Tuesday, December 23, 2008
One of the cool things about being a baseball fan is that just about every day there is an interesting obit documenting the life and times of a former player. The Hall-of-Fame guys are fine, but where it really gets interesting is when you spot the name of someone you haven't thought of in years. We should all pause for a moment and recall the career of Dock Ellis, who pitched the only LSD laced no-hitter we know about, and who died last week. KRAC should name an award for Dock, who walked eight batters and hit one on his way to immortality. I've never seen a no-hitter in person-- imagine what it must have been like to have been in the stands in San Diego, and then, years later, when the story came out, learning that you'd witnessed a guy who was tripping shut your team down. If you were the sort of person who kept score you'd probably still have that scorecard. Imagine pulling it out of a dusty box in the garage and going over it again. The Bucks were a powerhouse back in 1970: these were the Pirates of Clemente, Alou, and Stargell. You'd think they'd have drawn more than 9,903 for the first half of a twi-night doubleheader.
Dock had a 12 year career, 138-119 with a 3.46 ERA, mostly with the Pirates. In 1976 he was 17-8 with the Yankees (3 and 7 with the Mets two years later, in his penultimate season). He was a solid starter on some pretty great teams.
