Welcome to softcore history. All right, welcome back to softcore history. My
name is Jake Goldman, and I am joined as always by our co host,
co producer or whatever. Hope he's the only producer right now. He's
not producing though, right now? Yeah, we have Cooper over here,
and then Pulse is over there. I just meant you Bill, that's right.
Yeah, So thanks guys for helping out today. I am also joined
as always, but to my right, I guess screen left would be Rob
right. Is the screen right too? It's stage left? Yeah, yeah,
it's stage left. Okay, I don't know you're you're the director here,
Peter Man. Tell me where you are? I am, I'm I
am what you're just I was in the theater. Made major in college?
You know, fu that that would be great, Robs. The Peter major
would have made college even more fun than it already was. Can you imagine
how it's easy fucking college? How much? How how much poor landing?
How many poon man? Poon? Yeah? The kids in fucking high school
that were in a theater pulled the most ass. Actually, kid I went
to high school with who became a massive porn star was the porn star Buddy
yeah, I think theater kids. Yeah, that's awesome. Good for him,
it was it didn't he do like a whole thing for when we were
writing for TFM And something he did he did expose how he had to like
be constantly like switch hitting between like coke and viagra and stuff like that.
Yes. And also in tenth grade he did a short film about Detective ed
Opis. Yeah, it was a oh my god, ha, that's you
know what's funny. It's like, even though he did that in tenth grade,
that's something that I can imagine someone if Rob did college theater making like
that's their clever characters like Opis. Yeah, why would it be ed Opis
and not ed Opus like opus us? You know like Opus days? Yeah,
and Ed I'll have to ask him. Yeah, when we run into
each other cool on set? You know, have you run a new each
Have you run into him since he was in porn? No? Okay,
he's just in every port I watched. Yeah, he's just exclusively. I
just I'm like, does it make you like avoidant of porn sometimes knowing that
you're gonna see your friends? Hog? No, you pushed through. He
just fat through. He's not a friend. He's like an acquaintance. Okay,
so you're not on like group text with this guy. No, Like
we know each other and like the only time I really texted him was to
get him to write for TFM at one point. But I never read that
article about him having to just coking Viagara all the time just to keep it
up. Never had to do never had to do porn. According to him,
he never did gay porn. Yeah, he kind of found like the
yeah, secret backdoor entrance into straight point. But I mean he's pretty Yeah,
he's pretty much. He's he's hit all the big names out there.
Did he like fuck Carter Cruse? Yeah, really, he's in like he's
in a lot of porn. Is in a ton of porn. There's only
like ten male porn stars in general. It's like you really don't need more
than that. I mean, honestly, for it's a job where you only
need the lower half most of the time the dude. Like, no one
needs to know what the dude's face looks like. I like the porn where
it's like a clearly a sleevez bag porn start. It's just like a piece
of shit and looks like he would like Rob you and then get on his
motorcycle. But he's dressed up as like a jocker, extremely niche. How
long the search? Okay, anyway, this is softcore history. We now
know Rob's porn preference. Today we were going to be talking about a very
special sports moment. I personally am not a baseball fan. Uh necessarily,
I like certain baseball games. I'll watch playoffs and stuff like that. I'll
like college ball, yeah, but I really watched a lot of major league
sports. I like that we're setting this up so it's Black History Month.
It is Black February. Um, we forgot about that last week. It
was like February first or second, Like, yeah, we wanted it was
wanted to be topical, but h you know, we're just gonna you know,
like the rest of the United States, they took the shortest month of
the God gave it to our black people, our black friends, and uh
we shortened that. So, um, we're gonna go three straight weeks of
notable African Americans of note. And I like that you went to fall athlete
is Actually I think it's really messed up that you're only categorizing him as an
athlete because doc Ellis was an athlete, he's way more than an activist.
Yes, and gave us one of the most interesting moments in sports. Doc
ellis through a no hitter. Is it because like, uh, in my
school, I only learned that black people only created peanut butter. Right,
Actually, George Washington Carver didn't create peanut butter. Well, then I was
lied to no one of them many lies you were taught in your history class.
Yeah, he had like ninety uses for peanuts, not one of them
I think was peanut butter. What did he reasons? Interestingly enough? Actually
know why he's important because he was talking about top soil rotation. In order
to my point is we don't give him enough credit. We just absolutely know.
We're just like, yeah, our entire childhood is just like, yeah,
black people in creative peanut butter. To an eight year old, that's
probably fine, Like it's like, but yeah, it's like black people are
important. You know that thing you eat every day. I don't think it
to you one thing. I don't think most eight year olds are like,
man, black people aren't that important. But come on, I think that's
a weird loaded way for a weird adult to be, Like, hey,
if you don't think they're important, Like all right, yeah, well it's
the adults they're projecting on it. Of course. So we are like,
all right, so let's look at our friend group in Austin. Uh,
the perhaps maybe the whitest city in America. This city is whiter than I
am. I'm like, who can we get on? Should we? Should
we skype our friends in from back home? Right? Uh? Because,
like, to be honest, like our roster here in Austin, it's it's
a little depleted one of the things. It's very it's pasty as shit.
I was gonna be like, hey, black friends and then have like an
all point all post Bolton, like, hey, hit us up if you
have any cool stories you want to talk about. Then then I said in
a group texts like, well, one, we don't need a black person
talking about my No, we're three white, straight males talking about you know,
history, the history. Okay, you you started the Black History Month
initiative. I just kind of forgot to be honest with you, but I've
been wanting to talk about Doc Ellis for a long Yeah. Well it also
is history a history month. Yeah, we are a history pod. We're
a history podcast. Yeah. So doc Ellis is important to me because I
grew up always hearing about this, doc Ellis. For all of you that
don't know, how often did this come up at the dinner table? Uh,
it came up. It came up on the walk after the dinner table
with my friends. Okay, yeah, so like it came up a lot.
Like when you say you grew up hearing about it, that that implies
that your dad was like you think I have a piece of shit for doing
drugs. Let me tell you about dac Ellis. It's more about his mom.
