen today in San Diego. So he got all his stuff together, ran to the airport while tripping an lsd, mind you, caught an afternoon flight and a cab directly to the stadium.
[09:49]
Ben
And here's the. There's this great article on ESPN by Patrick Hruby that explains it this way. And this is according to Doc Ellis himself. He landed in the San Diego airport. He hopped in a cab outside, and all he said was, casey, can you beat me on this? Get to the stadium, I gotta pitch.
[10:10]
Nolan
Yeah. And pitch he did. You know what's funny? I'm thinking about all this, and I'm thinking about just the stress of going to the airport in general and, like, being on a tight timeline and being worried about missing your flight or being worried about missing your appointment or whatever. Can you imagine that with the added stress of, you know, being in an altered state?
[10:31]
Ben
Yeah. I was thinking about this because, you know, stress can be such a personal thing, and I was wondering how much would it stress him out? To me, being late for something is more stressful than going to an airport. I hate being late for stuff. But regardless of which way you look at it, compounding that with a altered state of consciousness, and then also compounding that with the fact that you are a public performer, you're an athlete. Right. Who's going to be performing in a crowd. It's not like you're late to your job as an archivist in a basement where no one will see you for eight hours. He was also 25 years old, known for his curveball and his partying days. That's another thing that makes me wonder about his state of stress in this moment was because it wasn't like this was his first bender. Not at all.
[11:25]
Nolan
No, not at all. And we will get to that. But let's hear a little clip that does a really good job of summing up how it might have felt to be standing in that particular situation, in that particular state of mind. There was one guy, one guy who had an amazing claim to fame in terms of drugs and sports. His name was Doc Ellis. And Doc Ellis did an incredible thing. The one person who knows. Thank you Doc Ellis pitched a no hitter on lsd. Those who've taken lsd, tell the others how hard that might be. If I took lsd, I'd be talking to every blade of grass like, sorry, sorry, sorry. To walk into a major league baseball stadium like the whole field is like, okay, so you a little creative license there from Robin Williams. But he did tip us off to the outcome of this thing that Doc Ellis did. He pitched a no hitter.
[12:28]
Ben
Yes, and this is an incredibly rare feat. In 136 years of baseball history, only 276no hitters have ever been recorded. And as far as we know, this is the only one that occurred under the influence of lsd. And it's strange because you would expect maybe he would call out of the game, maybe he would show up and have an abysmal performance, but he played on acid not only well, but spectacularly. He also did walk quite a few batters, but no one hit a ball that he threw. And additionally, no one knew that he was on LSD. Or virtually no one. It wasn't until 14 years later that Ellis confirmed to a reporter at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that he had played the game on acid. And the reporter, Bob Smisek, brought this up because he was working off a tip. Somebody had told them there was a rumor. Also, Ellis didn't just say that he took acid. He said he took acid that he received from Tim Leary, the guru himself.
[13:44]
Nolan
He did say that thing, Ben. It's very true. And it's a problematic story for a few reasons that come from that ESPN article that we. But it's called the Long Strange Trip of Doc Ellis. But it wasn't smizik that Doc told that particular part of the story to. It was later when he was inducted into something called the Baseball Reliquary Shrine of the Eternals. That was in Pasadena, California. And he was talking to the executive director, a guy named Terry Cannon, who he told that Leary, that former Harvard psych professor, had given him the drug because he wanted to see. He wanted to test how it would affect a professional athlete.
[14:30]
Ben
That's a weird claim though, isn't it?
[14:31]
Nolan
It's a very weird claim. A claim that has several serious problems that are outlined beautifully in this article. One of the big ones right off the bat was that during this time Leary was in fact, incarcerated. And that comes from his biography, Robert Greenfield.
[14:46]
Ben
Yeah, and then another thing is he said that he got the acid from a UCLA laboratory. And also people on Leary's side don't agree.
[14:58]
Nolan
Yeah, Leary actually has a personal archivist, a guy named Michael Horowitz, that said this was just almost definitely bogus based on, I think, probably most specifically the fact that he was in jail. But he did say that Leary knew about the nil hitter and found out about it, and that he had purchased Leary some of Doc Ellis's baseball cards and that Leary carried one around with him for the rest of his life to show off to fans of psychedelics and sports.
