1
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:27,400
Speaker 1: Yea quick bait and switch at the top of the show,

2
00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:31,000
Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentlemen, friends and neighbors. You may have thought

3
00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:34,400
Speaker 1: you are tuning into a podcast, but for the moment,

4
00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:37,720
Speaker 1: you are at a baseball game. Here the crowd, smell,

5
00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:41,720
Speaker 1: the popcorn, the hot dogs, the distant crack of a

6
00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:45,479
Speaker 1: baseball bat, the stale urine, the sale you're in, the

7
00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:49,280
Speaker 1: the beer that somehow smells both like beer and stale.

8
00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:51,559
Speaker 1: You're a sort of a Milans. Really, it all sort

9
00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:55,080
Speaker 1: of comes together. And what's the word mi asthma, my asthma,

10
00:00:55,880 --> 00:01:01,560
Speaker 1: A collage for the senses, a cavalcade need of experience. Hello,

11
00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:03,920
Speaker 1: my name is Ben, my name is Nolan. We love words.

12
00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,800
Speaker 1: We love words almost as much as we love our

13
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:14,840
Speaker 1: super producer, Casey batter Up pegrum No. I was wondering

14
00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:19,480
Speaker 1: now that we're at this hypothetical baseball game. Uh, were

15
00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:21,920
Speaker 1: you much of a baseballer? Yeah? And I played the

16
00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:24,800
Speaker 1: outfield when I was like in elementary school. But I

17
00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,720
Speaker 1: was you know, I was a turn rested development. Yeah,

18
00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:31,920
Speaker 1: I was no good and I just looking around, you know,

19
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:37,319
Speaker 1: just smelling the p not really being a very effective

20
00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:40,560
Speaker 1: part of the team. Wait, you were in uh stale

21
00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:44,600
Speaker 1: urine soaked little league. They all they all smelled like that, Ben,

22
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:46,920
Speaker 1: from the little leagues to the minor leagues to the

23
00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:50,040
Speaker 1: major leagues, they all smell like p Well, we did

24
00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:53,040
Speaker 1: grow up. I do love that unintentional ryme. We did

25
00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,000
Speaker 1: grow up in different towns. I associated with the smell

26
00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:58,880
Speaker 1: of pe nuts. I was also an outfield guy, so

27
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:03,160
Speaker 1: maybe that's what I'm peanuts. Peanuts. There we go. I'm sorry,

28
00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:06,280
Speaker 1: I was confused. No, no, not at all. So it's

29
00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:10,480
Speaker 1: strange because one of the most uh one of the

30
00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,280
Speaker 1: most beautiful series of memories that I have from growing

31
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,680
Speaker 1: up is that in the early nineties you could get

32
00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:22,160
Speaker 1: very very cheap field side seats and that was my

33
00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:28,320
Speaker 1: primary informative experience with baseball until we started doing ridiculous

34
00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:33,000
Speaker 1: history and exploring some of the strange baseball stories, most

35
00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:37,120
Speaker 1: particularly Curse of the Colonel. But even if you haven't

36
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,560
Speaker 1: played baseball, or even if you hate baseball ridiculous historians,

37
00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:45,000
Speaker 1: you have probably experienced one of the most amazing cognitive

38
00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:49,800
Speaker 1: things that humans are capable of experiencing. Dropping acid. I

39
00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:55,600
Speaker 1: was gonna say flow state cool. It's one of those too. Yeah,

40
00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:58,280
Speaker 1: there are many roads to the room known as the

41
00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:05,480
Speaker 1: flow state meditation in exercise LSD. And today today our

42
00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:14,160
Speaker 1: story encounters all three baseball LSD and the flow states true. Uh,

43
00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,120
Speaker 1: at least it is commonly accepted it is true. Right,

44
00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:19,440
Speaker 1: So well, could you could you set the scene? Could

45
00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:22,720
Speaker 1: you take us there? Yeah, I will take you there. Um.

46
00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:28,680
Speaker 1: It was a Friday on June twelfth of nineteen seventy, Um,

47
00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,760
Speaker 1: right on the tail end of you know the rule

48
00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:33,679
Speaker 1: in sixties. That's not what they were called. That was

49
00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,560
Speaker 1: the twenties. What were the sixties. What's a good adjective

50
00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:42,680
Speaker 1: for the sixties? Uh, the vibrant, the vibrant, unbridled, unhinged,

51
00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:47,680
Speaker 1: tune in, free, long, dropout, free, love, free, free, free,

52
00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:50,680
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Um. And you know a big part

53
00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:54,680
Speaker 1: of that was a guy named Timothy Leary who was

54
00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:58,760
Speaker 1: he worked at Harvard in the laboratories there, but he

55
00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:04,240
Speaker 1: researched with the effects of psychedelic drugs on the mind,

56
00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:09,280
Speaker 1: and he became this kind of uh Sevengali of the

57
00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:14,400
Speaker 1: sixties and of psychedelic experiences. Guru figure, that's true. And

58
00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:17,839
Speaker 1: there was another guy named Doc Ellis on that day,

59
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:23,760
Speaker 1: June twe who was a fantastic pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates,

60
00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:30,640
Speaker 1: and he had just arrived at the stadium in San Diego, California,

61
00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,560
Speaker 1: to be the starting pitcher for a game against the

62
00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:38,760
Speaker 1: San Diego Padres. But here's the problem. He got there

63
00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:41,640
Speaker 1: just an hour and a half, ninety minutes before he's

64
00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:45,320
Speaker 1: supposed to be on the field, and he is not