Well, his mom is definitely the yeah, the rad one on that
For his mom, doc Ellis was the one that got away. So no,
my mom was dude, My mom was seven when doc Ellis through the
no hitter. Okay, let me let me stop bearing the lead here.
Doc Ellis in nineteen seventy through a no hitter, completely whacked out on LSD.
It was a no hitter or completely or not a perfect game. It
was a no hitter perfect with like eight people he hit yea yeah, yeah,
yeah, but there's a lot not a clean scorecard. Well come on,
yeah, no, for sure, I mean there's a lot. We're
gonna talk about impossible feet on LSD most and perfect games thelmost impossible period.
It's only been about twenty one in the history of day rip. I mean,
so and no hitters are a perfect game. But he couldn't fly a
plane perfectly. Wow. No, sure he was actually like fucked up in
that play ironically. Yeah, we know it was a little play plane.
No, but I mean like he was like on something. Yeah we know,
Yeah, we don't. We don't need to go through the I'm just
saying talk reports pitched a perfect game on drugs or pitched a no hitter on
drugs, and Roy Holliday, who pitched a perfect game died flying a plane
on drugs. Yeah, so doc Ellis didn't do that, So I think
the wind goes there, right. No, he's dead. He died deliver
cyrosis. Oh yeah. So we're gonna talk a lot more about the person
doc Ellis than this one kind of isolated moment, because I think there's a
lot to understand that led up to him being whacked out on drugs throwing a
no hitter, Like you don't just start the day like I'm gonna take acid
and do a no hitter. Games at a different time Jake. It was
a different time, but Ellis was actually going through quite a bit. I
mean, not only was he dealing with the complications and struggles of someone that
was one of the you know, he was on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the
early seventies and that was one of the first all black starting lineups in Major
League Baseball. He's facing a lot of societal pressures too, because he was
basically like, if you fuck up, you're done kind of player in the
league. But I kind of want to go through a little bit of background
on him before we get to that game. Yeah, I mean, think
about just the amount of people that were actually allowed into Major League baseball.
I mean that that window was very small, oh for sure. Yeah.
And I mean you were talking about Jackie because Jackie Robinson was what what year
was that, but like forty seven, forty nine, Yeah, something like
that. Yeah. So this, I mean this not too long out.
I mean, baseball have been integrated for twenty plus years at this point,
so right, But it's also during the height of the Oh there's still people
are still racist, I get Yeah, No, I mean and also the
god equal equal rights activism. What's the name of the bill the Civil Rights
Act, the Civil Rights Yeah, wolves signed in sixty nine. Yeah,
it was just signed, like so that's it's it was forty nine. It's
not so much that it's like, oh, it's been twenty years since its
been integrated. Like you said, racism is always happening, but also it's
in the heat of just all this coverage about the Civil Rights Act. Everybody,
I want to say, what Martin Luther King Junior is probably assassinated like
a year or two before that. Yeah, I mean you have Selma going
on in the decade prior, but the happening. Yes, but our boy
Doc was actually born in March eleventh, nineteen forty five, so not too
far before the Jackie Robi was more and two years before baseball integrated. Well.
Also, right after World War two draft dodger, someone would say,
yes, he was out the draft dodging fetus, that's right. No,
if he should have just came out early, yeah, servery country, Yeah,
that's right. Just get in there, man. Even black people didn't
have to do that much scary stuff in World War Two. Like you had
the Tuskegee Airman and a couple actually, but most of them were relegated to
like driving trucks and bullshit like that. So yeah, we didn't integrate until
the Truman integrated for the Korean War. That was the first time. Well
I was gonna do the Tuskegee Airman actually for this episode, but um,
a lot to cover for like not a ton of action, is it the
red Tails? Yeah? Yeah, what do you mean, like they didn't
Well, it's just like a lot. It's a long time. They like
accomplished a lot, of course, but it's like there's not like a moment
like someone throwing a no hitter on acid into it. The Tuskegee Airman is
like fascinating, but it's not a good topic for our podcast because thing crazy
really had. It's war straightforward. It's just really that's the West. That's
the way to put it there. It's they were they were pretty straightforwardly in
war and yeah and good at their jobs, like they was like nothing whacky
half. It's because it's like, oh yeah, they are also competent in
what they do. Yeah, like and like the most you could say it
is like you could probably bring up some racist stuff that happened to them,
but even then it's not like it's just like and then this racist thing happened.
Like it's not it's not like you won't fucking believe, but so so
just a kind of note like when Duck Else is going to school in LA
he played basketball. He wasn't really he played like kind of semi professional baseball,
but he wouldn't play for the school. Um, he was starting drinking
already and doing drugs. But he's really good at basketball. And he's like
fourteen years old when he starts drinking, but he's pretty good at hiding it.
And then his senior year he's like, fucking I'm gonna start doing drugs
at school before games, and so they catch him just high shit smoking a
bunch of weed in a bathroom, which is, you know, fun,
I'm sure before basketball. And by the way, getting caught smoking weed in
the nineteen fifties or early sixties is like, I guess, I don't even
know what the equivalent to like getting caught now because now weeds like a lot
more normalized, but like back then, it was like like a demon drug,
you know, yeah, I mean there was there's like finding so it's
like walking into a junior high bathroom and find someone like shooting up heroin yeah.
I think there's a famous uh billboard and fear and loathing that shows like
what are you talking about? There? There are people overdosing on marijuana the
like today today, okay, rob today, Wait, someone overdos on marijuana
today? No, there's who is the subjects hundreds. I think there's somebody
that was tweeting about that, like over the weekend. Oh that's ridiculous.