[15:25]
Ben
Right. So if we look at the timeline here, that makes it sound much more likely that Leary, while a fan, learned of this experience afterwards rather than beforehand. You know what I mean?
[15:40]
Nolan
I do know what you mean. And it's interesting too, because Ellis had, as you said, Ben, a reputation that was not only about partying, but was just about being kind of his own kind of free spirit in general. He kind of did things his own way. March to his own drummer and you know, you get the gist.
[16:01]
Ben
Yeah, yeah. He described himself as arrogant, flamboyant and controversial. There's an article from the Washington Post by Matt Schuttel that explains some of Ellis's erratic behavior, or at least depicts it. He was known for throwing balls directly at batters, arguing with managers and players from other teams, and he even chased hecklers in the stands. So, you know, there are a lot of fans of sports who will heckle the opposing team's players. This was a guy who had come.
[16:34]
Nolan
After you, oh, big time, which is crazy. And he came up in the minors. He was like, I think 18 years old when he got recruited, maybe 19 when he first started playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And this was during a time of horrible racial inequality in the United States.
[16:51]
Ben
He refused in many ways to fit in that stereotypical cookie cutter image that mass media and the culture of the time would try to force people into based on what they perceived as what this person should be like or what they were doing. One of my favorite examples, he once showed up in the Pirate's bullpen wearing hair curlers. Cuz he said that the resulting moisture on his head would help him throw his signature and illegal spitball.
[17:21]
Nolan
Yeah, very illegal. A spitball is an illegal pitch where the pitcher actually changes the way the ball contacts the hand by putting spit or some kind of like foreign substance like petroleum jelly or in this case, the sweat off of the back of his neck. But yeah, he actually got issued a letter from the commissioner of Major League Baseball ordering him not to wear hair curlers. And the thing with him was he just didn't like being told what to do. And he might have come off as erratic or just willful, but he kind of knew what he was doing. According to a lot of his childhood friends, people that had known him his whole life. They were interviewed in a really cool movie called no, no, A documentary, Dock D O C K, which is excellent and a really good deep dive into this very divisive and interesting man's life. So in the film, another pitcher named Steve Blass said that in those days, which was the 60s, they were playing a lot of day games, so everyone was showing up completely hungover. And one way that you dealt with that was by taking amphetamines.
[18:37]
Ben
Yeah. See, history today remembers Doc Ellis primarily as the guy who pitched a no hitter while he was on lsd. But there are a couple of things that are misremembered there. One is the nature of LSD or acid and how high he would have been actually. And then the second thing is, that was not the normal thing. It was much more normal for players to be consuming amphetamines.
[19:09]
Nolan
Yeah. Several players from that era were interviewed for this film, and I think the number got as high as, like, 96%. These guys are obviously, you know, editorializing here a little bit. There's no poll that was taken, but they were in the game. You know, they were around these guys and they knew what was done. And it wasn't like people weren't juicing in those days. They weren't taking steroids necessarily. They were popping bennies and greenies or dexamil.
[19:37]
Ben
Right. Which was a drug of choice. And this was kind of before the era of widespread steroid use.
[19:44]
Nolan
That's right.
[19:46]
Ben
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Nolan
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Nolan
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[24:15]
Ben
On breaking new ground, CBS and Sony.
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Nolan
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Nolan
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Ben
Sports are covered moving forward.
[24:56]
Nolan
And for that, T Mobile congratulates Sony and CBS for their unconventional thinking.
[25:06]
Ben
So one thing we absolutely want to do in the exploration of this story is establish that, yeah, Doc Ellis may have been the only person on the field on lsd, but that doesn't mean he was the only person on the field on drugs in an altered state. In an altered state.
[25:22]
Nolan
Right. Because I mean, the thing about, you know, those kinds of amphetamines is the kind of stuff that fighter pilots would take, you know, during World War II. Hitler was quite fond of them. Not to equate baseball players from the 60s with Adolf Hitler, but it was certainly a tool of war. And sports are nothing if not organized war where nobody dies.
[25:43]
Ben
You know, that's one of the more popular philosophical interpretations of athleticism that goes back into ancient days.