65
00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:49,839
Speaker 1: sober because he's coming in and he had no idea

66
00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:52,920
Speaker 1: that he was supposed to play today. In fact, he

67
00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:57,599
Speaker 1: has partied to a cartoonish degree the night before, right,

68
00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:02,200
Speaker 1: he's dropped acid. He drank like a fish. Uh. And

69
00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:06,080
Speaker 1: he woke up the same day and I think it

70
00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:10,320
Speaker 1: was about what what about noon that he took another

71
00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:12,240
Speaker 1: hit of acid. Yeah, he was in Los Angeles, it

72
00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:14,719
Speaker 1: was his hometown. The game was in San Diego. He

73
00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:16,039
Speaker 1: thought he had a day off. He did have a

74
00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,920
Speaker 1: day off, but he burned through that day off, um,

75
00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:21,919
Speaker 1: as you just described. And then he woke up at

76
00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:25,040
Speaker 1: around noon after having taken another hit. Uh. And it

77
00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:27,599
Speaker 1: was a friend, a girlfriend of one of his childhood

78
00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:29,400
Speaker 1: friends who he was hanging out with and then crashed

79
00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:34,400
Speaker 1: over there with UM showed him the newspaper the day's newspaper,

80
00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:40,359
Speaker 1: the sports page more specifically, which said, hey, you're the

81
00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,160
Speaker 1: starting pitcher for this game that's about to happen today

82
00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:47,640
Speaker 1: in San Diego. So he got all this stuff together

83
00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,640
Speaker 1: right into the airport while tripping on LSD. Mind you

84
00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:57,600
Speaker 1: caught an afternoon flight and a cab directly to the stadium.

85
00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,760
Speaker 1: And here's the there's this great article on ESPN by

86
00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:06,080
Speaker 1: Patrick Ruby that explains it this way. And this is

87
00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:09,720
Speaker 1: according to doc Ellis himself. He landed in the San

88
00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:13,479
Speaker 1: Diego airport, he hopped in a cab outside, and all

89
00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:15,840
Speaker 1: he said was, Casey, can you beat me on this?

90
00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:19,760
Speaker 1: Get to the stadium? I got a pitch, Yeah, and

91
00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:22,000
Speaker 1: pitch he did. Um. You know what's funny. I'm thinking

92
00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,600
Speaker 1: about all this, and I'm thinking about just the stress

93
00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:29,080
Speaker 1: of going to the airport in general, and like being

94
00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:31,520
Speaker 1: on a tight timeline and being worried about missing your

95
00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:33,880
Speaker 1: flight or being worried about missing your appointment or whatever.

96
00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:37,640
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that with the added stress of uh,

97
00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:41,000
Speaker 1: you know, being in an altered state. Yeah. I was

98
00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:44,720
Speaker 1: thinking about this because you know, stress can be such

99
00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:47,320
Speaker 1: a personal thing, you know. I was wondering how much

100
00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 1: would it stress him out? To me, being late for

101
00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:53,320
Speaker 1: something is more stressful than going to an airport. I

102
00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,320
Speaker 1: hate being late for stuff, But regardless of which way

103
00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,320
Speaker 1: you look at it, compounding that with a altered state

104
00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:04,200
Speaker 1: of consciousness, and then also compounding that with the fact

105
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:08,520
Speaker 1: that you are a public performer. You're an athlete, right,

106
00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:11,440
Speaker 1: who's going to be performing in crowd. It's not like

107
00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:15,000
Speaker 1: you're late to your job as an archivist in a

108
00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:17,960
Speaker 1: basement where no one will see you for eight hours.

109
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:20,680
Speaker 1: He was also twenty five years old, known for his

110
00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:25,040
Speaker 1: curveball and his partying days. That's that's another thing that

111
00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:28,880
Speaker 1: makes me wonder about his state of stress in this

112
00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:33,280
Speaker 1: moment was because it wasn't like this was his first bender,

113
00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:35,680
Speaker 1: not at all, not at all. And we will get

114
00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:38,320
Speaker 1: to that, but let's let's hear a little clip that

115
00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:40,440
Speaker 1: does a really good job of summing up how it

116
00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:44,360
Speaker 1: might have felt to be standing in that particular situation,

117
00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:47,400
Speaker 1: in that particular state of mind. There was one guy,

118
00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:50,240
Speaker 1: one guy who had an amazing claim to fame in

119
00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,400
Speaker 1: terms of drugs in sports. His name was Docullis, and

120
00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:57,000
Speaker 1: doc Ellis did an incredible thing. The one person who knows,

121
00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:03,040
Speaker 1: thank you, duc Ellis pitched a no hitter on LSD.

122
00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:06,800
Speaker 1: Those who have taken LSD tell the others how hard

123
00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:10,920
Speaker 1: that might be. If I took LSD, I'd be talking

124
00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:14,920
Speaker 1: to every blade of grass like sorry, sorry, sorry for

125
00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:21,520
Speaker 1: walk into a Major League Baseball stadium, like the whole

126
00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:26,160
Speaker 1: fields like okay, so your little creative license there from

127
00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:29,560
Speaker 1: Robin Williams um. But he did tip us off to

128
00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:34,079
Speaker 1: the outcome of this, this this thing that duc Ellis did.

