Speaker 1: In the spring of two thousand and eight, former Major
Speaker 1: League pitcher Doc Ellis sat down for an interview with
Speaker 1: American public media show Weekend America. He was sixty three
Speaker 1: years old at the time. He recalled for listeners the
Speaker 1: day back in nineteen seventy when he threw a no
Speaker 1: hitter on LSD. As Doc told it.
Speaker 2: We flew into San Diego and I asked the manager
Speaker 2: could I go home because we had.
Speaker 1: An off day?
Speaker 3: So he said yeah.
Speaker 1: So I took some LSD.
Speaker 2: At the airport because I knew where it would hit me.
Speaker 2: I'd be in my own little area and I know
Speaker 2: where to go. So that's how I got to my
Speaker 2: friend's girlfriend's house. She said, what's wrong with you? As
Speaker 2: I'm High's at Georgia Park.
Speaker 1: There he is on his supposed day off, and he's
Speaker 1: got a head full of acid. Now, Doc Ellis's off
Speaker 1: days were often colored with what you might call a
Speaker 1: psychedelic purple haze, But on this particular day off, Doc
Speaker 1: had a big surprise waiting for him. In the middle
Speaker 1: of his acid trip.
Speaker 2: The next day, which I thought was the next day,
Speaker 2: she told me, you better get up, you.
Speaker 1: Gotta go pitch. I said, pitch I pitched tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Hell, what are you talking about? Because I had got.
Speaker 1: Up in the middle of the morning. It took some
Speaker 1: more acid. Only after he double dipped on the LSD
Speaker 1: does Doc learn from his friend's girlfriend that he is
Speaker 1: scheduled to be on the mound to pitch a game
Speaker 1: in San Diego, part of a double header scheduled for
Speaker 1: later that same day. Plus Doc is in the wrong city.
Speaker 2: She grabbed the paper, brought me to sports page and
Speaker 2: showed me boom. I said, oh wow, what happened to yesterday?
Speaker 2: She said, I don't know, but you better get you
Speaker 2: better get to that airport.
Speaker 1: Still flying high, Doc races to the airport to catch
Speaker 1: a shuttle flight from Los Angeles to San Diego, the
Speaker 1: kind that leaves every half hour. In an interview with
Speaker 1: Kevin McAllister, doc Ellis tried to recall that ride, but
Speaker 1: he could not. He had to admit he didn't remember
Speaker 1: quote a goddamn thing about that part of his trip.
Speaker 1: We do know the flight is short, and when the
Speaker 1: plane lands, doc Ellis is still flying high on LSD.
Speaker 1: Somehow he manages to catch a taxi caab from the
Speaker 1: airport out to the ballpark. That's the first part of
Speaker 1: this strange adventure that he rightly recalls. When the Cabby
Speaker 1: asks him where he wants to go, Doc tells him quote,
Speaker 1: get to the stadium. I got to play.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: As luck would have it, Doc makes it to the
Speaker 1: ballpark in time for the game. Next thing he knows,
Speaker 1: he's seated once more, this time in the locker room
Speaker 1: in San Diego Stadium. It's right around five o'clock in
Speaker 1: the afternoon, just about game time, and he still has
Speaker 1: that head full of acid. Doc thinks to himself, guess
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to pitch this game. Fully tripping a
Speaker 1: second thought, fall was close. On the heels of that
Speaker 1: first thought, Doc considers the idea that perhaps taking even
Speaker 1: more drugs is the prescription for his predicament. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe some speed will help even things out for him.
Speaker 2: When I got to the game, there was a lady
Speaker 2: down there in San Diego, so I always had the
Speaker 2: bennies for me, Benza Green, which is another stimulant. I
Speaker 2: went out to the dugout and reached up because she
Speaker 2: was standing over the rails.
Speaker 1: She always stood over the rail and had.
Speaker 4: A pretty little gold pouch.
Speaker 2: So I got to Benny's went on back in the
Speaker 2: cloud house took them.
Speaker 1: This might not be the ideal solution most folks would
Speaker 1: come up with, but as Doc Ellis recalls, taking speed
Speaker 1: and playing a ballgame, wasn't that uncommon in baseball at
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: Now, this was in the seventies, and greens was deximials.
Speaker 2: That was the drug of choice back then, was a stimulant.
Speaker 2: Over ninety percent of major leagues was using deximal when
Speaker 2: I was playing.
Speaker 1: So now it's just moments before the game scheduled to
Speaker 1: start at six oh five PM. Doc sits in the
Speaker 1: dugout watching the skies. There are clouds overhead. Perhaps he'll
Speaker 1: be saved by a change in the weather, maybe the
Speaker 1: game will get rained out. Doc sees the umpire walk
Speaker 1: out onto the diamond. He bends down to brush off
Speaker 1: home plate. Then the umpire gazes up to check those
Speaker 1: same cloudy skies. Seeing no imminent rain, he signals for
Speaker 1: the national anthem to begin. Watching this all go down,
Speaker 1: Doc Ellis knows his fate is sealed. Damn looks like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to pitch. And so now, with his
Speaker 1: mind and body fully loaded on both LSD and stimulants,
Speaker 1: and with the drugs working him in two very different directions,
Speaker 1: Doc strides out onto the baseball diamond to meet his fate.
Speaker 1: He takes the mound.
Speaker 2: The game started, and the miss started misty rain, so
Speaker 2: all doing the game was a little missed.
Speaker 1: The weather never turns into a full on rain storm. Instead,
Speaker 1: this light, misty rain gives the ballgame a strange, otherworldly feel,
Speaker 1: almost mystical. And just like that, the stage is set
Speaker 1: at San Diego Stadium. All Doc has to do is pitch,
Speaker 1: Just focus in and get that ball over the plate.
Speaker 1: Most everyone else on the field can sense something isn't
Speaker 1: quite right with Doc. In the documentary No No, A documentary,
Speaker 1: one of Doc's teammates on the Pittsburgh Pirates says, quote,
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything was wrong until the national anthem.
Speaker 1: But as Doc recalls, he could sense that the other
Speaker 1: players knew something was up with him.
Speaker 2: The opposing team and my teammates danieoron was high, but
Speaker 2: they didn't know what I was high, or if they
Speaker 2: had no idea what LSD was other than what they
Speaker 2: see on TV with the hippies.
Speaker 1: If they knew about the LSD or not. They're about
Speaker 1: to bear witness to one of the greatest and one
Speaker 1: of the strangest games in the history of Major League Baseball,
Speaker 1: a no hitter on Acid. Welcome to very special episodes
Speaker 1: and iHeart original podcast. I'm your host, Zaren Burnett, and
Speaker 1: this is Doc Ellis Hi and outside.
Speaker 5: Welcome back to very special episodes. My name is Jason English.
Speaker 5: I am joined as always by Dana Schwartz, Hi and
Speaker 5: Zaren Burnett's what's up?
Speaker 1: So, guys, have we talked before.
Speaker 5: About the Snapple fact test? No? No, okay, So this
Speaker 5: goes back to the days when Snapple used to put
Speaker 5: those like fun facts on the inside of the bottle.
Speaker 1: Color Yeah, And I use that.
Speaker 5: When we're evaluating ideas that we're going to run with,
Speaker 5: and in some cases, the Snapple fact distillation of an
Speaker 5: idea is just the most interesting version, and you don't
Speaker 5: need another. I certainly don't need an hour explanation of
Speaker 5: why it's interesting. Take, for example, sea otters hold hands
Speaker 5: while sleeping so they don't drift apart like delightful love it.
Speaker 5: But I want to know anything more about that. I
Speaker 5: don't want to hear why that evolved or what they're
Speaker 5: what would happen if if they happened to drift apart.
Speaker 5: The Doc Ellis story is in the Snapple fact version.
Speaker 5: Doc Alice pitched a no hitter, well tripping on acid.