I seen some like super conservative a ton of weed, give yourself a panic
attack and die. I guess if you I mean yeah, if you're yeah,
I mean if you're a fuck. There's a basketball player that ate too
many gummies on AO. Okay, eating too many gummies is not smoking too
much weed, Like if you see, you're gonna get yourself so year last
year. Yeah, Like if you eat too many gummies on accident, you
could have a bad time, like a really bad one, but especially on
a plane. Have you ever taken too many edibles? Of course I have
it. It was Dion Waiters actually, yeah, yeah. We we made
weed brownies one time in college and we were already like high or drunk or
something, I don't remember, but we cut the brownies like normal within length
without taking into account depth of pan. So we really deep brown Yeah,
it was deep. They were deep, and we basically it was basically doubling
up on the fucking dose. Right. I was up to like four in
the morning, zart pounding. Yeah, you know, I made my own
butter and uh didn't really know the potency of it. Yeah. I ended
up being high for about three days. Yeah, it's not here. Yeah.
It's really funny when college kids are like I think I'm gonna try it
and then they don't know what they're doing or like how it translates, like
well, I only put like a quarter of an ounce in this brownie pan,
but it's like it's a way different high. Yeah. Anyway, so
he gets caught smoking marijuana in the bathroom and they're like, hey, listen,
we can expel you, but we're not going to if you play for
our baseball team at the high school level, and he's like ideal. He's
like all right, fine, Well here's the thing. He was very adamant
vocal about not joining that baseball team because when he was there for tryouts his
first year, UH kid called him a spear chucker, and he was like,
I don't want to be on a team with a bunch of white dudes
to call me spear chucker, Yeah, exactly. Honestly, that feels kind
of tamed for the nineteen sixties, right, I mean it's still yeah,
I mean there's it's California. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, they're they're
they're always ahead of the curve. Rights yeah, yeah, yeah, they
were very progressive. They'd relegated back down to like just cheap like rights.
Right, Although honestly, a part of me thinks that someone who says that
is like a worse racist because they're trying to get creative with it. Yeah,
they're getting artsy. Yeah, like if they just call you the N
word, like you just know they're just an old fashioned piece of shit race.
But if this one's like thinking about it enough to like, uh diversify,
like ter yeah, I mean ranking racist. That's kind of a throwaway
line too, Like I've heard a lot of people in Philadelphia throw that out.
I'm sure one of the most that is. It's such a sounds like
like I can only hear that word, uh in a Boston accent. I
was gonna say Baltimore, Like it just sounds like what an East Coast well,
like old schools Northeast, East Coast city racist. It's so weird helvasive.
Yeah, it's weird how pervasive racism is in like the old school guys
up north, like you would think it would not be. No one gets
a raw deal than the South on that ship. It's where we're like,
we're equal opportunity, like the opportunity racists in the Northeast. We'll go out
through the Italians, We'll go after the Pollo. That's fair. All I'm
saying is people really try to just dump it on the South. Oh yeah,
totally hit fucking super not yeah. No, I mean if anyone's ever
been to Baltimore, Maryland, like yeah, yeah, because the South like
focuses on one or two groups and the Northeast has everybody hate everyone up there.
Yeah, we hate everyone. We don't get is it racism if you
hate everyone? No? Yeah, well still yeah, but hate yourself though
too. Yeah, that's what. We hate everyone, but we hate them
for their race anyway, whereas we hate other people for so dac Ellis only
appeared in four games, and he was named All League that year because he
was so good. He was already playing like semi professionally against He was a
high school kid who was playing against adults and then he had to go play
against kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was crushing it. So
God, I'm kind of mad at you for doing this topic because I wanted.
I wanted to do Will Chamberlain like you in high school. He had
a whole complete alias where he played professional basketball at sixteen under a different name.
You can totally do this topic. No, well, that'll be for
that'll next year. We'll say that for next year. Okay, yeah,
okay, So because we're not going athlete athlete, why not, because there's
more it's a black history than just we're gonna black history. Well, next
week, next week on softcore History. You get ready for Peanut Butter the
episode. All right, So, various Major League Baseball teams attempted to sign
him to a professional contract while he was doing kind of the minor league stuff.
But he had heard that the Pittsburgh Pirates gave out signing bonuses of sixty
thousand dollars. So he's like, fuck that, I'm holding out until Pittsburgh
signs me, and he got them to sign him. The thing is,
while he was holding out, he's stole a car. Ah. Yeah,
so we're gonna start down a little path here with Doc Ellis where I'm gonna
tell you he wasn't a great dude. Like he did a lot of dumb
shit, right obviously, but look fancy back then was like shoplift apparently still
in a car, got you sent to the Navy? Yeah, yeah,
I didn't like I was actually one of our better episodes. Go ahead and
check out John Dillinger episode. But yeah, he stole a car, ended
up in the Navy, and then just bailed. He's like, yuh did
my six months? Yeah? Good? You know, I mean, like
it's they they do they still do that? Are they still like? All
right, you're still this guy? But if you join the army, Yeah,
I'm trying to adjust my face around the stuff I need to read yet.
But so after he gets probation, a scout reaches out to him.
He's like, hey, we'll sign you. It's a twenty five hundred dollars
signing, but I said, you get five. What was he getting signed
off of though? Because they're just like, hey, you look like an
athlete. I think just talent at the minor league level. He was also
playing in junior college, right scouting, Yeah, just scouting like he was.
He was my dad played at junior college. Oh wow, did your
dad ever throw no? No on acid? He never did. No.
Yeah, that's why we're not talking about him. Some people say, or
just mainly him, said they made him throw his arm out. I know
a lot of people that actually say that could have been at uh anyway,
So he believed he was not a part of the major league, Like right
off the bat, the Pirate's main what Triple A organization? He was?
He got signed at Triple A is what? You know what I'm saying.
He wasn't. He wasn't. He was brought into the organization, but he
wasn't at the Triple A level yet. So yeah, or even back then,
I don't know. Yeah, this is what level bad. I mean
there was Triple A teams back then, but I don't know how Like yeah,
now there's now there's a ball double A, Triple A, but there's
also rookie ball sum really, I mean there's everything anyway, So he's in
the lower level of the organization and he was starting to see that, like
he want to know about these four games he played in high school, But
did they even touch him? Like I can't imagine he was all hit Like,
no, he must have been crushing. I mean, there's a player.