129
00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:38,959
Speaker 1: He pitched a no hitter. Yes, and this is an

130
00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:42,640
Speaker 1: incredibly rare feat and a hundred and thirty six years

131
00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,720
Speaker 1: of baseball history, only two hundred and seventy six no

132
00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:49,120
Speaker 1: hitters have ever been recorded, and as far as we know,

133
00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,920
Speaker 1: this is the only one that occurred under the influence

134
00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:57,199
Speaker 1: of LSD. And it's strange because you would expect maybe

135
00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:00,600
Speaker 1: he would call out of the game, made he would

136
00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:06,040
Speaker 1: show up and have an abysmal performance, But he played

137
00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:11,640
Speaker 1: on acid not only well but spectacularly. He also did

138
00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:14,480
Speaker 1: walk quite a few batters, but no one hit a

139
00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:18,400
Speaker 1: ball that he threw. And additionally, no one knew that

140
00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,360
Speaker 1: he was on LSD, or virtually no one. It wasn't

141
00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:26,120
Speaker 1: until fourteen years later that Ellis confirmed to a reporter

142
00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:29,160
Speaker 1: at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that he had played the

143
00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:35,280
Speaker 1: game on acid. And the reporter, Bob Smithic, brought this

144
00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:41,240
Speaker 1: up because he was working off a tip somebody had

145
00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:45,720
Speaker 1: told them there was a rumor. Also, Ellis didn't just

146
00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:48,880
Speaker 1: say that he took acid. He said he took acid

147
00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:52,760
Speaker 1: that he received from Tim Leary, the guru himself. He

148
00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:56,160
Speaker 1: did say that thing. Then it's very true, um, and

149
00:09:56,280 --> 00:09:59,840
Speaker 1: it's it's a problematic story, um. For a few reasons

150
00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:02,199
Speaker 1: come from that ESPN article that we talked about earlier.

151
00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:05,080
Speaker 1: But it's called the Long Strange Trip of Doc Ellis.

152
00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:09,920
Speaker 1: But it wasn't Smizic that Doc told that particular part

153
00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:12,120
Speaker 1: of the story too. It was later when he was

154
00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:17,080
Speaker 1: inducted into something called the Baseball Reliquary Shrine of the

155
00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:21,920
Speaker 1: Eternals that was in Pasadena, California, and he was talking

156
00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:26,000
Speaker 1: to the executive director named Terry Cannon, who he told

157
00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:31,240
Speaker 1: that Leary, that former Harvard psych professor, had given him

158
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:35,040
Speaker 1: the drug because he wanted to see he wanted to

159
00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:39,280
Speaker 1: test how it would affect a professional athlete. That's a

160
00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:41,559
Speaker 1: weird claim, though, isn't it. It's a very weird claim,

161
00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:44,800
Speaker 1: a claim that has several serious problems that are outlined

162
00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:48,079
Speaker 1: beautifully in this article. One of the big ones right

163
00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:50,720
Speaker 1: off the bat was that during this time Leary was

164
00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:56,000
Speaker 1: in fact incarcerated, and that comes from his biography Robert Greenfield. Yeah.

165
00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:58,800
Speaker 1: And then another thing is he said that he got

166
00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:03,560
Speaker 1: the acid from U c l A laboratory and also

167
00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:07,720
Speaker 1: people on Leary's side I don't agree. Yeah. Leary actually

168
00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,280
Speaker 1: has a personal archivist, a guy named Michael Horowitz, that

169
00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:14,240
Speaker 1: said this was just almost definitely focus based on, I

170
00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:16,640
Speaker 1: think probably most specifically the fact that he was in jail.

171
00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:19,160
Speaker 1: But he did say that Leary knew about the new

172
00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:22,160
Speaker 1: hitter and found out about it, and that he had

173
00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:26,800
Speaker 1: purchased Leary uh some of Doc Ellis's baseball cards, and

174
00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:29,000
Speaker 1: that Leary carried one around with him for the rest

175
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:32,520
Speaker 1: of his life to show off to fans of psychedelics

176
00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:36,560
Speaker 1: and sports. Right, So if we look at the timeline here,

177
00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:41,040
Speaker 1: that makes it sound much more likely that Leary, while

178
00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:48,160
Speaker 1: a fan, learned of this experience afterwards rather than beforehand.

179
00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:50,360
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, I do know what you mean.

180
00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:54,439
Speaker 1: And it's it's interesting too, because Ellis had, as you said,

181
00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:59,920
Speaker 1: been a reputation that it was not only about partying,

182
00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:02,760
Speaker 1: but was it just about being kind of his own

183
00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,800
Speaker 1: kind of free spirit in general. He kind of did

184
00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,920
Speaker 1: things his own way, marched to his own drummer, and

185
00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:13,120
Speaker 1: you know, you get the gist. Yeah. Yeah. He described

186
00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:18,920
Speaker 1: himself as arrogant, flamboyant, and controversial. There's an article from

187
00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:23,360
Speaker 1: The Washington Post by Matt Shootel that explains some of

188
00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:26,520
Speaker 1: Ellis's erratic behavior, or at least depicts it. He was

189
00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:31,040
Speaker 1: known for throwing balls directly at batters, arguing when managers

190
00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:35,240
Speaker 1: and players from other teams, and he even chased Heckler's

191
00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:37,640
Speaker 1: in the stands. So you know, there are a lot

192
00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:41,520
Speaker 1: of fans of sports who will heckel the opposing teams players.

193
00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,360
Speaker 1: This was a guy who would come after you, oh

194
00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:47,200
Speaker 1: big time, which is crazy. And he came up in

195
00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:49,839
Speaker 1: the minors like he was like, I think eighteen years

196
00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,480
Speaker 1: old when he got recruited, maybe nineteen when he first

197
00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:55,960
Speaker 1: started playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and this was during

198
00:12:55,960 --> 00:13:00,480
Speaker 1: a time of horrible racial inequality in the United States.