Speaker 5: That's awesome, but I need to know more. I need
Speaker 5: to know how this happened, how this came about, what
Speaker 5: happened to Doc Ellis after and Zaren, you do an
Speaker 5: incredible job really unpacking that. And uh, I don't think
Speaker 5: Snap will ever actually used that as a fact. That
Speaker 5: might have been too edgy for the Snapple corporation. But
Speaker 5: this passes the test. I love the snaffle test. By
Speaker 5: the way, I'm gonna have to start using that. This
Speaker 5: episode was so much fun to research. It talked with
Speaker 5: a bunch of people for the interviews, and it was
Speaker 5: just like finding a portrait of Doc Ellis that it
Speaker 5: totally exceeded the frame.
Speaker 1: Was a lot of fun.
Speaker 6: I was fascinated as someone who really does not know
Speaker 6: anything about sports, or to be honest, really care about sports.
Speaker 6: I love a thing that does make me care about sports.
Speaker 6: I'm like, oh, this is interesting.
Speaker 1: Nice way on.
Speaker 2: I didn't see the hitters. All I could tell was
Speaker 2: if there was over the right side or the left side.
Speaker 2: The catcher put tape on his fingers so I could
Speaker 2: see the signals.
Speaker 1: It is retelling of that fateful game. Doc also recalls
Speaker 1: how at other times it seems like all he can
Speaker 1: see is the umpire behind the plate. Later on in
Speaker 1: the game, Doc could swear President Richard Nixon is behind
Speaker 1: the plate. That's who's calling the balls and strikes. Also,
Speaker 1: at one point he believes the guitarist Jimmy Hendrix is
Speaker 1: at bat, only instead of a bat, Jimmy Hendrix is
Speaker 1: swinging his guitar. But wait, it gets even weirder than that.
Speaker 1: A Despite those ballplayers who were often just a miasma
Speaker 1: of color and action, and despite his wild eyed hallucinations,
Speaker 1: somehow Doc Elis stays in control of the ballgame.
Speaker 2: We had a rookie on the team at that particular
Speaker 2: time named Dave Cash, and he kept saying.
Speaker 1: After the first.
Speaker 2: Inning, he said, you got a no no going, no
Speaker 2: hit it?
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, all right, regardless if it's Nixon as
Speaker 1: the umpire or Jimmy Hendrix swinging his guitar. Doc Ellis
Speaker 1: holds on.
Speaker 3: Get around the fourth. Then he had said, again, got
Speaker 3: a no note going.
Speaker 2: Look yep, but I could also feel the pressure from
Speaker 2: other player wanting to tell him to shut up. It's
Speaker 2: a superstition thing where you're not supposed to say nothing
Speaker 2: if somebody's throwing a no hitter.
Speaker 1: In a sport that's had its fair share of bigger
Speaker 1: than life characters, doc ellis Is was and remains one
Speaker 1: of baseball's most mercurial and enigmatic figures. He had undeniable
Speaker 1: talent as a pitcher. He had irresistible charisma as a teammate. However,
Speaker 1: it was away from the game that he had his
Speaker 1: most profound impact. His legendary career lasted twelve years. All
Speaker 1: Throughout that span of time, he won games, He won hearts,
Speaker 1: he won publicity for himself, his team, and for his people.
Speaker 1: He was a true rare.
Speaker 3: One, so he was fun to watch. He was young.
Speaker 7: He challenged the authorities at a time when we were
Speaker 7: challenging authority.
Speaker 1: That's my pops. Zarreon Burnett Junior was a young man
Speaker 1: just starting out in life when doc Ellis was pitching.
Speaker 1: He watched many of his games, and he was a
Speaker 1: fan of his whole vibe and energy. That's why I
Speaker 1: asked him what doc Ellis was like back when he
Speaker 1: was playing in the majors.
Speaker 3: He was a fun guy because he was young and
Speaker 3: he was current.
Speaker 7: He was unrespectful of tradition because tradition is what kept
Speaker 7: black people out thinking, So tradition was never a reason
Speaker 7: in his eyes to do something.
Speaker 1: For instance, one of the most iconic and celebrated images
Speaker 1: of Doc Ellis features him on the mound pitching glove
Speaker 1: in hand, but instead of his ball cap, he has
Speaker 1: a head decorated in pink hair curlers. His head looks
Speaker 1: like some satellite from the early days of the space race.
Speaker 1: His otherworldly appearance was a major cause for concern when
Speaker 1: he wore the pink curlers onto the field for pregame
Speaker 1: practice at the hallowed grounds of Wrigley Field. The year
Speaker 1: was nineteen seventy three. When I asked him, my pops
Speaker 1: certainly remembered those pink hair curlers.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: First time I saw him, he was sitting in the
Speaker 7: bullpen before the game. My dad said, he said, I'm
Speaker 7: gonna make a picture of curls in here. I said, well,
Speaker 7: we're getting ready to see because the game is about
Speaker 7: to start. He walked out there with the curls and
Speaker 7: started attentioning the manager told him he didn't want them
Speaker 7: to do it anymore. Yeah, I don't care which he wants, said,
Speaker 7: I means the same thing, I don't.
Speaker 3: Care what you want.
Speaker 1: That's a picture perfect moment from Doc's career in Major
Speaker 1: League baseball. It was a picture that said far more
Speaker 1: than a thousand words. It was more like ten thousand words.
Speaker 1: It was plain and simple, open defiance of league traditions
Speaker 1: and standards. It was also a revolutionary's manifesto of self determination.
Speaker 1: That one image became a shorthand to understand Doc's whole
Speaker 1: attitude in life. To get a better and a deeper
Speaker 1: sense of the man, we spoke with his wife, his
Speaker 1: Georgis Ellis, and she was quick to agree that the
Speaker 1: pink hair curlers was certifiable.
Speaker 8: Doc, I have the picture of the pink curlers in
Speaker 8: a frame in my house.
Speaker 4: Now. That is the one part of his baseball life.
Speaker 8: He loved to talk about, Okay, those pink curlers because
Speaker 8: he said nobody believed he was gonna do it. And
Speaker 8: I looked at him and I was like, they must
Speaker 8: not know you like I known you, Because if you
Speaker 8: have told me that one time, I would have been
Speaker 8: like buck don't do it.
Speaker 1: But as anyone who personally knew him would attest, that
Speaker 1: was Doc. He was gonna do whatever he felt was
Speaker 1: right and good to do, even if that meant wearing
Speaker 1: pink curlers that made the Commissioner of baseball lose his
Speaker 1: ever loving mind.
Speaker 8: But please believe me, I have plenty pictures of him,
Speaker 8: and I laugh at all of them.
Speaker 4: Who did he really think he was?
Speaker 1: And that's the question we aim to answer, Who did
Speaker 1: Doc Ellis think he was? Years after he first wore
Speaker 1: those pink curlers in his hair, Doc spoke with the
Speaker 1: poet Donald Hall, and he gave a hint to his
Speaker 1: thinking at the time. The pink curlers gave him a
Speaker 1: sly advantage in the fall of seventy two. In the
Speaker 1: summer of seventy three, Doc said, quote, that's when I
Speaker 1: was throwing spitballs. When I had the curlers my hair,
Speaker 1: the end would be nothing but balls of sweat. And
Speaker 1: thus Doc could slyly add some natural lubricant to his spitball,
Speaker 1: making it more like a sweatball. As Doc further explained
Speaker 1: to the poet Donald Hall, spitballs were quote something I
Speaker 1: experimented with because above it all, doc Ellis wasn't just
Speaker 1: an experimenter. He was a competitor, a man who came
Speaker 1: to win. Although these days he's mostly known for something
Speaker 1: else he experimented with that's right, LSD, and that no
Speaker 1: hitter he pitched on acid, which is a shame because
Speaker 1: Doc Ellis was so much more than that. Of course,
Speaker 1: if you're known for such a ludicrous achievement as throwing
Speaker 1: a no hitter on acid, there will be some folks
Speaker 1: who doubt you, and specifically doubt that it even ever happened.