Oh fuck, he was in the playoffs this year. I forget who,
but some picture he's like a fat country idiot too, and they're the
best his era in high school. I want to say he had something like
two hundred strikeouts and allowed like three runs all season or something like like just
some obscene numbers hit us up in our DM or some about this because I
can't remember. I have no idea who was, but it was just some
big, fat country idiot just hucking rocks. Yeah, dude, it's like
watching Jared rends in and as like Kentucky highlights when by the way, I
know sad Day anyway, we're not talking about him though anyway. So he
believed he was not on the major league level, like on the actual starting
club, because the Pirates had already had a number of African American players,
and he felt that the team did not want to alienate white fans further because
they were on pace to like have the first quota. That's definitely a real
thing. Yeah no, and like, well white too many black folks on
and he would say this stuff. They'd be like, no, Doc,
that's not true, Like we just you know. But it's kind of the
double talk that he had to start dealing with a lot in his professional career,
because it's like, okay, man, instead of you being such a
loud mouth, he should be thankful you are where you are. And that's
kind of the attitude he's going on today. People are yelling a fucking Lebron
to shut up and dribble like it's absurd, that is, it's just for
someone to tell that to Lebron James. Are you fucking kidding? He's about
to win MVP again. It's like telling Tiger Woods to shut up and swing
your club, like should be got to be fair, to be fair,
because I just like you say to be fair. Man. D pisses Dan
off because all I will say about Lebron James shutting up and dribbling or not
shutting up and dribbling, is that I don't want him to shut up and
dribble, but I do not want him to elaborate too much, Like just
point me to what you think is a good source, Like I don't want
you to explain the issue to me, Lebron James. Point me to what
you read and I'll read it. But like, I don't think Lebron James
or any athlete is very good at like get like anyone who's like, at
some point you have to listen to an expert, right, Like I want
Lebron James, Lebron James saying, like, you know, black people treated
badly by the police. That's great, he should do that. He has
a platform, But like I don't want Lebron James to get into policy,
like I don't want col Kaepernick to get into policy. Point me to the
people I should be listening to, Like you should be flagging people down and
pointing them to where they like the people they should listen to, advocate for
specific representatives or anything like that. That are right, you know that's there
is a limit on what and on what the on like how much anyone who's
being an activist who isn't an expert on the subject should talk about it before
they're like before they pass it off to the people who will actually explain it.
Well, sure, I mean, because I still don't want to be
lectured by millionaires. Like that could also be said about like my uncle at
Thanksgiving. Yes, yeah, it's most people that aren't expert. Everyone your
uncle, like no, I mean like if you want to go that way,
like that's fine too, like shut up and plumb. Yeah you know
what I mean. Right, No, that's shut that is that's excellent,
Like shut up and turn that wrench like uncle. Yeah, no, for
sure. It's people don't understand things are like a two way street though.
It's like fucking Twitter. You you were saying shut up and dribble on Twitter?
Yeah, literally, anyone you shouldn't. Yeah, you should shut up
and go back to accounting. Yeah right, what's your job? Yeah,
no, no, you shouldn't. No one should be telling anyone who has
a platform like that too not speak out. The only thing is that like
there's a level. Sure, I don't know. I don't want you to
be I don't want you to present yourself as the expert. I want you
to be a signpost. Yeah, expert, Steven Jackson, when you dig
in a little too deep, it's like we don't need to hear too much
from Stephen Jackson because then he goes full the true sons of Israel, right,
I love the true sons of Israel like that that's the trap that like
even like fucking Kaepernick falls into where he starts explaining Cuban refugees why Castro is
awesome in Miami. Yeah. Yeah, like you're out of your depth.
That's the point, like very beyond the pale for you. Um, also
to you, Like even David Ike was like a famous soccer player, right,
a famous soccer announcer, and he's now like talking about the lizard people
and how they control the world. Yeah, It's just there are people in
sports that maybe should have some range, like anyone with the platform should be
a signpost for the experts. Sure. Anyway, Ellis, uh, after
kind of sitting around in the like in the organization, he was sent down
to the making Pete Is of the Southern League for a little bit, which
Ellis believed was because of the length of his hair. Now, Ellis had
some notable like flow flow or from so he were he were like curlers.
So I don't know like if it was like curl I don't know if it
was like a Jerry curl or just kind of like curly big hair. Um.
There is a lot of controversy around his hair being just oily, you
know, because the it was very black and oily like. People were like
so he just looked too black pretty much. Yeah, that was kind of
what the I was almost like, Oh, it's the controversy that he was
like putting shit on the ball, but you wouldn't want to put oil on
the ball, right, Actually, funny you mentioned Funny you mentioned that I
thought you want something that will give you more grip, like pine tar.
Yeah, I mean anything that makes the ball moist. Oh yeah, I
guess that's true. Yeah, so yeah, okay, so the oily hair
in that regard would partially be an issue. So actually, yeah, now
that you say that, he did use the oil in his hair to throw
hot pitch, which is great, It's amazing. He's like, oh,
you guys hate me for this black thing I have going on, Like I'm
gonna use it the beat to be fair though, I love that kind of
cheating. Yeah, steroids is lame, and if they're lame to me,
and like, if you're like the Black Sox and you're throwing the World Series
the game is bullshit. But doing like Tikie tech shit like that, I
love that. So you're a big fan of the Astros, then yes,
I'm I'm down with what the Astros. Did you like the buzzer underneath the
shirt. Yeah. Man, Yeah, that's one of the most storied parts.
One of the best parts of baseball history is the cheating. Yes,
the rampant cheating. Steroids. What's wrong with steroids? I just think I
don't like that for some reason. I don't know. I can't justify myself.
I just don't like it. No, I personally I don't care about
steroids because I think if someone wants to push themselves through the limits of physical
strength and like possibly jeopardize their health in a moment of Jordan like, yeah,
I think we talked about this on the episode, but they asked Olympians
like if you could take if you could do some sort of exercise regiment or
take some drug where it would reduce your life by like twenty years, but
you get to be on the gold Like you get to be on the podium
holding the gold medal. Would you do it? And they're like, in
a heartbeat, I do not think I would want to die at sixty with
a gold medal rather than live to eighty. All right, would you want
to be Lance Armstrong? I mean no, wait, am I gonna die?