199
00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:04,839
Speaker 1: He refused in many ways to fit in that stereotypical

200
00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:09,560
Speaker 1: cookie cutter image that mass media and the culture of

201
00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:14,080
Speaker 1: the time would try to force people into based on

202
00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:17,000
Speaker 1: what they perceived as what this person should be like

203
00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:19,160
Speaker 1: or what they were doing. One of my favorite examples

204
00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:22,560
Speaker 1: he once showed up in the Pirates bullpen wearing hair

205
00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:26,040
Speaker 1: curlers because he said that the resulting moisture on his

206
00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:30,400
Speaker 1: head would help him throw his signature and illegal spit ball, yeah,

207
00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:34,839
Speaker 1: very illegalist pitball is an illegal pitch um where the

208
00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:39,920
Speaker 1: picture actually changes the way the ball contacts the hand

209
00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:43,520
Speaker 1: by putting spit or some kind of like foreign substance

210
00:13:43,559 --> 00:13:46,280
Speaker 1: like petroleum jelly or in this case the sweat off

211
00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:48,120
Speaker 1: of the back of his neck. Um. But yeah, he

212
00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:52,240
Speaker 1: actually got issued a letter from the commissioner of Major

213
00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:56,480
Speaker 1: League Baseball ordering him not to wear hair curlers. Um.

214
00:13:56,559 --> 00:13:59,120
Speaker 1: And the thing with him was he just didn't like

215
00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:01,559
Speaker 1: being told what to do. And he might have come

216
00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:06,559
Speaker 1: off as erratic or um just willful, but he kind

217
00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:09,439
Speaker 1: of knew what he was doing. According to a lot

218
00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:11,400
Speaker 1: of his childhood friends, people that have known him his

219
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:13,800
Speaker 1: whole life that were interviewed in a really cool movie

220
00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:17,679
Speaker 1: called No No, a documentary d O c K d

221
00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:20,520
Speaker 1: O c K, which is excellent and a really good

222
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:27,000
Speaker 1: deep dive into this very divisive and interesting man's life. Um.

223
00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:31,840
Speaker 1: So in the film, another picture named Steve Blasts said

224
00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:34,680
Speaker 1: that in those days, which was the sixties, they were

225
00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:37,520
Speaker 1: playing a lot of day games, so everyone was showing

226
00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:41,920
Speaker 1: up completely hungover UM, and one way that you dealt

227
00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:48,920
Speaker 1: with that was by taking amphetamines. Yeah. See history today

228
00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:53,600
Speaker 1: remembers doc Ellis primarily as the guy who pitched a

229
00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:59,480
Speaker 1: no hitter while he was on LSD. But there are

230
00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:02,960
Speaker 1: a couple of things are misremembered there. One is the

231
00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:07,320
Speaker 1: nature of LST or acid and how high he would

232
00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:11,160
Speaker 1: have been actually, And then the second thing is that

233
00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:15,200
Speaker 1: was not the normal thing. It was much more normal

234
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:20,360
Speaker 1: for players to be consuming amphetamines. Yeah, several players from

235
00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:23,160
Speaker 1: that era were interviewed for this film, and I think

236
00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:25,960
Speaker 1: the number got as high as like nine percent. These

237
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:30,000
Speaker 1: guys are obviously, you know, um editorializing here a little bit.

238
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:32,240
Speaker 1: There's no poll that was taken. But they were in

239
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:34,160
Speaker 1: the game, you know, they were around these guys and

240
00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:38,320
Speaker 1: they knew what UM was done. And it wasn't like

241
00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,800
Speaker 1: people weren't juicing in those days. They weren't taking steroids necessarily.

242
00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:46,280
Speaker 1: They were popping Benny's and greenies or deximill right, which

243
00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:50,840
Speaker 1: was drug of choice. And this was kind of before

244
00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:59,680
Speaker 1: the era of widespread steroid use. So one thing we

245
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:03,600
Speaker 1: have want to do in the exploration of this story

246
00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:06,280
Speaker 1: is established that, yeah, Doc Ellis may have been the

247
00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:10,240
Speaker 1: only person on the field on LSD, but that doesn't

248
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,360
Speaker 1: mean he was the only person on the field on

249
00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,960
Speaker 1: drugs in an altered state. In an altered state, right,

250
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:18,080
Speaker 1: because I mean the thing about you know, those kinds

251
00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:20,240
Speaker 1: of amphetamine is the kind of stuff that fighter pilots

252
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:23,520
Speaker 1: would take, you know, during World War Two, Um Hitler

253
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:26,480
Speaker 1: was quite fond of them. Not to equate baseball players

254
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:28,800
Speaker 1: from the sixties with Adolf Hitler, but it was certainly

255
00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:32,640
Speaker 1: a tool of war, and sports are nothing if not

256
00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:37,200
Speaker 1: organized war where nobody dies. You know. That's one of

257
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:43,040
Speaker 1: the more popular philosophical interpretations of athleticism that goes back,

258
00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,560
Speaker 1: you know, into ancient days, right, right, we're at the

259
00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,160
Speaker 1: chop heads. Although people might die of like heat stroke

260
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:52,680
Speaker 1: or you know, uh, some sort of traumatic brain injury

261
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:56,040
Speaker 1: over time, but typically you would not see people carried

262
00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:59,640
Speaker 1: off of the field of baseball in a stretcher. And

263
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:02,760
Speaker 1: there was also a pro cannabis culture at the time, Right,

264
00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:06,080
Speaker 1: it was not uncommon for athletes to also smoke weed.