Speaker 1: But according to his wife, Hadjeordis.
Speaker 8: He told the truth about that night. A lot of
Speaker 8: people still questioned that all these years later.
Speaker 1: You heard her, She insists, the legend in this case
Speaker 1: is real.
Speaker 8: He was really telling the truth. Doc was telling the
Speaker 8: truth about that night. He definitely wasn't hiding from it.
Speaker 1: That's because as mysterious and enigmatic as he was to
Speaker 1: the world, doc Ellis knew himself.
Speaker 8: He was a teller of truths without any questions asked.
Speaker 8: I'm a little biased because he was my husband, but
Speaker 8: I thought Doc was a very brilliant and talented man.
Speaker 8: He believed and was a fighter for dignity.
Speaker 1: Doc Ellis was born on March eleventh, nineteen forty five,
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, California. He was raised in a middle
Speaker 1: class black neighborhood located between Long Beach, Guardina, and Watts
Speaker 1: in south central LA. His early years were remarkably normal, uneventful,
Speaker 1: and animated by the love of his parents. He was
Speaker 1: known as a fun loving kid, a bit of a prankster,
Speaker 1: and he was an exceptional athlete. By the time he
Speaker 1: reached high school, he was a six foot three multi
Speaker 1: sports star. He excelled at basketball. He was equally good,
Speaker 1: if not better, at baseball, but he refused to play
Speaker 1: for the high school baseball team after a teammate called
Speaker 1: him quote a spear chucker. He flat out refused to
Speaker 1: be on a team with that guy. However, then he
Speaker 1: got in trouble. The story goes, Doc got caught drinking
Speaker 1: wine and getting high in the boys' bathroom at school.
Speaker 1: To get out of that trouble, a deal was struck.
Speaker 1: Doc was told quote, play baseball or will suspend you.
Speaker 1: So Doc rejoined the high school team. He played in
Speaker 1: a handful of games to finish out the season, and
Speaker 1: as a result, he was named an All League player.
Speaker 8: Doc was a man who was able to camouflage his
Speaker 8: pain in other ways.
Speaker 1: Sometimes Doc had to mask his pain behind his excellence
Speaker 1: on the field or the diamond. Luckily, around that same time,
Speaker 1: he met a man who would change the course of
Speaker 1: his life, a former ballplayer turned scout named Chet Brewer.
Speaker 1: He'd played in the Negro Leagues, back before Major League
Speaker 1: Baseball allowed black players into the majors. Brewer played with
Speaker 1: the legendary Negro League's pitcher Satchel Page, and so when
Speaker 1: he saw the young Doc Ellis pitch, Brewer immediately knew
Speaker 1: his talent was the real deal. As a scout for
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Pirates, he recommended the ball club take a
Speaker 1: look at this lanky, young black kid with a wicket arm.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty four, Doc Ellis signed a minor league
Speaker 1: contract with the Pirates. He stayed in their farm club
Speaker 1: system until nineteen sixty eight, when he was finally brought
Speaker 1: up to the big leagues. That was also the same
Speaker 1: year Doc discovered the drugs that Major League ballplayers took
Speaker 1: before games. As Doc Ellis recalled it, quote, by nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight, I was gone. I got involved with drugs
Speaker 1: real heavy when I got to the major leagues, because
Speaker 1: when you get to the big leagues, he started getting
Speaker 1: big league dope. And for the next twelve years of
Speaker 1: his major league career, Doc never pitched a game without
Speaker 1: the aid of amphetamines, or as they called it on
Speaker 1: the street speed. As Doc told the filmmaker Kevin mccalis
Speaker 1: to quote, doctors aren't going to come out and say it,
Speaker 1: but it enhances your game. The thing is, you get
Speaker 1: addicted to it. You take half a pill and do great,
Speaker 1: Then you take half three weeks later and don't do
Speaker 1: so good, so you take the other half. It got
Speaker 1: to the point where I had to take it just
Speaker 1: to be on the bench when I'm not pitching. When
Speaker 1: he was on the Pirates roster, Doc Ellis was popping
Speaker 1: between five and twelve Dexamal pills before any game he pitched.
Speaker 1: The so called greenies kept him sharp and focused over
Speaker 1: the long baseball season, which, as he pointed out, was
Speaker 1: common for all major leaguers. It was a well kept secret. Frankly,
Speaker 1: this should be no surprise, since performance enhancing drugs were
Speaker 1: rather common in twentieth century America, even for non athletes.
Speaker 1: Think of coffee, in the workplace, or the early sodas
Speaker 1: like Coca Cola and its use of the plant behind
Speaker 1: cocaine as a pick me up, and this was true
Speaker 1: for mini sodas, as my pops explained to me.
Speaker 7: That's what all those colors werefore. You know, doctor Pepper
Speaker 7: is the Philly of pepper upper. They'll never ever let
Speaker 7: you down. That was the appetiting slogan.
Speaker 1: You have to keep in mind that in twentieth century
Speaker 1: America things were often similar to now yet very different,
Speaker 1: and daily drug use wasn't seen the same as long
Speaker 1: as it was something acceptable like coffee or a mid
Speaker 1: day martini, or if you were a ballplayer, a handful
Speaker 1: of speed pills. Of course, the same could not be
Speaker 1: said about taking LSD. That was a whole other ballgame.
Speaker 1: After these messages, we will be back to relive the
Speaker 1: no hitter doc Ellis threw on acid. When you discussed
Speaker 1: doc Ellis, there's always a question of how great of
Speaker 1: a picture he would have been if he never got
Speaker 1: mixed up with speed pills and hard party in. He
Speaker 1: was a big man, a powerful hard throw in pitcher
Speaker 1: who intimidated all of the batters he faced. He could
Speaker 1: have easily been a Hall of Famer if it weren't
Speaker 1: for the drugs, and specifically the infamy of his no
Speaker 1: hitter on acid that embarrassed Major League Baseball, and some
Speaker 1: say the league never forgave him. The no hitter game
Speaker 1: took place on June twelfth, nineteen seventy. It was his
Speaker 1: third season in the league, and by then Doc thought
Speaker 1: he had a pretty good handle on what life was
Speaker 1: like in the big leagues. That may be why he
Speaker 1: felt he could pitch a game on LSD, but that
Speaker 1: was never his plan. As we've already covered, Doc didn't
Speaker 1: think he was pitching that day. He'd overlooked that it
Speaker 1: was a doubleheader. He was slated to pitch the first game.
Speaker 1: So Doc rushed out, caught a flight from La to
Speaker 1: San Diego, and he arrived in time at the ballpark.
Speaker 1: Only he was still fully hallucinating. That would be a
Speaker 1: challenge to get ready for the game. Doc did what
Speaker 1: he did on any other day. He pitched, He gobbled
Speaker 1: up some speed pills, and he waited to take the mount.
Speaker 2: So by the time that he hit the bullpens, half
Speaker 2: the world has melted.
Speaker 4: We that's about the time coach.
Speaker 9: Mor talk came and said, Doc Joe pitching today.
Speaker 1: That's the folk singer Todd Snyder he wrote a song
Speaker 1: called America's Favorite Pastime all about Doc Ellis and his
Speaker 1: no Hitter on acid. As a fellow psychonot known to
Speaker 1: enjoy the pleasures of LSD both on and off the stage,
Speaker 1: he considers Doc Ellis a fellow traveler. When I asked
Speaker 1: him if he thinks of Doc as a hero of his,
Speaker 1: todd Snyder said, yeah, for.
Speaker 9: Sure, and then all a lot of sports people like
Speaker 9: that for me, but he's long for sure. It's because
Speaker 9: he pitched an a hitter on LSD.