No? He's not dead. Yeah, Oh that's fine, yeah,
are you taking Lance Armstrong's life? You lose a ball, you have cancer
because of the Probably if I get to live the whole thing, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't like level up an age twenty years out of nowhere, you
know what I mean? Like you just drop into Lance Armstrong's body right now,
Yeah, the tail end of a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, i'd go. But I mean, if I could live the
whole thing and fuck Cheryl Crow and shit like, yeah for sure, why
not? Show Crow seems like your type anyway, miszoo, Oh my gosh.
During his minor league career, here's some other funds. Oh sorry,
I didn't say this, but as soon as Ellis shaved his head in Georgia,
they moved him back up to the Columbus teams. Yes, so during
his minor league career, here's some other stuff though. Ellis what's chased the
heckler and the stands with a baseball bat. That's that's tight. I love
amazing. He also used pills when he pitched, obviously. Do you think
he chased him for I was if he was in Georgia, it might have
been something really definitely, which is funny because one time, thy Cobb went
into the stands and beat the shit out of someone for calling him arms and
no legs. Right, yeah, we really need to do a ty Cob
episode. Wait what thy Cob is insane? I got beat up a quadriple
quadriplegic who I think might have lost him in World War One or for calling
him what? Right? Yeah, he called him the N word. Oh
my god, they called the guy called thy Cob the N word, and
thy cod or thy Cob was offended, like not because it's like, hey,
that's racist, but because thy Cob was so racist that he hated being
called black, right, so he beat him up for calling him black?
Is not? Is one of the biggest pieces of shit. Yeah, anyway,
tie Cop is a we actually we really did to do a tie Cop
episode. He is hilariously awful. We might have to do like a whole
like Sports Month or something too. Yeah. Yeah, anyway. So,
also, as it's probably well known, many players were doing this too.
But of course Doc Ellis was very much involved with the emphetamines benz A green
Greenies. Yeah so Dexi's I think were the green ones. Okay, mistakes
just a giant jar in the clubhouse that you just kind of reach into,
like yeah like suit like which but they're fucking how bad? Does that actually
like get you jacked up? Because I feel like you could just like slam
three cold bruise. No, not really, this is you're talking about like
nineteen seventy speed dude, Like it's the rockiest shit out right, Like yeah,
yeah, these are like fucking um just hard candy in your your grandparents
house like that are just left. They refined it into a how does adderall
make you feel? And imagine how that feeling was before they rEFInd it down
to app I mean I was on some pretty early versions of a roll caffee,
so Folkland was after the caffeine stuff back then was probably way weaker,
right, No, caffeine I think was about the same anyway. Weed was
weaker, yeah, better though we also wait that our parents smoked was fucking
tumbleweed. Chit it was. I mean, if you want to talk,
we can do the history of weed one day, which would be great.
Yeah. Yeah, I remember smoking my dad not too long ago, and
he was just like this is this is not the weed. It's not even
the same drug. No, Like it's insane anyway, speaking of drugs,
let's get back to ephetamines real quick. Um so Ellis said he was doing
the emphetamines and the ducks and meal uh because he was stressed by the pressure
of his can't miss status as a prospect. So basically he couldn't fuck up
or like have a slump as a picture or else he was going to be
gone. He's already caused some problem. He's a loud mouth, right,
so he can't have a slump. I mean, it's you could make the
arguments the same thing right now with just NFL quarterbacks. Totally, any black
quarterback like fucks up, they don't get a second chance. They're They're not
like some ree tred quarterbacks. They're not Garrett Gilberts. They're not the Blaine
Gabberts of the Blain Gabbert existing on rosters. For there's no Jesus that's black.
But it's the type of thing where, well, Vince Young might not
be a great example because he's an extremely poor decision maker, but there are
yes, a lot of like black quarterbacks who probably people are like, I
don't want him as a backup, right they would, They're like these guys
might not still like like blame Gabert, Like Blaine Gabert shouldn't be a starter,
but he's up. People think he's a competent backup, Like he's fine,
but they want him to throw rattle out routes and stuff like that.
Yeah, so they pretty much thank you are that way, like they're not
that way with black quarterbacks. Way, like, yeah, it's amazing the
kind of like I mean, Chase Daniels made like forty million dollars you're saying,
you're saying, like p J. Walker can't like be a backup in
the NFL Byron Leftwich, he could. I mean, he's offensive, he's
no see now and he's a head coach soon. But uh but still though,
like his career probably should have been a little longer. You're naming like
all the Jacks, every Jags quarterback then anyway, So he eventually, so
Ellis said, like later on his career, he never pitched a game at
the major league level without em fetamines like he dude, but yeah, everyone
was on those backs, right, But that's insane. That's a lot of
tool on your body. Eventually, but so he eventually clearing that up.
Yeah, I'm not I'm not trying to make sense of it. I'm just
so he needed like eighty five milligrams of dex mil a game just to be
able to pitch. Uh so to give reference to that my highest Adderall prescription
ever for actual like school related things. So I think like thirty milligrams.
Yeah, I knew he would push seventies and like that was a ton.
Yeah, that was a fun ton and that was extended. I was super
it was extended released. Yeah, so it was throughout the course of the
day. This guy's taken eighty five milligrams to the dome, like right before
he goes out on the mount. Yeah, that's insane, Like right before
he goes to warm I'm trying to work out because the fucking the fucking crash
you have on that ship. Oh you just drink through that. That's the
reason, like people, that's what the reason, Like adderall causes depression.
Yeah, it's because you're literally a child who doesn't know how to deal with
a hangover, right right, Like it's not the same as an alcoholic over,
but it's a crash and the anxiety from that crash and everything you're not
you're not understanding the chemicals. Yeah, the chemical imbalance. And as soon
as I feel as soon as I figured that out, the depression went away.
As soon as I was like, this is chemical like this, I'm
not. I don't actually have anything wrong. I'm being. My mind is
being. Yeah, your mind's fucked. You fucked with your brain. You
borrowed fun from the day later. Yeah, you borrowed fun from a day.