265
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:08,240
Speaker 1: It's true, and I'm wondering, Ben, I couldn't quite find this.

266
00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:10,520
Speaker 1: But when when did it? Like if this was such

267
00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:13,760
Speaker 1: common knowledge or it just seems so obvious. I did

268
00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:15,679
Speaker 1: see a trainer saying I didn't want this in my

269
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,359
Speaker 1: locker room. Don't let me see you doing it. But

270
00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:21,959
Speaker 1: certainly seemed quite pervasive. Um, when was it that, like

271
00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:26,640
Speaker 1: widespread drug testing became a thing in Major League baseball? Yeah,

272
00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:30,000
Speaker 1: you have to wonder if it was a result of

273
00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:36,240
Speaker 1: widespread drug test policies. Maybe players only stopped doing this

274
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:40,719
Speaker 1: stuff when it became a fiable or find herble offense, right,

275
00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:45,320
Speaker 1: other than someone writing a angry letter to you. There's

276
00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:50,119
Speaker 1: also a question about how much drug use really has dwindled.

277
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:54,280
Speaker 1: According to an article by Huffington's Post written by Andy

278
00:17:54,359 --> 00:18:00,280
Speaker 1: Martino in current and former baseball players have said as

279
00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:05,160
Speaker 1: many as twenty of Major League baseball players have used cocaine.

280
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,320
Speaker 1: So is it a situation where there are fewer altered

281
00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:11,720
Speaker 1: states or is this situation where the type of drug

282
00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:15,320
Speaker 1: changes but drug use still exist. Yeah, I'm not quite sure.

283
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,879
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure either. But it's mystifying because as

284
00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,840
Speaker 1: a fairly square person myself, I would just imagine that

285
00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:28,080
Speaker 1: these all have radically different effects, right, I would think so, Ben. Um.

286
00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:30,280
Speaker 1: Here's the thing too about Doc ellis he you know,

287
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:32,200
Speaker 1: we talked about the drug use, we talked about him

288
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,639
Speaker 1: being a bit of a loose cannon, but he was

289
00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:38,560
Speaker 1: described by a lot of his friends in this documentary

290
00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:42,520
Speaker 1: as being uh controlled crazy. They called him controlled crazy.

291
00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:46,520
Speaker 1: He knew how to keep his wild behavior in check

292
00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:49,000
Speaker 1: and to do it just enough so that it could

293
00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 1: make him money, like Dennis Robin style. Right, so there

294
00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:56,320
Speaker 1: might be some marketing there, some focused application of eccentricity

295
00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,280
Speaker 1: or insanity. That's right, because you have to think too.

296
00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:01,840
Speaker 1: In those days, especially during There's no Hitter, African American

297
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,840
Speaker 1: pop culture had really infiltrated the mainstream, and Doc was

298
00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:09,280
Speaker 1: a flashy guy. He had fashion sense. He liked to

299
00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,760
Speaker 1: wear big, loud colors and big, you know, clinky clogs

300
00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:14,240
Speaker 1: and bell bottoms, and he was like one of the

301
00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,879
Speaker 1: first guys to wear an earring. Um very ahead of

302
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:21,400
Speaker 1: his time culturally, at least in terms of baseball. Because

303
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 1: he actually was quoted as saying when talking about Um

304
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:30,399
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventy one All Star Game that baseball was

305
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:34,400
Speaker 1: pretty backwards when it came to black players, and there

306
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:37,720
Speaker 1: was a controversy because he really liked to stir stuff up,

307
00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,800
Speaker 1: and in the press he came out and said, you

308
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:43,800
Speaker 1: were not gonna put two brothers against each other in

309
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:46,960
Speaker 1: this All Star Game, meaning they had already said that

310
00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:50,960
Speaker 1: they were going to start the American League team with

311
00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:55,480
Speaker 1: Vida Blue, who was a black pitcher, and Doc thought

312
00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:57,600
Speaker 1: that he was gonna not get to start for his

313
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,800
Speaker 1: league because a guy named Sparky Anderson, a white guy, UM,

314
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,280
Speaker 1: was probably gonna get that privilege. So he got the

315
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:05,520
Speaker 1: media all stirred up and was kind of able to

316
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:08,280
Speaker 1: bait them into getting him exactly what he wanted, and

317
00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:11,960
Speaker 1: he was He started in the All Star Game, right Yeah.

318
00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:16,760
Speaker 1: And it's strange because looking back and in his later

319
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:23,160
Speaker 1: interviews when he sobered up, Ellis said that he did

320
00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:26,640
Speaker 1: not remember a lot of these activities. Not only did

321
00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:29,320
Speaker 1: he not remember a lot of the details of his

322
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:33,960
Speaker 1: legendary no hitter run, he also said he didn't remember

323
00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:38,120
Speaker 1: much of nineteen sixty nine and nineteen seventy in general.

324
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,439
Speaker 1: It's like, what is it Matt LeBlanc and Friends. He

325
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:43,520
Speaker 1: said he couldn't remember like a whole season of that

326
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:45,760
Speaker 1: show because he was on so many pills the whole time.

327
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,160
Speaker 1: I can't imagine not remembering like a whole year, I mean, did.

328
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:51,480
Speaker 1: It could happen for a number of reasons. I've got

329
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:53,959
Speaker 1: a I got a few fuzzy ones. I think I'm

330
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,760
Speaker 1: gonna take us down a really brief side trail here

331
00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:59,639
Speaker 1: that listeners from some of our other shows are familiar with.