[25:52]
Nolan
Yeah, bread and circuses. Right?
[25:53]
Ben
Right.
[25:53]
Nolan
We don't have to chop heads. Although people might die of like heat stroke or, you know, some sort of traumatic brain injury over time, but typically you would not see people carried off of the field of baseball in a stretcher.
[26:07]
Ben
And there was also a pro cannabis culture at the time. Right. It was not uncommon for athletes to also smoke weed.
[26:13]
Nolan
It's true. And I'm wondering, Ben, I couldn't quite find this, but when did it, like, if this was such common knowledge or it just seemed so obvious. I did see a trainer saying, I didn't want this in my locker room. Don't let me see you doing it. But certainly seemed quite pervasive. When was it that widespread drug testing became a thing in major League Baseball?
[26:33]
Ben
Yeah, you have to wonder if it was a result of widespread drug test policies. Maybe players only stopped doing this stuff when it became a firable or fineable offense. Right. Other than someone writing a angry letter to you. There's also a question about how much drug use really has dwindled. According to an article by Huffington Post written by andy Martino In 2017, current and former baseball players have said that as many as 25% of major league baseball players have used cocaine. So is it a situation where there are fewer altered states, or is it a situation where the type of drug changes but drug use still exists?
[27:21]
Nolan
Yeah, I'm not quite sure.
[27:23]
Ben
I'm not quite sure either. But it's mystifying because as a fairly square person myself, I would just imagine that these all have radically different effects. Right?
[27:33]
Nolan
I would think so. Ben, here's the thing too, about Doc Ellis. We talk about the drug use. We talked about him being a bit of a loose cannon. But he. He was described by a lot of his friends in this documentary as being controlled crazy. They called him controlled crazy. He knew how to keep his wild behavior in check and to do it just enough so that it could make him money like Dennis Rodman style.
[27:59]
Ben
Right. So there might be some marketing there, some focused application of eccentricity or insanity.
[28:04]
Nolan
That's right. Because you have to think, too, in those days, especially during this no hitter, African American pop culture had really infiltrated the mainstream. And Doc was a flashy guy. He had fashion sense. He liked to wear big, loud colors and big, you know, clunky clogs and bell bottoms. And he was like one of the first guys to wear an earring. Very ahead of his time, culturally at least in terms of baseball. Because he actually was quoted as saying when Talking about the 1971 All Star Game that. That baseball was pretty backwards when it came to black players. Yeah. And there was a controversy because he really liked to stir stuff up. And in the press, he came out and said, you are not gonna put two brothers against each other in this All Star game. Meaning they had already said that they were going to start the American League team with Vita Blue, who was a black pitcher. And Doc thought that he was gonna not get to start for his league because a guy named Sparky Anderson, a white, was probably going to get that privilege. So he got the media all stirred up and was kind of able to bait them into getting him exactly what he wanted. And he started in the All Star Game, right?
[29:19]
Ben
Yeah. And it's strange because looking back in his later interviews when he sobered up, Ellis said that he did not remember a lot of these activities. Not only did he not remember a lot of the details of his legendary no hitter run, he also said he didn't remember much of 1969 and 1970 in general.
[29:45]
Nolan
Yeah, it's like, what is it? Matt LeBlanc and friends. He said he couldn't remember like a whole season of that show cause he was on so many pills the whole time. Yeah, I can't imagine not remembering like a whole year.
[29:56]
Ben
I mean, it could happen for a number of reasons. I got a few fuzzy ones. I think I'm gonna take us down a really brief side trail here that listeners from some of our other shows are familiar with. Regardless of what sort of substances you may or may not take throughout your life, your memory is treacherous and it works against you.
[30:13]
Nolan
Oh, for sure.
[30:14]
Ben
Because every time you're remembering something, you're not remembering the event, you're remembering the last time you remembered it. So you're playing a game of telephone with yourself. That's why you will see even in accounts we've presented in this show. That's why you'll see people who, who years later claim that a myth about them is true even when it is demonstrably not the case. And I had a question with Ellis. I don't know how you feel, Noel, but I believe the LSD story. I think it's true.