Yeah, so that day is especially not as good. It was really
big to figure that out. Yeah, no, I mean I think that's
big for even like drinking. Like, I'm starting to get to the point
where it's I don't have like as much hangover anxiety anymore as I used to,
because it's like, oh, I just feel like shit, I'm not
you have not hangover anxiety to begin with. Yeah, why talking about because
a drink of fun? Don't think it was a piece of shit for no
reason because I couldn't remember anything. You also just it also just causes anxiety
because you have anxiety like it's the it's the it's withdrawal. Yeah, it's
symptom. Dan doesn't believe in mental health. That's fine, Yeah, he
uses, we don't have to address this, but fuck, you know,
what do you want to say? No, No, we're good. We're
good. Okay, we just keep it all locked in that big head.
Never never let it out. Man. Oh, my life's so tough.
I'm not saying it's tough. My life's exceptionally easy. I just hate my
song. Sure anyway, talk else anyway. Yeah. So he would take
like five to twelve capsules before pitching, depending on their strength, and uh
I was even acknowledged later. Of course, he started using cocaine as well
in the nineteen sixties. But all that to say, he's doing a lot
of drugs, he's getting into a lot of mischief, and it all kind
of culminates in June of nineteen seventy. So this is the no no talk
about Now, this is kind of leading up to but you have all these
chemical imbalances going on in his brain. You have all this talent in the
world. How did he not come up with the gyro ball? What is
the gyroball? It's the fucking ball that uh they thought, um fuck?
What was his name from Japan that came over for the Red Sox can no
dice k dice k? Yeah yeah, yeah, They're like, oh man,
he throws this incredible, crazy pitch it's never been seen before. It's
the gyro ball, and it just never had like it was fable. It
was fiction, so no one had ever seen it. Yeah, so much
like that, no one has actually ever seen footage of this game that I'm
about to talk about. Okay, it was it was filmed. This this
was filmed. Yeah, it was definitely filmed. And there's there is a
whole I believe he narrates like a thirty four thirty short the Duck Humentory.
Yeah, um, where they do a little cartoon. I would recommend checking
that out. I think I sent that over in my links today, like
the four minute thing where it's him narrating it or whatever. And by the
way, it's worth noting, um, dac ellis probably never not probably he
didn't necessarily live up to his uh super duper prospect status, but like he
had a good World Series, he had a good career. Yeah, he
had a great career. But like he's not a cy young winner, but
he's he I mean like just reading off his era like or his wins above
replacement, Like look he's not Satchel Page but no, but he I mean
he had ras in like two seventy three oh, five three, sixteen.
Yeah, I mean, like he had a he's a solid baseball player.
He and several times he had a f laur above four thirty thirty wins above
replacement for his career, which is like good. That means you're a good
player if you have thirty wins above replacement, like the average person, you
know, like a random big leaguer has like ten. Probably fair enough.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know that much about baseball stats, so
that's helpful for people that no baseball stats. But yeah, so dac ellis
definitely not a Hall of Famer. Also definitely not a scrub. Now,
granted his low ras, he was pitching in a in a time when offense
was relatively suppressed, like there weren't big offensive numbers back then. It's because
it was their second job. Still, No, not in the seventies,
what sixties, the sixties, seventies, It wasn't their second jobs in the
twenties for sure, wasn't in twenties. What are you talking about. They're
like, they're fucking milkmen, and no, they were not milkmen by the
twenties, are you kidding me? I mean it was the it was the
great American pastime by then, so his horse race, and certainly post World
War Two is they're not they don't have second jobs. But like I said,
the offense wasn't. The offense was a bit suppressed. I want to
say in sixty eight they actually had to lower the mound because it was like
offense was getting insane. So in nineteen sixty eight something like that, Bob
Gibson set the record of the Saint Louis Cardinals. Another maybe the greatest black
pitcher of all time and easily a top five to ten great pitcher of all
time period. He set the all time r A record for a single season.
It was like one point one two or something like, which is just
bananas. And they lowered the mound the next year because they're like, we
need a little offense. Yeah, yeah, jeez, yeah. I was
kind of glossed over when you started talking about yours. And I don't know,
I don't know any of that stuff. I don't watch much. I
don't want to. I don't want to take north Central Florida. You don't
have a team, yeah, I don't gators have the Gators. Yeah.
What's funny though, is you're like my eyes glossed over that boring sports stuff
at your goddamn wedding. The entire time we were hanging out in the grooms
room, you and everyone else except for me because I was the only non
Gator there, watched Florida's spring football game on a phone. Yeah, which
is the most boring shit. It's a scrimmage. What are you talking about?
It's amazing. You get to see the new talent. They were like,
oh my god, that's a great throw. You see. It's the
fucking like flag football games. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to hear
this baseball statistic ship. Yeah no, I could riddle off any statistic from
any Florida game, Like I can tell you what this alas caught in like
nineteen fifty six, You know, I don't. I unfortunately I don't know
about this memory because I wasn't there. So oh he invited. We kind
of hit the cap on people. Man. Yeah, so I got bombed,
So did we real bad? Yeah? I got bombed anyway, you
were at mine. It's okay, all right, guys, It's uh Thursday,
June eleventh, nineteen seventy. The Pirates land in San Diego, the
day before a doubleheader where they're playing the Padres and doc Ellis has some friends
in La, and he asked the manager, Hey, it's like early in
the morning, Caigo, fly up to LA and visit my friends and be
back for the game Friday night. Managers like, I don't give a shit
because he wasn't supposed to pitch. No, he was supposed to know he
got penciled in. Oh did he get one? From what i've Oh,
you are Actually you might be right on that I did it? Did He
doesn't mention it in the interview, like he wasn't scheduled he started. He
was not scheduled to start, which is why he took the trip to lay.
Why he took the LSD because he thought he had the day off.