332
00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:02,320
Speaker 1: Regardless of what sort of substances you may or may

333
00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 1: not take throughout your life, your memory is treacherous and

334
00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:07,240
Speaker 1: works against you. But for sure because every time you're

335
00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,879
Speaker 1: remembering something, you're not remembering the event, you're remembering the

336
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,120
Speaker 1: last time you remembered it. So you're playing a game

337
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 1: of telephone with yourself. That's why you will see, uh,

338
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:20,000
Speaker 1: even an accounts we've presented in this show. That's why

339
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,280
Speaker 1: we'll see people who years later claim that a myth

340
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: about them is true, even when it is demonstrably not

341
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:33,040
Speaker 1: the case. And I had a question with Ellis. I

342
00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:35,280
Speaker 1: don't know how you feel, Noll, but I believe the

343
00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 1: LSD story. I think it's true. Yeah, in fact, you

344
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:42,439
Speaker 1: can hear Doc himself describe all of this in a

345
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:46,199
Speaker 1: really cool um animated short by an outfit called No

346
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:50,800
Speaker 1: Moss that's illustrated by a guy named James Blagden and

347
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,239
Speaker 1: has audio from an interview that Ellis did in two

348
00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:58,960
Speaker 1: thousand eight on NPR with Donell, Alexander and nigli illell

349
00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:01,600
Speaker 1: Um and a really really cool video. And when we

350
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:04,440
Speaker 1: play a little clip of that audio right now, I

351
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,040
Speaker 1: didn't see the hitters. All I could tell was if

352
00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 1: there was on the right side or the left side

353
00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,320
Speaker 1: the catch you put tape on his fingers so I

354
00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:17,639
Speaker 1: could see the signals. We had a rookie on the

355
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,359
Speaker 1: team with that particular tim named Dave Cash, and he

356
00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:23,480
Speaker 1: kept saying after the first in it, he said, you

357
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:27,960
Speaker 1: gotta know no going no hitter said yeah, right, yeah,

358
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 1: I don't know, Ben, But hearing him tell that story,

359
00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:34,120
Speaker 1: it sure sounds like, uh, somebody telling a story they

360
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:36,760
Speaker 1: actually believe happened. Um, but it's hard to say. We

361
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:38,840
Speaker 1: also know that he was probably not telling the truth

362
00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:42,080
Speaker 1: about the whole Timothy Leary thing, So you know, I

363
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,119
Speaker 1: guess the jury is out, but I would like to

364
00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:46,840
Speaker 1: believe that it happened So I don't know about you,

365
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:52,639
Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historians, but I largely believe the bones of

366
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,720
Speaker 1: this story, the structure of it. However, I have some

367
00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:01,879
Speaker 1: some pretty pertinent questions, one being the degree of alteration

368
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 1: that applied. If you look at the timeline of the

369
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:08,760
Speaker 1: LSD was taking the way LSD works, was he taking

370
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:13,040
Speaker 1: a larger hit, you know, was he off his cantaloupes

371
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:18,200
Speaker 1: or was he experiencing the equivalent of what Silicon Valley

372
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:21,280
Speaker 1: and Burning Man fans would call a micro dose? Yeah,

373
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:23,159
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, from hearing him tell her this

374
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,479
Speaker 1: was his second tab that he had taken, and in

375
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,000
Speaker 1: those days, that stuff probably would have been pretty potent.

376
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,440
Speaker 1: So I would lean more towards the what the kids

377
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 1: called trip and balls. So this LSD probably would have

378
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:41,840
Speaker 1: come from a source similar to Owlsley, the legendary LSD supplier,

379
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:44,199
Speaker 1: and the recent I'm wondering about the micro dosing is

380
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 1: because preliminary studies, which have only occurred quite recently UH

381
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,359
Speaker 1: seemed to indicate that there may be some sort of

382
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 1: relationship between what we call the flow state and the

383
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:02,680
Speaker 1: use of small amounts of hallucinogens just LSD. But psilocybin.

384
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 1: So without getting two into it, I have some I

385
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 1: have some pretty fascinating studies, but I'd like to hear

386
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:11,920
Speaker 1: from you folks. Do you think that there was a

387
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 1: relationship between the L S D that doc Ellis consumed. Uh?

388
00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: Did it put him in a flow state similar to

389
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 1: the experience people would have when they practice, uh, the

390
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 1: use of transcranial direct current simulation or meditation or what

391
00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:31,120
Speaker 1: have you. Or do you think it was a coincidence.

392
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:38,639
Speaker 1: Do you think he succeeded in spite of this? You know,

393
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 1: I did here or I read uh that the that year,

394
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: the Padres were not particularly good. They had lost like

395
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,040
Speaker 1: ninety thumping games in that season, so you know, it

396
00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: could have just been a bad performance on their part

397
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,679
Speaker 1: um that. Either way, it's it's it's pretty impressive that

398
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: a a guy could perform that well under the influence

399
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,960
Speaker 1: of such a mind altering substance. Yeah, and Ellis's um.

400
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,480
Speaker 1: Ellis's importance and his influence were not just confined to

401
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 1: the field of play. He was influential and important on

402
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:15,080
Speaker 1: the US cultural stage, and other people acknowledged this right

403
00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 1: very much. So, I mean, we talked about how he

404
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:21,640
Speaker 1: was able to influence that decision of starting two black

405
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: pictures against one another in the ninety one All Star Game.