[30:44]
Nolan
Yeah. In fact, you can hear Doc himself describe all of this in a really cool animated short by an outfit called no Mas that's illustrated by a guy named James Blagdon and has audio from an interview that Ellis in 2008 on NPR with Donnell Alexander and Nyli Ilel. And it's a really, really cool video. And why don't we play a little clip of that audio right now?
[31:11]
Ben
I didn't see the hitters. All I could tell was if they was on the right side or the left side. The catcher put tape on his fingers so I could see the signals. We had a rookie on the team at that particular ticker term named Dave Cash. And he kept saying after the first inning, he said, you got a no, no going.
[31:32]
Nolan
No, hit it. I said, yeah, right, yeah. I don't know, Ben, but hearing him tell that story, it sure sounds like somebody telling a story they actually believe happened. But it's hard to say. We also know that he was probably not telling the truth about the whole Timothy Leary thing. So, you know, I guess the jury's out. But I would like to believe that it happened.
[31:52]
Ben
So I don't know about you fellow ridiculous historians, but I largely believe the bones of this story, the structure of it. However, I have some pretty pertinent questions, one being the degree of alteration that applied. If you look at the timeline of the LSD was taking, the way LSD works, was he taking a larger hit? You know, was he off his cantaloupes? Or was he experiencing the equivalent of what Silicon Valley and Burning man fans would call a microdose?
[32:28]
Nolan
Yeah. From hearing him tell it, this was his second tab that he had taken. And in those days, that stuff probably would have been pretty potent. So I would lean more towards what the kids call tripping balls.
[32:40]
Ben
So this LSD probably would have come from a source similar to Owlsley, the legendary LSD supplier. And the reason wondering about the microdosing is because preliminary studies, which have only occurred quite recently, seem to indicate that there may be some sort of relationship between what we call the flow state and the use of small amounts of hallucinogens, not just lsd, but psilocybin. So without getting too into it, I have some pretty fascinating studies. But I'd like to hear from you folks. Do you think that there was a relationship between the LSD that Doc Ellis consumed? Did it put him in a flow state similar to the experience people would have when they practice the use of transcranial direct current simulation or meditation or what have you? Or do you think it was a coincidence? Do you think he succeeded in spite of this? This episode of ridiculous history is brought to you by ebay Motors.
[33:46]
Nolan
Picture this. You're in the garage, your favorite room in the house, and you're tuning up your engine with parts you found on ebay. Every piece is just locking perfectly into place.
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Ben
You step back to admire your work, hands covered in grease. And because you're committed to driving that thing further than the odometer can even handle, you start thinking to yourself, you know what?
[34:09]
Nolan
I could probably also use some new brakes, some shocks and struts. This baby deserves a new air filter.
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Ben
So you head right back to ebay.
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Nolan
You can find any part you need. There it is unreal. From wipers and headlights to cold air intakes, exhaust systems, and even that turbo you had on your mind, Ebay is.
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Ben
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Nolan
Because eBay knows DIY fixes can be major and mods are always intense. So you need to know those parts are guaranteed to fit every time before you dive in.
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Ben
Wrench first and in the off chance you order a part and it doesn't fit, send it back. Simple as that.
[34:51]
Nolan
You know what you love more than your car itself is driving it. You're serious when it comes to engine maintenance and locked in when you're headed into a build.
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Ben
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Nolan
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Ben
So now that you know all that.
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Nolan
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Bingo, Slingo and more. Live the chumba life@chumbacasino.com VGW no purchase necessary, void or prohibited by law. Seek terms and conditions. Congratulations to CBS Sports and Sony Electronics for their first place wins for innovation in industry at this year's Unconventional Awards by T Mobile for Business. In a collaboration that was clearly built.
[37:03]
Ben
On breaking new ground, CBS and Sony.
[37:05]
Nolan
Created a first of its kind broadcast for the PGA Championship.
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Ben
Using a custom built T Mobile Private 5G network to power the live production.
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Nolan
They deployed a 5G wireless camera system throughout the event. The network's speed combined with Sony's innovative ultra low latency video codec allowed for seamless, high quality footage without disruption. With that innovative approach, CBS gave broadcasters the tools they need to do what they do best. Take their coverage to entirely new places. These innovations will shape the way live.
