The Doc Ellis No-Hitter: A Tale of Why LSD is l33t

For those of you out there who aren’t rabid sports fanatics like myself, allow me to give you a little back story here: In 1970, Doc Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates became the first major league baseball player to pitch a “no-hitter” (a game in which the pitcher does not allow a single player on the opposing team to reach base by way of a hit. This differs from a “perfect game”, in which no batters can reach base at all. This includes by way of error, walk, balk, wild pitch or hit by pitch, or any other conceivable means)

…On acid.

Sorry. He became the first Major League pitcher to throw a no-hitter on acid.

Here, I’ll let Doc tell you the story:

Sadly, Doc died at USC Med Center in Los Angeles, California after a long battle with alcoholism. He became a drug counselor after his baseball career ended, but ultimately died of cirrhosis of the liver. But god damn did he pitch the hell out of the baseball on that fateful June evening in San Diego.

I should also mention that Doc Ellis is a badass for another awesome reason as well: Ellis attempted to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup on May 1, 1974, in an effort to prove a point to teammates. Ellis hit Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Driessen in the top of the first. The clean-up batter Tony Perez avoided Ellis’s attempts, instead drawing a walk, and after two pitches aimed at the head of Johnny Bench, Ellis was removed from the game by manager Danny Murtaugh. Ellis’s box score for the game reads: 0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.