Speaker 1: Todd Snyder's still remembers well the first time he heard
Speaker 1: the story of Doc Ellis and his spectacular LSD tinged
Speaker 1: No Hitter.
Speaker 9: I was in Oregon with my friend the Late and
Speaker 9: Jeff Austin and his band, the Hundred Mountain String Band
Speaker 9: were headlined in this show, and about an hour before
Speaker 9: they went on, they all took LSD and I thought, huh,
Speaker 9: I've done a lot of things I hadn't formed on LSD.
Speaker 1: Obviously, playing a show is far different than pitching in
Speaker 1: the major leagues. However, there were similarities that Todd experienced
Speaker 1: when he also tried to perform with a head full
Speaker 1: of acid.
Speaker 9: I said, this is the only job on the earth
Speaker 9: where no one's gonna pas nigh.
Speaker 10: You might even do better, you know, And then he
Speaker 10: was like, well, not true.
Speaker 9: There was a guy a picture doc Ellis, who took
Speaker 9: LSD and threw a perfect game or no hitter in
Speaker 9: the second he said that to me, I knew. I
Speaker 9: remember just thinking, well, I'm gonna do a something. There's
Speaker 9: a baseball player to it, no hit her on LSD,
Speaker 9: and then went and read all about it.
Speaker 1: That's how he was first inspired to write his song
Speaker 1: celebrating the rare genius of doc Ellis. And that was
Speaker 1: also not the only time Todd Snyder took acid before
Speaker 1: he took the stage.
Speaker 9: I was in my hotel and I took it and
Speaker 9: it hit before I got out of the hotel. Then
Speaker 9: he was across the street. I don't know how I
Speaker 9: missed it, but I ended up lost sort of on
Speaker 9: the Sunset Strip area. I just lost track of what
Speaker 9: I was doing in La And then I sat down
Speaker 9: in front of this slicker store and some kids said
Speaker 9: we're going to the show walk by, and this girl said,
Speaker 9: are you Todd Snyder? Like, yeah, I am. She said,
Speaker 9: we're going to see your show. I was like, you
Speaker 9: gotta take me with you to that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: That is a picture perfect example of the sort of
Speaker 1: challenges one can run into when attempting to perform with
Speaker 1: a head full of acid. It's also a good example
Speaker 1: of what Doc Ellis was up against when he took
Speaker 1: the field that fadeful night in San Diego. He was
Speaker 1: twenty five years old and the whole world was going
Speaker 1: through a cultural revolution, but not everyone had to brave
Speaker 1: their acid hallucinations in front of a rowdy crowd plus
Speaker 1: the audience watching at home. That's exactly what Doc did
Speaker 1: as he battled against the mayhem of that purple haze acid.
Speaker 1: The game started out going well for Doc, even if
Speaker 1: he was imagining all kinds of stuff that wasn't there now.
Speaker 1: Even in a no hitter, some batters will make contact
Speaker 1: with the ball. There were times when the ball was
Speaker 1: hit back at me.
Speaker 2: I jumped because I thought he was coming fast, but
Speaker 2: the ball was coming slow. Third base would come by
Speaker 2: and grab the ball and threw somebody out.
Speaker 1: Other times, when a batter made contact, Doc had to
Speaker 1: spring into action and make a defensive play. As he
Speaker 1: tells it.
Speaker 2: One time I covered first base and I cacked the
Speaker 2: ball and I tagged the bas all in one most
Speaker 2: and I said, oh, I just made a touchdown it.
Speaker 1: There was the less dramatic challenge of fielding the ball
Speaker 1: when the catcher threw it back to him after a pitch.
Speaker 1: As Doc recalls, that was a whole other debacle to
Speaker 1: get through.
Speaker 2: I never caught a ball from to catch it with
Speaker 2: two hands because I thought that was a big old ball,
Speaker 2: and then sometimes it looks small.
Speaker 1: The way my pops remembers Doc's performance that day was
Speaker 1: how his pitches were sometimes heaters that twisted up batters
Speaker 1: like a pretzel. However, other times his control was not
Speaker 1: so pinpoint.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I remember the no hitter because he was wild.
Speaker 7: He walked like seven or eight people, and I think
Speaker 7: he hit a couple, but nobody got a hit.
Speaker 1: The way Doc tells it confirms what my pops remembers.
Speaker 2: In a crazy game, I'm hitting people, walk on people,
Speaker 2: throwing balls in the dirt. They're going everywhere.
Speaker 1: It was a struggle, no doubt, and yet somehow Doc
Speaker 1: held on.
Speaker 2: I didn't pay no attention to the score. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get the batters out.
Speaker 1: In the eighth inning, Doc served up an errant pitch,
Speaker 1: but it was the kind that a hitter could get
Speaker 1: their bat on and make contact, which is exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: The ball sailed deep. Everyone in the ballpark watched its
Speaker 1: flight through that misty night air, and then somehow, some way,
Speaker 1: Pirates outfielder Mattie Alou ran under the ball and made
Speaker 1: a tremendous catch, just in time to save the no hitter.
Speaker 1: Now all Doc needed to do was to get through
Speaker 1: the ninth inning just three outs, an history would be made.
Speaker 1: After the Pirates batted, the score was still to zero.
Speaker 1: Now it was the Padres turn at bat, their last chance,
Speaker 1: that is, if they could dramatically win the game. In
Speaker 1: the bottom of the ninth, Doc Ellis retook the mound
Speaker 1: ready to face down the batters, who he could barely see.
Speaker 11: Everybody in our ball finish stand and they're walking around nervously.
Speaker 11: They want to run and grab Doc. Now, two balls,
Speaker 11: two strikes, and here's the pitch fight. Three they got
Speaker 11: after him.
Speaker 3: He got it.
Speaker 11: They're moving.
Speaker 3: Doc Emment got a no hitters.
Speaker 1: Against all odds he'd done it. Doc Ellis had pitched
Speaker 1: one of the wildest no hitters in the history of baseball, literally,
Speaker 1: and he'd done it with his head fully dancing with LSD.
Speaker 7: Doc Ellis was going drugs and he was talking shit
Speaker 7: all the time and winning. So then when he pitched
Speaker 7: a no hitter, was like, of course, of course they did.
Speaker 7: And it wasn't pretty, it wasn't neat, but it was
Speaker 7: a no hitter.
Speaker 2: It was easier to pitch with the LSD because I
Speaker 2: was so used to medicating myself. That's the way I
Speaker 2: was dealing with the fear of failure. It's the fear
Speaker 2: of losing, the fear of winning. It's just that it
Speaker 2: was part of the game. You know, you get to
Speaker 2: the major leagues and you say, I got to stay here.
Speaker 1: What do I need. The wildest part of his no
Speaker 1: hitter on acid is how once he'd pulled off the
Speaker 1: near impossible, doc Ellis didn't want to talk about it.
Speaker 1: As loud and as proud as he was, as much
Speaker 1: of a competitor as he was, it wasn't something he
Speaker 1: talked to the press about. Not for a few years
Speaker 1: did anyone know what he'd done. And even then When
Speaker 1: folks did finally learn about the minor miracle he'd managed
Speaker 1: to pull off, Doc wanted to talk about it, even
Speaker 1: less it.
Speaker 8: Was something he never ever celebrated at all. He honestly
Speaker 8: didn't even remember pitching that game. That's how much of
Speaker 8: a fall it was for him.
Speaker 1: Now, if you can believe it. That wasn't the only
Speaker 1: game he pitched on acid. There was another famous outing
Speaker 1: when he took to the mound flying high on LSD.