Yeah, well he did have the day. He took the LSD Thursday before
the game even happened. Yeah, so and it's like Thursday. Let's see
here he takes the LSD at I want to say, like noon. So,
oh, I'm sorry, this is really messed up. I got a
little thrown. I am sorry about this. So Doc lands San Diego early
morning, he flies up to LA. He takes a hit of acid when
he lands in lax so he gets picked up. He goes out partying with
his friends Thursday night because he doesn't think he's starting that's correct. He's so
whacked out on acid though. Someone's like hey man, like he's gonna go
take another hit, and're like, hey man, should you do He's like,
fuck off, I'm gonna take this acid like I'm having a good time.
And he wakes up at two pm on He wakes up at twelve pm
on Friday at noon, yeah, thinking it's still Thursday day, and a
lady's like, hey, don't do any more acid. He's like, fuck
you, bitch. So I'm gonna take acid, and so he takes more
acid. Then like two pm rolls around and his girlfriend comes back up and
it's like, hey, your schedule to pitch today now, Like you gotta
get back down to San Diego the games. At six oh five, it's
two pm in LA. He is coming to write up on acid. At
that point he is totally like about to hit where you start peaking, Yeah,
yeah, what happens? So what happens when you peek on acid?
Um, it's one of the few drugs I've never dined. Okay, you
haven't done it now, I've never done it. Um. It's one of
those things where if you forget you take it, like I don't know who
does this. You pop it like a listerine strait, so you put it
on your tongue, You let a chill there for a little bit, and
then like an hour or two goes by and you're like is this even working?
And then and then you take more. You know, I would never
advise anyone to take more acid if it's always the move though, it's like
I don't even feel it. Man, Yeah, that's gonna be a much
bigger with an edible too, Like people do that with edibles. Did you
didn't kick? It tastes like an hour or something and that ends completely.
I like, if you've eaten anything, what your body weight is anyway?
Acid, you know, you feel like all of a sudden, you feel
like you're kind of going up on a roller coaster like that, and not
like you're raising physically, just the anticipation, Like there's there's a moment where
like, oh, yeah, I'm I just took it. I just took
acid, And so you're like, if you've never expected it, here we
go. Yeah, Like so light starts, you get more sensitive to light
um patterns start to breathe a little bit depending on how much you takes,
so I've I've never taken more than two hits. Also, I want to
touch on something that Rob said before we even started the podcast. He's like,
I don't want to do drugs that make me see things that aren't there,
And why are you taking drugs? In first, there's plenty of you.
There's plenty of drugs that make you be honestly, I want to see.
I don't even smoke weed at this point. The only drug I even
do sometimes would be coke, and I only do that to just wait keep
drinking. Yeah, literally, I don't even do it. Someone. Yeah,
if someone offered me something else instead, like a red bull, I
would do that like it like really like it's not I'd rather like I this
like but truly though, like it's not. It's not even because I'm like,
yeah, I mean I love of that drug. It's just like god,
I just guess I need that. But also, after all the superior
to coke, I agree that person like I would I would I would much
rather take a like I don't like doing lines atter while would take a pill,
you know, like if it's gonna be a long day, dude.
Lines battle all is some fucking rat shit man, Like it's it's a ratchet
ship, no rat shit, Like oh, it's just like just you know,
just dry scoop, some original jacked. I mean it would have the
same effect if you still had my buddy. Actually, uh that sh it's
definitely bad by now. At our wedding or at my wedding, our wedding.
Uh. At my wedding, my fraternity brother had greenies. Remember green,
He didn't have green It was like it wasn't called like it's like hippie
speed. He was called cava okay, no, no, um what not
cava macha notch. What the fuck was that stuff? It was like yeah,
he was like upt him right now, it's crowd him. Oh yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah he had crowd. I mean he was like, if
you take two, it's like speed, if you take six, it's like
carolin. Yeah, like what is this shit? What it works? Did
you take any oh a bunch? Give me up all day? Yeah.
It was crazy and I needed it. I was drinking only. I told
the wedding people. I was like that because like when where we got married,
they just would bring us drinks the whole time though you don't wear anything.
This is your day, we'll bring you all the drinks whatever. So
like I had my own guy just for fucking looking at my beard to see
when it was empty and to bring me a drink and like what what,
what's your preference for the day. And I was like, it's gonna have
to be Mike Ultra today because it's gonna be a long fucking day. Like
you can't be bringing me I pas or that. God, yeah, you
wouldn't fit in your suit. Yeah, um yeah, but so acid.
It's too he's clearly been doing it. One of the things that they need
to talk about. You what's that? What's that trip from uh La to
San Diego, Ela to San Diego on a plane? Yeah, well a
plane I was gonna drive. No, No, you didn't drive. People.
A plane rides really short. It's like thirty minutes. Yeah, it's
really close to each other. If that maybe drive on like a bad day
is three hours, Okay. I was just making sure like he wasn't driving
on LSD from Saul. That be tight, but I mean it would be
crazy, crazier story. He didn't. He flew back but so just explain
LSD real quick. Experience wise, if you take a bunch of it,
you're gonna see patterns really moving around. You're gonna have visual distortions where you
see like trees are breathing, grass is moving, Earth as it is.
But there is a mind body connection piece that I think is very valuable to
know. Do you see the four dimensional elves? This isn't d MT.
Yeah, I mean I'm sure if you take enough, if like a Heroes
does f LSD, you're probably seeing some sort of a hero Yeah, Heroes
does of it. I'm sure that many of the people the CIA gave LSD
two, we're taking way more than A Heroes does. Yeah, they weren't
taking a subjecture of us for hero Ball. Yeah anyway, Yeah, you're
not. It's being able to throw something in a straight line is probably not
gonna be your best bet. So pitching would be hard, although I will
say studies are showing that there's definitely a mind body connection. Well, he
walked eight guys, right, he walked eight dudes? Yeah? So did
he which is really bad? Well, how many did he bean? Like?
Did he hit? I think he hit three guys? So he walked
eight and hit three, so he allowed. He didn't get tossed. No,
it was like okay, let me, let me just read through this.
So he took it out hit of LSD Friday at noon, and his
friend's girlfriend reminded him at two PM that he was scheduled to pitch that night.
Elis was like, no, m not, that's tomorrow, and she's
like, no, it's Friday today. He's like, what happened to Thursday?