406
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: Also that year, he went on to win the World

407
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:34,800
Speaker 1: Series with the Pirates um and one of his mentors

408
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,400
Speaker 1: was a Puerto Rican player, also black, by the name

409
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:43,760
Speaker 1: of Roberto Clemente, who was himself an outspoken opponent of

410
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:49,480
Speaker 1: racism in baseball, and he and Ellis ended up being

411
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:53,920
Speaker 1: on a version of the Pirates that had nine black players,

412
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: and it really kind of was right on this turning

413
00:25:56,600 --> 00:26:00,600
Speaker 1: point of culture where black culture became much more mainstream,

414
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier, and players on the team

415
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 1: talk less about this being a historic thing and just

416
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,119
Speaker 1: being about the fact that everyone was fantastic baseball players.

417
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: So he really helped turn that conversation around to the

418
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: point where he actually got a very important letter um

419
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,879
Speaker 1: from Jackie Robinson. And actually here's a clip of doc

420
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: reading a bit of this letter from that documentary called

421
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: No No, I read your comments in our paper the

422
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:30,840
Speaker 1: last few days and one, you don't know how much

423
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:35,359
Speaker 1: you appreciate your courage and honesty. In my oprainion, progress

424
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:38,680
Speaker 1: for today's players will only come from this kind of dedication.

425
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 1: I'm sure also you know some of the possible consequences.

426
00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:47,880
Speaker 1: The news media, while knowing full well you're right and honest,

427
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:52,359
Speaker 1: will use every means to get back at you. That

428
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 1: will be times when you will ask yourself is worth

429
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,199
Speaker 1: it all? I can only say that it is. And

430
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: even though you will want to yield in the loan room,

431
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:07,440
Speaker 1: your own feeling about yourself will be most important. Trying

432
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: to have to be left alone. So he goes on

433
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,399
Speaker 1: to say, try to get more players to understand your

434
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: views and you will find great support. You have made

435
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:18,840
Speaker 1: a real contribution. I surely hope your great ability continues.

436
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: That ability will determine the success of your dedication and honesty.

437
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: I again appreciate what you're doing. Continued success, Jackie Robinson

438
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: and you can read the full letter on various sites online.

439
00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:38,359
Speaker 1: Just search for Jackie Robinson and doc Ellis. This leads

440
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:42,680
Speaker 1: us to perhaps one of the most important points of

441
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,719
Speaker 1: the story, which is the following. It is very easy,

442
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: it is tempting, and it is guess fun to think

443
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,719
Speaker 1: of doc Ellis solely as a guy who said I

444
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 1: started having a crazy idea and the fourth inning that

445
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:00,240
Speaker 1: Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire I thought I

446
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: was pitching a baseball to Jimmy Hendrix and so on.

447
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:07,679
Speaker 1: But that is a mischaracterization. We're defining an entire person

448
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:14,159
Speaker 1: by one afternoon in their life. And as Brittany Dela

449
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 1: Kritaz argues in a Rolling Stone article, how Doc Ellis,

450
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,960
Speaker 1: player who pitched a new hitter on LSD, has misremembered,

451
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 1: it is better, and more importantly, it is more accurate

452
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: to remember him as an outspoken advocate not just for

453
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 1: racial equality, but also for sobriety. Doc Ellis retired from

454
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 1: baseball in nineteen eighty, and he didn't have some egregious

455
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 1: injury that rendered him physically incapable of playing the game.

456
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 1: According to him, he lost interest in the game and

457
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 1: in that same year he entered rehab. He stayed for

458
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: forty days at a location in Wickenburg, Arizona, known as

459
00:28:56,520 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: the Meadows, and it wasn't until night or that he

460
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 1: revealed he had pitched this no hitter under the influence

461
00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:10,000
Speaker 1: of LSD, and once achieving sobriety, he spent the rest

462
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 1: of his life helping other people escape drug addiction, which

463
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 1: is which is commendable, you know, And he's he spent

464
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: twenty eight years doing this. Yeah, he was no joke

465
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 1: about it either. I mean he brought that same bravado

466
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 1: and intensity that he brought to the game um and

467
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 1: that he used to not take any crap from anybody

468
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:37,480
Speaker 1: in terms of the way he dealt with racism. He

469
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 1: brought that same energy to helping people escape their demons

470
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 1: and their addictions and not um taking no for an

471
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: answer and not putting up with anyone making excuses for themselves. Yeah.

472
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 1: And he had worked as a counselor in Beverly Hills.

473
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 1: He had worked in jails and institutions and juvenile detention

474
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: center ers. And you know, you kind of have to wonder,

475
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: And I don't know whether there's an answer to this,

476
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: but you kind of have to wonder why, out of

477
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: the almost three decades of work he did helping people

478
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: achieve sobriety, he is still known for one, granted, one

479
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 1: amazing game, but one LSD influenced game in I don't

480
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 1: know what the answer is, I mean, from his own mouth.

481
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:31,719
Speaker 1: Apparently one of his favorite phrases around the house was

482
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: f baseball Um. He apparently, according to this fantastic ESPN article,

483
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 1: felt very used up and abused by it, having started

484
00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:45,280
Speaker 1: at it at such a young age, and despite achieving

485
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 1: such a great success, it being a very big part

486
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 1: of his young adult life that possibly led to some

487
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: of these substance abuse problems to help deal with pain

488
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 1: that he had in his arm from the ring the

489
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 1: ball so hard all the time, from traveling around, being

490
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 1: constantly on the road, feeling a little uprooted and isolated.