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[38:24]
Nolan
You know, I did hear or I read that that year the Padres were not particularly good. They had lost like 90 something games in that season. So you know, could have just been a bad performance on their part. But either way it's pretty impressive that a guy could perform that well under the influence of such a mind altering.
[38:45]
Ben
Yeah, and Ellis's importance and his influence were not just confined to the field of play. He was influential and important on the US Cultural stage. And other people acknowledged this, right?
[39:01]
Nolan
Very much so. I mean, we talked about how he was able to influence that decision of starting two black pitchers against one another in the 1971 All Star Game. Also that year he went on to win the World Series with the Pirates. And one of his mentors was a Puerto Rican player, also black by the name of Roberto Clemente, who was himself an outspoken opponent of racism in baseball. And he and Ellis ended up being on a version of the Pirates that had nine black players. And it really kind of was right on this turning point of culture where black culture became much more mainstream like we talked about earlier and players on the team talk less about this being a historic thing and just being about the fact that everyone was fantastic baseball players. So he really helped turn that conversation around to the point where he actually got a very important letter from Jackie Robinson and actually, here's a clip of Doc reading a bit of this letter from that documentary called no News.
[40:11]
Ben
I read your comments in our paper the last few days and want you to know how much I appreciate your courage and honesty. In my opinion, progress for today's players will only come from this kind of dedication.
[40:25]
Nolan
I'm sure also you know some of the possible consequences.
[40:29]
Ben
The news media, while knowing full well you are right and honest, will use every means to get back at you. There will be times when you will.
[40:40]
Nolan
Ask yourself, is it worth it all? I can only say, Doc, it is. And even though you will want to yield in the long run, your own.
[40:49]
Ben
Feeling about yourself will be most important. Try not to be left alone. So he goes on to say, try to get more players to understand your views and you will find great support. You have made a real contribution. I surely hope your great ability continues. That ability will determine the success of your dedication and honesty. I again appreciate what you are doing. Continued success Jackie Robinson and you can read the full letter on various sites online. Just search for Jackie Robinson and Doc Ellis. This leads us to perhaps one of the most important points of the story, which is the following. It is very easy, it is tempting, and it is, yes, fun to think of Doc Ellis solely as a guy who said, I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire. I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, and so on. But that is a mischaracterization. We are defining an entire person by one afternoon in their life. And as Brittany de la Cretaz argues in a Rolling Stone article, how Doc Ellis, player who pitched a no hitter on LSD is misremembered. It is better, and more importantly, it is more accurate to remember him as an outspoken advocate not just for racial equality, but also for sobriety. Doc Ellis retired from baseball in 1980 and he didn't have some egregious injury that rendered him physically incapable playing the game. According to him, he lost interest in the game. And in that same year he entered rehab. He stayed for 40 days at a location in Wickenburg, Arizona known as the Meadows. And it wasn't until 1984 that he revealed he had pitched this no hitter under the influence of lsd. And once achieving sobriety, he spent the rest of his life helping other people escape drug addiction. Which is commendable, you know, and he spent 28 years doing this.
[43:07]
Nolan
Yeah, he was no joke about it either. I mean, he brought that same bravado and intensity that he brought to the game and that he used to not take any crap from anybody in terms of the way he dealt with racism. He brought that same energy to helping people escape their demons and their addictions and not. Not taking no for an answer and not putting up with anyone making excuses for themselves.
[43:35]
Ben
Yeah, and he had worked as a counselor in Beverly Hills. He had worked in jails and institutions and juvenile detention centers. And you know, you kind of have to wonder, and I don't know whether there's an answer to this, but you kind of have to wonder why out of the almost three decades of work he did helping people achieve sobriety, he is still known for one. Granted, one amazing game, but one LSD influenced game in 1970? I don't know what the answer is.
