By now you've probably all heard the story; Dock Ellis, one of baseball's ultimate showmen of the '70s as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates (about the last time the Pirates were good), threw a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970. Fourteen years later he would become legend when he admitted he pitched the entire game under the influence of LSD.
The avid baseball enthusiast is well aware of Dock's antics from the '70s, like the time he was maced by a Cincinnati Reds security guard, so in retaliation he decided he would try to hit everyone in the Reds batting order. He plucked the first three – Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Driessen – before walking the fourth batter. He was pulled before he was able to hit Johnny Bench. He was a World Series champ in '71 and the 1976 AL Comeback Player of the Year while a member of the Yankees. In addition, Ellis will hold a special place in New Yorkers' hearts as one of those rare players who donned both a Yankee and Met jersey. He would go on to write books (one with U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall), make television appearances, and ironically, live out his days as a drug counselor in California. Ellis passed away at the very young age of 63 after being diagnosed with cirrhosis. He was apparently on a transplant waiting list at the time of his death.
But while all of this is known fact, from his hair curlers on the field, to his books off – hell, the man has even been immortalized in song – no one outside of the fans in the stands on that day saw the infamous no-hitter that would make Dock Ellis a cult icon. Then again, it was 1970, did they even have TV cameras back then?
Well, if they did, a small group of people is petitioning Major League Baseball to release the footage. No one is entirely sure if it's being held under lock and key so psychedelic drug users can't hang their hat on his accomplishment, or if no full video coverage of it actually exists, but an online petition, Facebook page, and all 2,169 of it's members are determined to find out. (Note: the Facebook page also asks you to boycott Illuminati-controlled musicians, so just disregard that part).
We say – It's about damn time! We urge you all to sign the petition, and give Dock Ellis the same recognition in death as he had in life; that dude who threw the LSD no-hitter.
