Future Hi: Tripping & Pitching

June 24, 2005

Tripping & Pitching

In June of 1970, Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter in a 50,000 seat stadium while high on LSD. This now-legendary event was retold reccently in the Dallas Observer.

What's weird is that sometimes it felt like a balloon. Sometimes it felt like a golf ball. But he could always get it to the plate. Getting it over the plate was another matter entirely. Sometimes he couldn't see the hitter. Sometimes he couldn't see the catcher. But if he could see the hitter, he'd guess where the catcher was. And he had a great catcher back there. Jerry May. You could make mistakes with him, and he would compensate. He'd know if he called for a curveball, he could look at the follow-through of your arm and see if you were gonna hang it. So he'd get ready to slide and block. Also, he had this reflective tape on his fingers that was by far the easiest thing to see.
Ellis had no idea what the score was, and he knew he'd been wild--he ended with eight walks, one hit batsman and the bases loaded at least twice--but here it was, bottom of the seventh, and he was still in the game.

The hardest part was between innings. He was sure his teammates knew something was up. They had all been acting strange since the game began. Solution: Do not look at teammates. Do not look at scoreboard. Must not make eye contact. His spikes--that's what he concentrated on. Pick up tongue depressor, scrape the mud, repeat. Must. Clean. Spikes.

Sometime in the fifth or sixth, he sensed someone next to him. Looking. He turned. It was rookie infielder Dave Cash.

"Dock," Cash said. "You've got a no-hitter going."

Posted by LVX23 at June 24, 2005 10:07 AM

Comments

Since it was a no-hitter, and the bases were loaded a lot, did anyone 'walk' to the home plate? What was the final score?

Posted by: Paul at June 24, 2005 11:00 AM

They won, 2-0. This tale doesn't exactly illustrate a heroic feat while under the influence so much as it's one of the only documented occassions that psychedelics marched squarely into the mainstream sports establishment. Bill Walton is another example.

Posted by: lvx23 at June 24, 2005 11:16 AM

Well, I found that if I took smaller doses (25-50mcg), my overall ability to do things like riding a bike, playing catch, etc. was improved.

Posted by: Paul at June 24, 2005 11:49 AM

There's actually a folk song out there about that no-hitter ... unfortunately I don't recall who the musician is or the name of the song ... sorry.

Posted by: Upwinger at June 24, 2005 12:06 PM

I've seen this before and it's always such a cool story..I always wonder why he chose to drop acid before a game...I suppose he did so out of curiosity. I figured he wasn't 'dosed' unexpectedly by someone else--unless the C.I.A. were branching out their experiments into sports teams as well ;-) :-)

Posted by: Sly Stoner at June 25, 2005 02:19 AM

Hey Sly -- you should check out the link LVX provided. Dock didn't realize he was scheduled to play that day. WOOPS! But he also claimed to have never pitched a single game without the 'help' of amphetamines. Very, very interesting character, and perhaps very insightful into the possible advantages of "controlled substances"!

Can't help but think of McKenna raving about how psilocybin increases visual acuity at lesser doses in connection with this story ... although that obviously was not the effect of what Dock had taken that day.

Posted by: Upwinger at June 25, 2005 05:07 AM

Upwinger: Ah ha! I didn't check the link before commenting..prolly should do that..D'Oh!

I've always found that my vision seems more acute while high on marijuana--and it *definitely* was more acute while high on psilocybin and LSD. It would be an interesting study, to find out if there is a connection between psychedelics and acuity of vision.

Posted by: Sly Stoner at June 26, 2005 11:18 AM

Back in 1987, when I first started tripping on LSD, my vision (uncorrected) was about 20/150. This is bad enough that I was unable to read anything more than a few feet away, and this included all road signs. Without glasses I was unable to really function in the world.

During a trip, I was laying down in a meadow under a tree. I had left my glasses by my side and forgot about them. When I got up I started wandering the meadow checking out the tress, birds, rocks and river. I felt great and had a wondeful time for almost two hours before realizing that I did not have my glasses on! I looked around and could see fine. I didn't feel handicapped in anyway. It was then that I thought that my bad vision was entirely in my head.

Since I still wear glasses, either I haven't gotten the "I have bad vision" out of my head entirely or psychedelics really do improve vision.

Posted by: Paul at June 26, 2005 01:27 PM

Surely you've read Terrence's *Food of the Gods*, wherein, early-on, he mentions that psilocybin, in, shall we say, LESS than heroic doses, DOES indeed enhance visual acuity---and thus the ingestion of the fungus would have had evolutionary-selective advantage for the hominid (indeed humanoid) creatures who imbibed. Wherever psilocybin was around, there was a selection-filter favoring those who ate it. Yeah, baby! Excellent evolutionary detective work on Terrence's part. Upwinger beat me to this allusion, though (way to go, Upwinger!) And the post itself is priceless!! I LOVE it! Let's do the whole World Series on 'cid or 'cybin and see what'd happen! Vive le psychedelic mycology!

Posted by: MCP2012 at June 26, 2005 03:35 PM

MCP2012: Ha Ha Ha Ha..that's an *excellent* idea--to have the World Series played while everyone's high on psilocybin--now that's a World Series I would watch all the way through (instead of just the final few games).

Posted by: Sly Stoner at June 27, 2005 02:46 AM

this is really true? What a wierd story. What an incredible story. It is almost like the powers that be want to tell you and me what to do. I can't believe in such a world like that. What an incredible and fascinating story.

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