[44:12]
Nolan
I mean from his own mouth. Apparently one of his favorite phrases around the house was F baseball. He apparently, according to this fantastic ESPN article, felt very used up and abused by it. Having started at it at such a young age and despite achieving such great success, it being a very big part of his young adult life that possibly led to some of these substance abuse problems to help deal with pain that he had in his arm from throwing the ball so hard all the time, from traveling around, being constantly on the road feeling a little uprooted and isolated. And these are his own words from the documentary. So you know, I could see how that would be a complicated relationship. It's something that gave him much success and accolades. But he never played a game sober. He did try to one time in 1973, gave it a shot and started warming up in the bullpen, only to realize that he had, quote, forgotten how to throw.
[45:17]
Ben
It's interesting cause it ties into something that people call state dependent learning. Have you heard of this?
[45:22]
Nolan
I have.
[45:23]
Ben
It's the idea that the substances influencing your body when you are learning or engaging in a certain skill then have an effect on your performance in that skill. So for instance, a more wholesome version of this would be the idea that when you drink coffee and you're studying something, then you are going to be more likely to successfully recall it it when you are drinking coffee again. Right. That's a very at base explanation, but it can extend to other substances as well. Oh, I should also mention he was an advocate for the treatment of sickle cell.
[46:05]
Nolan
That's right. He was able to get funding in somewhere in the neighborhood of $140 million for that disease that was largely misunderstood and a huge problem for the African American community.
[46:18]
Ben
In 1989, he sort of returned to baseball when he served as a player and coach for the Saint Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. But that was, I think, more for the love of the game.
[46:31]
Nolan
He also had a little stint in acting, I think, where he was in a movie with Michael Keaton.
[46:35]
Ben
Yeah, Gung ho, which was 1986, directed by Ron Howard. In 2007, Doc Ellis was diagnosed with cirrhosis and was placed on the list for a liver transplant.
[46:49]
Nolan
And he did pass away in 2008 because unfortunately, he had already sustained some damage to his heart and it was too risky to do a liver transplant. And yeah, you can't help but think that liver problems like that were the result of a lifetime of that substance abuse, despite having dealt with that and been a huge beacon of hope for others that were dealing with those problems. That stuff does catch up to you.
[47:15]
Ben
It's absolutely true. And it's a shame that he was not around to see no no, a documentary which came out in 2014, a few years after his passing. He was interred at the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. And although Doc Ellis may have physically left us today, his legacy continues on. And it's not just a story about, again, an amazing afternoon in baseball. It's a story about a man who struggled first to save himself, then to improve society, and then ultimately to save others that he met in similar situations. That's beautiful.
[48:01]
Nolan
It really is, and we hope that you think so too. This is a fun one to look into. Cannot recommend enough that ESPN article from outside the lines called the Long Strange Trip of Doc Ellis. Meet the Man Behind Baseball's Most Psychedelic Myth. You can find that online in full by Patrick Ruby. It's also got some fantastic photos and illustrations by Joe Ciardello. Also cannot recommend enough the documentary. No, no, a documentary. You can stream that on Amazon Prime. I think it's like a couple bucks.
[48:36]
Ben
And well worth it. It's money well spent in the meantime. Although the podcast is over for today, if you have a hankering to encounter more history of the ridiculous variety, you can find us on Instagram, you can find us on Facebook, you can find us on Twitter. We'd especially like direct recommend our community page, Ridiculous Historians, where you can interact with your fellow listeners, all of whom, as far as I have found, are witty, funny and insightful.
[49:05]
Nolan
It's true. Memes aplenty. A lot of fun to be had there. So check it out and also do us a solid and leave us a nice review on itunes because it makes us feel good in our tummies and.
[49:15]
Ben
Stay tuned when we return very soon in our next episode episode to crack the case for a question you might not have known you had when did Fido become a stand in name for dogs?
[49:27]
Nolan
Here boy. Here boy.
[49:29]
Ben
While you're waiting for a dog that heard that through your headphones to run toward you, we would like to thank super producer Casey Pegram. We would like to thank our research assistant Christopher Haciotes.
[49:41]
Nolan
We'd like to thank Alex Williams, friend of the show who composed our theme. And most importantly, we'd like to thank you for hanging out with us and being a lot of fun. We'll see you next time. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. The flavor, the tradition and the spirit.
[50:05]
Ben
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Nolan
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Ben
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Nolan
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Nolan
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Ben
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[51:37]
Nolan
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Ben
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Nolan
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