491
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 1: And this is these are his own words from the documentary.

492
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:12,480
Speaker 1: Uh So, you know, I could see how that would

493
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:14,960
Speaker 1: be a complicated relationship. It's something that gave him much

494
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: success and accolades, but he never played a game sober.

495
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:25,240
Speaker 1: He did tried to one time in nine gave it

496
00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 1: a shot and started warming up in the bullpen, only

497
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:30,680
Speaker 1: to realize that he had quote forgotten how to throw.

498
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,200
Speaker 1: It's interesting because it ties into something that people call

499
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 1: state dependent learning. Have you heard of this? I have.

500
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: It's the idea that the substances influencing your body when

501
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 1: you are learning or engaging in a certain skill then

502
00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: have an effect on your performance and that skill. So,

503
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:55,600
Speaker 1: for instance, a more wholesome version of this would be, uh,

504
00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 1: the idea that when you drink coffee and you're studying

505
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: something then you are going to be more likely to

506
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,480
Speaker 1: successfully recall it when you are drinking coffee again. Right,

507
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: that's a very at base explanation, but it can extend

508
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:13,680
Speaker 1: to other substances as well. Oh, I should also mention

509
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: he was he was an advocate for the treatment of

510
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:22,720
Speaker 1: sickle cell that's right. He was able to get funding

511
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:24,480
Speaker 1: and somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred and forty

512
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 1: million dollars for that disease that was largely misunderstood and

513
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 1: a huge problem for the African American community. In sort

514
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 1: of returned to baseball when he served as a player

515
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:40,760
Speaker 1: and coach for the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior

516
00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 1: Professional Baseball Association, but that was I think more for

517
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 1: the love of the game. He also had a little

518
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: stint in acting, I think, where he was in a

519
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: movie with Michael Keaton, Yeah, Gung Ho, which was directed

520
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:56,600
Speaker 1: by Ron Howard. In two thousand and seven, Doc Ellis

521
00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with cirrhosis and was placed on the list

522
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,360
Speaker 1: for a liver transplant, and he did pass away in

523
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:07,959
Speaker 1: two thousand because unfortunately he had already sustained some damage

524
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 1: to his heart and it was too risky to do

525
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 1: a liver transplant, and yeah, you can't help it. I

526
00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: think that that liver problems like that were the result

527
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 1: of a lifetime of that substance abuse. Despite having dealt

528
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 1: with that and been a huge beacon of hope for

529
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 1: others that we're dealing with those problems, that stuff does

530
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 1: catch up to you. It's It's absolutely true, and it's

531
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: a shame that he was not around to see No No,

532
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 1: a documentary which came out in two thousand and fourteen,

533
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:42,960
Speaker 1: a few years after his passing. UH He was interred

534
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 1: at the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. And although

535
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 1: doc Ellis may have physically left us today, his legacy

536
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: continues on. And it's not just a story about again

537
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:01,720
Speaker 1: an amazing afternoon in Bay s Ball. It's a story

538
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:08,439
Speaker 1: about a man who struggled first two save himself, then

539
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 1: to improve society, and then ultimately to save others that

540
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: he met in similar situations. That's beautiful, it really is,

541
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: and we hope that you think so too. This is

542
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 1: a fun one to look into. UM cannot recommend enough

543
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,279
Speaker 1: that ESPN article from Outside the Lines called the Long

544
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,800
Speaker 1: Strange Trip of doc Ellis, Meet the man behind Baseball's

545
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: most psychedelic myth. You can find that online in full

546
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:36,240
Speaker 1: by Patrick Kruby. Um. It's also got some fantastic photos

547
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 1: and illustrations by Joe Ciardello. UM also cannot recommend enough

548
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 1: the documentary No No a documentary. UM. You can stream

549
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:49,359
Speaker 1: that on Amazon Prime. I think it's like a couple

550
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 1: of bucks and well worth it. It's money well spent

551
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:57,520
Speaker 1: in the meantime. Although the podcast is over for today,

552
00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,280
Speaker 1: if you have a hankering to encounter more his story

553
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 1: of the Ridiculous Variety, you can find us on Instagram.

554
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,399
Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook. You can find us

555
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 1: on Twitter. We'd especially like to recommend our community page,

556
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians, where you can interact with your fellow listeners,

557
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:17,640
Speaker 1: all of whom, as far as I have found, are witty,

558
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 1: funny and insightful. It's true memes a plenty, a lot

559
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:23,920
Speaker 1: of fun to be had there, So check it out

560
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 1: and also do us a solid and leave us a

561
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,319
Speaker 1: nice review on iTunes because it makes us feel good

562
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 1: in our tuppies. And stay tuned when we return very

563
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 1: soon in our next episode to crack the case for

564
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 1: a question you might not have known you had When

565
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:42,840
Speaker 1: did Fido become a stand in name for dogs? Here boy,

566
00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,360
Speaker 1: here boy, while you're waiting for a dog that heard

567
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:49,080
Speaker 1: that through your headphones to run towards you. We would

568
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,360
Speaker 1: like to thank super producer Casey Pegram. We would like

569
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:55,880
Speaker 1: to thank our research assistant Christopher hassi Oders. We'd like

570
00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:58,800
Speaker 1: to thank Alex Williams, friend of the show, who composed

571
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 1: our theme, and most importantly, we'd like to thank you

572
00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:04,279
Speaker 1: for for hanging out with us and being a lot

573
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:09,400
Speaker 1: of fun. We'll see you next time. M