Speaker 1: Only in that other game he had almost the exact
Speaker 1: opposite experience. He didn't even make it out of the
Speaker 1: first inning. Four years after the no hitter he pitched
Speaker 1: on acid, doc Ellis was back on the mound, aided
Speaker 1: by LSD. It was May Day, as in May one,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, the Pittsburgh Pirates were facing their rivals,
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Reds aka the Big Red Machine. Their lineup
Speaker 1: was star studded with a bunch of future Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame players, and, according to an interview Doc Ellis gave
Speaker 1: to Jet Magazine in nineteen eighty four, his plan was
Speaker 1: to knock them all down. He called it his May
Speaker 1: Day experiment. Just before the game, doc Ellis told his
Speaker 1: teammates quote, We're gonna get down, We're gonna do the
Speaker 1: dou I'm gonna hit these. When he had a pregame
Speaker 1: confact with his catcher, Manny Sanghian, he told his catcher
Speaker 1: he didn't need to worry about him signaling the next
Speaker 1: pitch he should throw, since he'd be throwing right at
Speaker 1: them Cincinnati Reds. As doc told Manny, quote, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna mow the line up down. Don't even give me
Speaker 1: no signals. If you can't catch it, forget it. Good
Speaker 1: to his word, head filled with acid, doc Elis took
Speaker 1: the mound, and indeed he threw hard at the first
Speaker 1: five Reds players he faced. It was all fastballs. First
Speaker 1: up was Pete Rose, and he hit Pete Rose right
Speaker 1: in the ribs. Then came up to the plate future
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, and again Doc Ellis wound
Speaker 1: up and let his fastball go boom. Down went Joe Morgan.
Speaker 1: Next up was Dan Dresen. He caught the same treatment.
Speaker 1: Now the bases are loaded and up comes Tony Perez.
Speaker 1: With Johnny Bench in the on deck circle. Doc Ellis
Speaker 1: went into his wind up and he let his fastball
Speaker 1: fly he missed Tony Perez, so he tried again, and again.
Speaker 3: Tony Perez managed to dodge for him.
Speaker 1: Well, he missed Tony Perez. That was enough wild pitches
Speaker 1: to walk in, which brought Pete Rose home.
Speaker 3: So he walked a run in. The next guy came up.
Speaker 1: Remember that the next guy is another future Hall of Famer,
Speaker 1: Johnny Bench. As Doc Ellis tells it, quote, I tried
Speaker 1: to deck Bench twice. I threw at his jaw and
Speaker 1: he moved. I threw it at the back of his
Speaker 1: head and he moved.
Speaker 7: He threw at his head twice. So then that's when
Speaker 7: imager just took him out. So o hea, he gonna
Speaker 7: get You're gonna start a riot.
Speaker 1: That infamous second game Doc pitched on acid was equally memorable,
Speaker 1: just for the exact opposite reason. He didn't get a
Speaker 1: single out, but strangely, he did earn the respect of
Speaker 1: his teammates, or at least one of them. Pittsburgh Pirates
Speaker 1: great and future Hall of Famer Dave Parker recalled how
Speaker 1: quote when he came up and said he was gonna
Speaker 1: hit all those reds. I thought, you ain't gonna do nothing, man.
Speaker 1: Then he did it. I'd gained a lot of respect
Speaker 1: for him right there. Those two games capture well the
Speaker 1: highs and the lows of the career of Doc Ellis.
Speaker 1: Even when he was at his worst, his teammates still
Speaker 1: loved and respected him. Yet it would be outside baseball
Speaker 1: that Doc Elis had the most profound effect on others.
Speaker 1: After this break, we'll dive deeper into the legend of
Speaker 1: Doc Ellis to discover the man he truly was. When
Speaker 1: he first heard the story of Doc Ellis and his
Speaker 1: no hitter on Acid, the film producer David Permit knew
Speaker 1: instantly that there was a movie there, and after doing
Speaker 1: some research and learning about the fullness of the man's life,
Speaker 1: he knew without a doubt there was an amazing film
Speaker 1: waiting to be made. Now he's developing a biopic about
Speaker 1: more than just the no hitter. His film will tell
Speaker 1: the inimitable story of Doc's life. Often when biographers have
Speaker 1: tried to sum up Doc Ellis and his life in baseball,
Speaker 1: there's a common comparison that's made. Folks often called Doc
Speaker 1: quote the Muhammad al Lee of baseball. On the surface,
Speaker 1: it makes sense, both were proud black men, phenomenal athletes,
Speaker 1: competitors who spoke their minds and challenged the traditions of
Speaker 1: their time. But when I asked my pops if he
Speaker 1: agreed with that comparison, he was quick to say.
Speaker 7: I think it's marketing the cellar book. He wasn't Baseball's
Speaker 7: behind a Lea. He was Baseball's Doc Ellis.
Speaker 1: Some folks have also called Doc Ellis a militant, but
Speaker 1: to those who saw him pitch and those who knew
Speaker 1: him intimately, that word also doesn't quite fit the man
Speaker 1: they knew.
Speaker 7: I remember Docs. I won't say activism because he wasn't
Speaker 7: an activist, but he was an agitator. He was an
Speaker 7: activist within baseball, but he was always pointing out the inequity.
Speaker 7: It wasn't like he had an idea that he wanted
Speaker 7: them to do something. He wanted them to stop doing something.
Speaker 7: He wanted them to stop all of the racist stuff,
Speaker 7: you know, like counting the black guys on the team
Speaker 7: and then making sure you don't have too many so
Speaker 7: you don't offend the white fans. Even having that thought,
Speaker 7: having that idea, he thought that was offensive. We were
Speaker 7: well aware of his outspokenness on black things.
Speaker 1: Doc's wife Hadjeordis very much agrees with my pop's assessment.
Speaker 1: In fact, she goes further.
Speaker 8: Doc definitely wasn't a militant, and I don't think that
Speaker 8: was the name that he deserved, but he ran with
Speaker 8: it because he always said, Jeordy, I'm gonna give the
Speaker 8: people what the people want, and that's what they want.
Speaker 8: They want to see a militant, and I'm gonna act
Speaker 8: like a mility. Said, if they want to see a clown,
Speaker 8: you give them a clown. And I just think that
Speaker 8: a lot of things that Doc did he was feeding
Speaker 8: in to what the people were really wanting to seek
Speaker 8: from him.
Speaker 1: That assessment feels far more fitting because Doc Ellis was
Speaker 1: one of a kind. Any easy comparison or label such
Speaker 1: as militant ultimately cheapens what made Doc so distinct more
Speaker 1: than the no hitter on acid. It was a year later,
Speaker 1: at the All Star Game in nineteen seventy one that
Speaker 1: showed the world why Doc Ellis was so singular, But
Speaker 1: also that game revealed how much love and respect Doc
Speaker 1: had for his people, for black folks, and how he
Speaker 1: was willing to stand on business demanding that baseball show
Speaker 1: that same respect to black ball. Players. In nineteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: the two best pitchers in baseball both happened to be
Speaker 1: black men. In the American League, there was the Oakland
Speaker 1: A's pitcher Blue, a man who threw so hard that,
Speaker 1: as my pop said.
Speaker 7: This is invited, Blue could throw a ball through a
Speaker 7: car wash and it would not get wet the automatic
Speaker 7: car wash you get, throw it from one or another and
Speaker 7: come out dry.
Speaker 1: To face him in the All Star Game for the
Speaker 1: National League, there was Doc Ellis. Everyone knew they were
Speaker 1: the two best pitchers and as such they should both
Speaker 1: start at the All Star Game. However, there were those
Speaker 1: who didn't want America's pastime to give such an honor
Speaker 1: to two black ballplayers. That didn't sit right with Doc Ellis,
Speaker 1: so he launched a campaign to demand that the National
Speaker 1: League manager, Sparky Anderson, give him the start. The National
Speaker 1: sports writers saw this as Doc making something about race
Speaker 1: that wasn't about race. The ones who wrote about it
Speaker 1: patronizingly insisted racism didn't exist in baseball, and if it did,
Speaker 1: was solely due to Doc bringing it in to baseball. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Doc stuck to his guns.
Speaker 7: He said, I don't think the league is ever gonna
Speaker 7: start two black guys in an All Star game. Yeah,
Speaker 7: he said his stayouts and then Sparky Anderson started him
Speaker 7: just to prove he wasn't a racist, I believe so
Speaker 7: that thought to not be in the position of proving
Speaker 7: him right, so he got to start the game, which
Speaker 7: I think was his plan all the time.
Speaker 1: Another result is that for a very large number of fans,
Speaker 1: doc Ellis became one of the most unpopular players in
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball. Yet, when he was asked about the
Speaker 1: hate he was receiving for his stand, doc Ellis was
Speaker 1: quick to say he didn't quote give a fuck what
Speaker 1: anybody thought. One reason he was willing to take a
Speaker 1: big hit of negative publicity and stand up and speak
Speaker 1: his mind is that he did it not only for himself,
Speaker 1: but also for his friend, the as pitcher Vita Blue.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, him invited Blue or Thickest Thieves.
Speaker 8: I had the opportunity to be around Bida quite a
Speaker 8: bit after Doc and I married. Bida was like another
Speaker 8: brother to him, and he spoke very highly of Da.
Speaker 8: He had nothing but the utmost respect for Bida.
Speaker 1: After that All Star game, there was one man who
Speaker 1: watched the game saw the backlash from the sporting press,
Speaker 1: and he was so moved by what Doc had bravely
Speaker 1: done for black ball players in the league that he
Speaker 1: sat down and wrote a heartfelt letter to Doc Ellis.
Speaker 12: I read your comments and I paid with the last
Speaker 12: few days, and I wanted you to know how much
Speaker 12: I appreciate your courage and honesty. In my opinion, progress
Speaker 12: for today's players will only come from this kind of dedication.
Speaker 12: I am sure. Also you know some of the possible consequences.
Speaker 12: The news media, while knowing full will you all right
Speaker 12: and honest, will use every means to get you. Blacks
Speaker 12: should not protest as you are, even though they know
Speaker 12: you are right. Honors that should be yours will bypass you,
Speaker 12: and the pressures will be great. There will be times
Speaker 12: when you ask yourself if it's worth it all. I
Speaker 12: can only say, Doc, it is. I again appreciate what
Speaker 12: you are doing. Continued success, Sincerely, Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 1: When he received that letter, to say that his reaction
Speaker 1: was emotional is a powerful understatement. As his wife has
Speaker 1: Jordis recalls.
Speaker 4: Oh boy, here you go.
Speaker 8: No, yes, he did. We read that letter all the
Speaker 8: time in our home. That letter was something that was
Speaker 8: to be honest with you, That was truly the first
Speaker 8: time I ever witnessed Doc actually crying. And I'd seen
Speaker 8: many moments in his life that most people would have
Speaker 8: cried over, but that was the first time I had
Speaker 8: ever seen him cry, and he was finally able to
Speaker 8: break himself to read out loud.
Speaker 1: Doc Ellis knew well what Jackie Robinson had gone through
Speaker 1: as the first black ball player in modern baseball, the
Speaker 1: man who broke the color line. To read the mutual
Speaker 1: respect that Jackie had for him and for what he'd
Speaker 1: done by standing up and speaking out. Receiving that letter
Speaker 1: was one of the greatest moments in the life of
Speaker 1: Doc Ellis when Jackie Robinson told him, as my Pops
Speaker 1: puts it.
Speaker 7: You're right, You're going to be right, but they're still
Speaker 7: going to you. But this has to be done, and
Speaker 7: what's right changes from moment to moment. So he liked
Speaker 7: the fact that Doc was open about the mistreatment that
Speaker 7: was still being visited at all on black people, because
Speaker 7: that was consistent with what he believed to be happening,
Speaker 7: and he was glad somebody else was talking about naturally.
Speaker 1: The film producer David Permit also recognizes the cinematic value
Speaker 1: of that moment and that letter.
Speaker 10: Of course it's in our script. I mean Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 10: We all know what he represents, and Doc Ellis revered
Speaker 10: him as we all have looking back on history and
Speaker 10: what he achieved. So that was one of the most
Speaker 10: meaningful things that ever happened to Doc that letter. It
Speaker 10: was an emotional high point in his life.
Speaker 3: To receive that letter. You can only imagine.
Speaker 1: There was another great black ball player who also meant
Speaker 1: the world to Doc Ellis. His name was Roberto Clemente.
Speaker 1: He was Doc's teammate on the Pittsburgh Pirates and together
Speaker 1: they shared a remarkable bond. As well, they also shared
Speaker 1: a remarkable moment in baseball history. On September one, nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy one, months after the All Star Game, he'd started
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh which were the first team in Major League
Speaker 1: Baseball to field an all black lineup, many of whom
Speaker 1: were Afro Latino. Doc Ellis was on the mound and
Speaker 1: Roberto Clemente was in the outfield.
Speaker 7: Nobody talked about it in advance because it wasn't planned
Speaker 7: as an action. Danny Mert talk I think was the
Speaker 7: manager he should put the best guys on the field
Speaker 7: and on that team, they.
Speaker 3: All happened to be black. Somehow.
Speaker 1: My pops caught that game on TV. Living in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: at the time, he got to witness that history being made.
Speaker 3: All the neighborhood bars were full because we.
Speaker 7: Wanted to We wanted to see this this negro league team,
Speaker 7: that's what they had to call, a negro league team
Speaker 7: into major and they were kidding everybody's ass.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: No, Doc was real proud part of that historic day.
Speaker 8: Doc wasn't one to really talked about pride in a
Speaker 8: loud kind of way.
Speaker 1: However, that day was particularly moving for Doc, especially considering
Speaker 1: what he'd gone through during the All Star Game earlier
Speaker 1: that season and the whirlwind of controversy he'd created.
Speaker 8: That moment was very meaningful to him. For him, it
Speaker 8: was a sign of progress and a reflection of collective talent,
Speaker 8: and he knew that it meant to stand at the
Speaker 8: mound representing not just a team, but a community. So
Speaker 8: it was a very proud moment for him.
Speaker 1: And just like with the All Star Game, Doc got
Speaker 1: to share that honor with a man he'd call a brother,
Speaker 1: Roberto Clemente. That same year, their team would go on
Speaker 1: to win the World Series. Nineteen seventy one was a
Speaker 1: high point year in the life of Doc Ellis. Sadly though,
Speaker 1: his time with Roberto Clemente was drawing to a close,
Speaker 1: because the next year, after the baseball season, in December
Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy two, Clemente was on a private plane
Speaker 1: carrying a low of much needed relief supplies to an
Speaker 1: earthquake ravage Nicaragua. Tragically, his plane went down near Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: Doc's wife, had Jordis, knows well how deeply that loss
Speaker 1: affected her husband.
Speaker 8: Roberto's deck hit Doc in a very undescribable way.
Speaker 4: It was a wound that never healed, just truly didn't.
Speaker 4: He spoke of.
Speaker 8: Roberto with so much tenderness and respect, and he always
Speaker 8: said that that friendship truly shaped how he thought about service.
Speaker 1: Roberto Clemente's selflessness and his example of a meaningful life
Speaker 1: outside of baseball would stay with Doc Ellis and would
Speaker 1: shape the next chapter of his life Beyond the Diamond.
Speaker 8: His relationship in friendship with Roberto is what I'm about
Speaker 8: to cry, would truly shaped him into understanding the true
Speaker 8: meaning and purpose bends the service and Scarfletts.
Speaker 1: Towards the end of his career, Doc bounced around the league,
Speaker 1: pitching for a variety of teams. But it was when
Speaker 1: he left the Pirates that he took yet another emotional hit,
Speaker 1: one that clarified for him how mercurial the folks who
Speaker 1: were once his fans could be, and also how cruel.
Speaker 1: Doc was known to drive a flashy red convertible Cadillac
Speaker 1: to all the Pittsburgh Pirates home games. He'd bought the
Speaker 1: car with his teammate, the future Hall of Famer Willie Stargel.
Speaker 1: The two men were checking a car lot with Stargel
Speaker 1: spied the red Caddy. He told Doc, man, this is
Speaker 1: your car.
Speaker 4: The only thing he ever said about that car. Will
Speaker 4: He made me do it, and just.
Speaker 1: Like that, Doc bought the Red Caddy and he dubbed
Speaker 1: it the Doc Bobile. He outfitted that car with vanity
Speaker 1: license plates that read Doc.
Speaker 8: Was probably his most favorite car, not only because it
Speaker 8: was a red Caddy, but because it was Willie Stargo
Speaker 8: that talked him into purchasing it. When Willie passed away,
Speaker 8: I remembered him saying, I would give anything in the
Speaker 8: world if I had that red Caddy to pull up
Speaker 8: at Willy's funeral in and I was like, why would
Speaker 8: you do that? He said, Willie would understand.
Speaker 1: My pops remembers that red caddy from the images published
Speaker 1: in magazines of the day.
Speaker 7: They had a picture of it at Ebony by Jet
Speaker 7: one of them, and also in Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated
Speaker 7: had leaning on a car. Yeah, and the athletes a
Speaker 7: bought catallacts. They may sure you some.
Speaker 1: That red caddy became a symbol of Doc his high living,
Speaker 1: his success, and his blackness. And that car was how
Speaker 1: the fans of Pittsburgh let Doc know they were pissed
Speaker 1: that he was leaving the team. Some fans stole his
Speaker 1: red Caddie and then they burned it to the ground.
Speaker 8: He believes that it was because at that era, in
Speaker 8: that time, he was a black man. He said, that
Speaker 8: was the only way that he could ever see the
Speaker 8: logic in it. Why it happened, and what happened to
Speaker 8: the car once it was stolen. It wasn't like they
Speaker 8: stole it and took it on a joy ride. They
Speaker 8: stolen and then they set it on fire and burned it.
Speaker 1: That was his goodbye from Pittsburgh, from the team and
Speaker 1: the community he'd done so much for and given so
Speaker 1: much of himself. There's a question of why Doc Ellis
Speaker 1: isn't in the Hall of Fame. His career numbers suggest
Speaker 1: he could possibly make the cut, but you won't see
Speaker 1: his name in the Hall alongside so many of his
Speaker 1: former teammates. For his wife, as jortis, a lot of
Speaker 1: that comes down to not only how he pushed the
Speaker 1: game to evolve and mature and live up to our
Speaker 1: American idea of equality, but also it was due to
Speaker 1: the embarrassment of the no hitter he'd pitched on acid.
Speaker 1: As she tells it, Doc was rather convinced that.
Speaker 8: Would be the thing that would always keep him from
Speaker 8: being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Between his no hitter on acid and his outspoken time
Speaker 1: in the league, Doc had no illusions that Baseball's Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame would ever honor him.
Speaker 4: Doc had accepted that he would never be.
Speaker 1: Thankfully, Doc's life was far bigger than baseball, and despite
Speaker 1: the many slights he endured, the public backlashes he faced,
Speaker 1: the emotional blows he took, he was able to find
Speaker 1: a far more meaningful life outside the baseball diamond. In
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, Doc left the Texas Rangers. He was
Speaker 1: traded to the New York Mets and then made a
Speaker 1: return to Pittsburgh for his final three games before he retired.
Speaker 1: At first, he thought he might go into broadcasting, he
Speaker 1: certainly had the personality for it. Or perhaps he could
Speaker 1: become a radio DJ, a wild man on the mic
Speaker 1: in the vein of wolf Man Jack. But instead Doc
Speaker 1: quit doing drugs. He got sober, and that changed everything.
Speaker 1: It was the birth of his son that inspired him
Speaker 1: to get sober. As Doc tells it, quote, I was
Speaker 1: wearing a lot of jewelry at the time, and when
Speaker 1: i'd hold him, I'd grab his arms and whatnot. Then
Speaker 1: I read these stories about parents who shake their kids
Speaker 1: and kill them. I asked myself, I wonder how hard
Speaker 1: I'm grabbing them. Then I realized the truly up thing
Speaker 1: that I had to ask myself at all. That's when
Speaker 1: I knew something's wrong with me. I went to treatment
Speaker 1: the next day. After going through treatment, he returned to
Speaker 1: baseball not as a player, but as a drug counselor.
Speaker 1: He tried to help other players get free of the
Speaker 1: drugs that he felt bedeviled his career, his life.
Speaker 8: Doc always said, they're working for the Yankees as a
Speaker 8: substance abuse counselor was a role he gave him the
Speaker 8: opportunity to turn all of his personal struggles into practical help.
Speaker 8: He could reach players who were still in the cycle
Speaker 8: of addiction. He had the blessing of being able to
Speaker 8: speak from his own experience.
Speaker 4: It ended up saving careers and lines.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna be honest with you, I think he enjoyed
Speaker 8: that job with the Yankees, working on the subton's abuse aspect,
Speaker 8: far more than he enjoyed being on the field.
Speaker 1: That's how his post baseball life took shape. He found meaning,
Speaker 1: he found redemption, and he did not do it for headlines.
Speaker 1: He did it quietly, He did it humbly. He did
Speaker 1: it for himself and for others.
Speaker 8: The work meant so much to him, and Doc found
Speaker 8: nothing but purpose in counseling, mentoring, advocating for those who
Speaker 8: had no advocates.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, drug counseling became a far more important part of
Speaker 1: his life than his career in the majors. You might
Speaker 1: say he was a drug counselor who used to play baseball.
Speaker 4: Substance.
Speaker 8: Abused counseling truly became the heart of his life mission.
Speaker 8: To see him sit and stand at the podium and speak,
Speaker 8: it was mesmerizing. He just had charisma like that. He
Speaker 8: had the boys, he had the courage, you know, and
Speaker 8: he was going to always speak truth to Powell.
Speaker 1: Doc was particularly effective speaking to incarcerated youth. He was
Speaker 1: a former major leaguer, so that was exciting for them.
Speaker 1: But also he knew the lives they had led. He
Speaker 1: got them at that bone deep level. He could speak
Speaker 1: to them from the heart and they would listen eagerly.
Speaker 1: But one thing he would not talk about was his
Speaker 1: no hitter on acid.
Speaker 7: Because it delivers the wrong message. That's all they would remember.
Speaker 7: If he was talking about that, they would enjoy the story.
Speaker 7: They'd be laughing, so they would forget everything else he said. So, yeah,
Speaker 7: that's how he did the right thing by not talking
Speaker 7: about it.
Speaker 4: The beautiful thing about that.
Speaker 8: Once Doc realized where he truly fit in, what his
Speaker 8: true purpose was, he threw every amount of energy he
Speaker 8: had into helping the youth.
Speaker 4: Not just youth, young.
Speaker 8: Men who were caught up in the system, especially individuals
Speaker 8: that he deemed is at risk behind bars, and one
Speaker 8: thing he was not going to do is glorify his
Speaker 8: LSD no hitter because he just didn't want young people
Speaker 8: to see it as an endorsement of drugs.
Speaker 1: The very thing he's now most remembered for he never
Speaker 1: wanted to speak about. He wanted to leave all that
Speaker 1: behind so that he could truly change lives. One thing
Speaker 1: is certain, his old friend and teammate Roberto Clemente would
Speaker 1: have been very, very proud.
Speaker 8: So his whole thing was, let's redirect this story, let's
Speaker 8: move away from the drugs, and let's talk about what
Speaker 8: our lives could be without that. Because of that fact,
Speaker 8: he didn't want to ever appear to be glorifying that
Speaker 8: part of his life or his history.
Speaker 1: Doc Elis spent twelve years in Major League baseball. He
Speaker 1: spent much longer as a drug counselor, and in that
Speaker 1: mission he found his life's true purpose. At the end
Speaker 1: of his life, he faced a painful illness, but how
Speaker 1: he'd lived his life gave him peace. In those final days, he.
Speaker 8: Said to me, he said, you know what, Jordie, I
Speaker 8: know I'm gonna die, but at least I can die
Speaker 8: saying that I had thirty two good years versus sixty
Speaker 8: three bad years, and the thirty two good years he
Speaker 8: was speaking of was his life after baseball.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and eight, Doc Ellis passed away at
Speaker 1: the age of sixty three, and in order to honor
Speaker 1: his life, his work, his memory, his wife had Jordis,
Speaker 1: started the Doc Ellis Foundation. They continue to work in
Speaker 1: the spirit of Doc and they do it for the people.
Speaker 4: The Foundation's mission is clear.
Speaker 8: I mean, we coordinate support for black and brown families
Speaker 8: that are dealing with violins, missing loved ones, any type
Speaker 8: of injustice. We're here to help anyone who is dealing
Speaker 8: with violence, a missing loved one. We placed our main
Speaker 8: focus on black and brown families because those are the
Speaker 8: voices that are the least paid attention to.
Speaker 4: Those are the voices that are the least heard.
Speaker 1: That seems to be the perfect way to honor Doc Ellis.
Speaker 1: As for the biopic film that will one day celebrate
Speaker 1: his life, the film producer David Permitt says.
Speaker 10: That, Yeah, he's a hero of mine because he's a survivor.
Speaker 10: He survived. He survived in light of the racism, in
Speaker 10: light of the drug abuse, in light of everything else
Speaker 10: that he had to contend with in his life.
Speaker 13: Looking back on his life, while you know, when we
Speaker 13: think of Doc Ellis, we think of a no hitter
Speaker 13: on acid, right, you know, we go right away to that.
Speaker 13: But I think there's a lot more meat on the bone,
Speaker 13: honestly than just that incident.
Speaker 1: As my pop sums it up, Doc Elis can be
Speaker 1: proud of the fact.
Speaker 7: That he was successful in baseball in spite of himself,
Speaker 7: and he was successful afterwards.
Speaker 3: It calls of himself.
Speaker 8: I can remember on his deathbed one of the things
Speaker 8: Doc said to me that out of all the things
Speaker 8: that he had done in his life, whether it was
Speaker 8: good or bad, the one thing he wished he could
Speaker 8: go back and change if he could, and that was
Speaker 8: that game on that day. He still wanted to pitch
Speaker 8: the no hitter, but without the drugs.
Speaker 1: That was a very important to Doc Ellis, because.
Speaker 8: Doc had a real issue with that, because he wanted
Speaker 8: to be more so known for who he was off
Speaker 8: the field versus who he was on the field. He
Speaker 8: always said that anybody truly could be a baseball player
Speaker 8: and a good baseball player if they had the mindset,
Speaker 8: but everybody was not capable of or willing to be
Speaker 8: a real man.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, Doc Ellis is far, far more than the ballplayer
Speaker 1: who pitched a no hitter on acid. He was a
Speaker 1: true American folk hero, a man who paid a high
Speaker 1: price to enjoy the freedom that comes with being an American,
Speaker 1: and he spent the majority of his life improving the
Speaker 1: lives of others. That is his lasting legacy. One important note.
Speaker 1: Todd Snyder, the beloved folk singer, tragically passed away not
Speaker 1: long after our conversation. This might be the last interview
Speaker 1: he ever gave. A statement posted on Snyder's Facebook page
Speaker 1: said it well, quote, we love you, Todd sail on,
Speaker 1: old friend. We'll see you again out there on the
Speaker 1: road somewhere down the line.
Speaker 5: All right, Jaren, there seems like there's been a movie
Speaker 5: about this in development for many years.
Speaker 3: Can you tell us anything.
Speaker 5: About the project or maybe help them along by giving
Speaker 5: them some casting input?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, one hundred percent. So I know that to
Speaker 1: permit the filmmaker, he's been talking to various people. I
Speaker 1: don't know if he wants me to like bust out
Speaker 1: what casting I do know, So I'll say the casting
Speaker 1: that and then we can maybe I'll return to in
Speaker 1: a second. But for Doc Ellis, I went with young
Speaker 1: Lawrence Fishburne or young Forrest Whitaker. Obviously neither is available
Speaker 1: due to age, but those would be my two. For
Speaker 1: Robert Clemente, I went with a Damson Idris. I thought
Speaker 1: he would be really good at this. Obviously you'd have
Speaker 1: to work on the Spanish. And now for Dave Parker,
Speaker 1: his Pittsburgh Pirate teammate, I thought Winston Duke, the big
Speaker 1: brother from Black Panther, he'd be really good. And then
Speaker 1: for Vita Blue, this is a non actor, but I
Speaker 1: think he's got the charisma and obviously the time on
Speaker 1: set to pull it off. Ryan Kugler, oh I've forgotten.
Speaker 1: For Jackie Robinson, John Washington, Denzel's.
Speaker 4: Boy, Oh yeah, he's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, get him in there, right, that's by general casting.
Speaker 1: And then I hear you know, whispers that Lakeith Stanfield
Speaker 1: has been involved or is circling the project, or his
Speaker 1: strong possibility.
Speaker 5: To be Doc, which I like, love it for any
Speaker 5: of us, any very special character or very special moments
Speaker 5: you want to shout out in this one.
Speaker 4: Hmm.
Speaker 5: I'll start with the Jackie Robinson letter.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 6: I was gonna say, Jackie Robinson really shows up.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, I mean the fact that it takes both
Speaker 1: his wife cry and Doc cry, you know, and then
Speaker 1: I'll it made me get emotional just to hearing about it.
Speaker 1: So I think, yeah, we all have to kind of
Speaker 1: agree on that one, the Jackie Robinson letter and the
Speaker 1: wife if we're.
Speaker 5: Doing very special character Doc's wife jordis, Yeah, she is,
Speaker 5: you know, keeping this story alive, like going well beyond
Speaker 5: the Snapple fact version of the story. And I found
Speaker 5: the second half of his life far more interesting than
Speaker 5: just that one game, which was also pretty interesting completely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were definitely very much like partners in sobriety
Speaker 1: and in doing community service. And I just found a
Speaker 1: really compelling teller of his story, but also just in
Speaker 1: terms of the value of what his real life was
Speaker 1: outside of baseball. It is like she really sold me
Speaker 1: on the idea that it's like being a baseball player
Speaker 1: was a very small part of his life.
Speaker 5: And getting your dad in there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, shout out to Pops.
Speaker 5: Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people.
Speaker 5: Today's episode was produced in partnership with School of Humans
Speaker 5: to show hosted by Zaren Burnett, Danish Schwartz and Jason English.
Speaker 5: Our senior producer is Josh Fisher. Today's episode was written
Speaker 5: by Zaren Burnett. Our story editor is Virginia Prescott from
Speaker 5: School of Humans. Producers are Etily's Perez.
Speaker 1: And Amelia Brock.
Speaker 5: Editing and sound design by Jesse Niswanger, Additional editing by
Speaker 5: Mary Doo. Research and fact checking by Austin Thompson and
Speaker 5: Zaren Burnett. Original music by Alisa McCoy, Show logo by
Speaker 5: Lucy Quintonia. Executive producers of today's episode are Virginia Prescott
Speaker 5: and Jason English. Very Special Episodes is a production of
Speaker 5: iHeart Podcasts.