And they're like, man, I don't know what to tell you,
but you gotta be in San Diego. And yeah. So Ellis flew from
Los Angeles to San Diego at three pm and arrived at the stadium at four
thirty pm and the game started at six oh five. So if he took
it at noon, he is halfway through the LSD trip and like, obviously
you hit the peak, Like after the two hours start, you're starting to
go up to the peak. So he's probably like peaking tail end of peaking
on LSD ye and if he stay a bunch of it, like it's gonna
be strong, it's gonna be hard for him to focus or concentrate. So
Ellis said that he threw the no hitter despite these instances, he was not
able to feel the ball. He couldn't see the batter. He uh,
couldn't really see the catcher clearly. He also said that the catchers blind well
he said, like he said, when he was looking at the plate,
he couldn't make out a batter. He knew that they were either on the
right side or the left side. They were shapes and the only thing he
could tell if they were right handed or left handed. He could see what
side of the plate. That's just me playing sports before I was sixteen and
didn't have contacts, sure like. But also were the blobs moving were the
amorphus shapes moving around? I could I could only see shapes. That's incredible
that you went that long without glass? Why why did you do this to
her? So? Do you wear contacts now? Now we're contacts? Okay,
okay. Anyway, so he made the catcher at one point where a
reflective tape on his fingers, which helped ellisc the signals because he couldn't make
out the single retinals, so he didn't even know what pitches were being asked
of him to throw. To start, No, yeah, he had to
get the reflective tape on the fingers. So how many innings did he go
before he even knew what pitch she was supposed to throw? He doesn't remember,
Yeah, yeah, he just knows. At some point he's like,
I can't, dude, be in the catcher for that game had to be
a nightmare. And also because like catchers and pitchers have pretty close relationship totally,
so that catcher two had to be like, oh God, God,
damn it, Doc, you son of a bitch. Everyone like you're calling
for like the curveball, he just throws heat. Yeah, Like he's just
like sweating bullets and like his eyes are fucking dilated to fucking You're just like,
I don't know what the fuck Doc did today, but God did just
taking two minutes between pitches. Yeah. Also, before he starts the game
in warmups, he gets to the locker room then leaves immediately to go find
his greeny lady. So he finds still needed the speed. Yeah, he
was like, how do you balance LSD out? You gotta any more speed?
He's never pitched a game without speed, And he's like, well,
I'm whacked out on acid, so I might as well up my dose.
So he is tripping balls and he's also speeding out. Does that counteract I
don't know, it's compounding. Um. The only thing that would counteract LST
would probably be like a barbituate of No. It would be like a people
take xanax when they're really wigging out on hallucinogens. It's kind of like a
landing gear people call it where it's just like, oh, I need to
take the plane down, like he takes them xanax and years call it a
night. Yeah. Anyway, so he's whacked out. Let's see here.
Oh yeah, so the catcher was saying, yeah, he was throwing stuff.
People were having to jump out of the way of balls and stuff like
that because he was just throwing it all over the place. He would throw
arrant pitches like thirty feet away from the mound sometimes. According to Yeah,
that was always the most terrifying thing about Little League is when a kid could
throw fast but I had no control. He was like, God, damn
that that's the thing. That's the whole thing In Bull Durham, remember that
whole bit where Kevin Costner's like hit the bull, like throw being the mascot.
And then I was like, why is it just fucking do it?
Just hit the mascot in the head, and then he did that and probably
happened in this game. Yeah, they did that any and the rest of
the game. Tim Robbins character Duke Nukeluch sorry nuke like, pitched an incredible
game the last time because the hitters couldn't dig it right, they couldn't set
their feet the way they wanted to because they're free to getting beamed. Yes,
so presumably that might have happened in this Doclas game as well. I
feel like in my little league career, I got beamed more than I had
hits. Like I got hit by the ball and I actually made contact with
a bat. I switched the football. I never played like legit baseball,
so I never worried. I switched to lacrosse like eighth ninth grade. Yeah
that makes sense anyway. My I was my first ever at bat, and
my first ever at bat in kid pitch, you know, like when we
got off coach pitch or whatever. First a b ever fucking drilled right on
my ankle bone. Oh my god. Like I was never like it was
all. I could never hit well after that. Like, I was just
like fucking scared for years in the box. I'm a big pussy. We're
all letting it out tonight, guys. Duck House is bringing it out of
us. Anyway. So not only were like pitchers kind of freaked out what
Rob was alluding to as far as success of the game, but the fielding
was just amazing, Like his teammates were bailing him out. His teammates helped
him into the no hitter. Like obviously he had to pitch really well.
Yeah hit eight so eight walks? Um, how many strikeouts did you have?
Six? Six? S? The box score up here? Okay,
cool, Yeah, I'm trying to see how many pitches he threw, that
is what I'm also very curious, like two fifty Yeah, like it had
to be an obscene number. So because if you let eleven batters up on
base and you pitch nine innings, that's I gotta think three three hit by
pitches and eight walks. Oh so the hit by pitches don't count as walks,
they're just hit by pitches. Oh yeah, yeah, see I figured
that was right. Yeah you actually anyway, this is actually a recount of
Ellis from his point of view during the game. I can only remember bits
and pieces of the game. I was sighted had a feeling of euphoria.
I was zeroed in on the catcher's glove, but I didn't hit the glove
that much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded
two or three times. The ball was small, sometimes the ball was large.
Sometimes sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't hold on. Can
I tell you a really funny part of this? So he had tunnel.
He had three hit by pitches, all the same guy. Me and that
guy, like, going on, God, he's throwing it at like he's
throwing it to a point where it's probably going directly at the umpire is probably
like once the toss him because he's hit the same fucking guy three times,
because like he got the perfect game going on? What can I do?
Yeah? Also during this time, too or not, perfeca Ivan Mural was
the San Diego Padre center fielder Doc Ellis hit him three times on acid.
Yeah, you just see this guy who's slicking more than likely slicking the ball
anyway with his hair. His eyes are dilated like dinner plates, and he's
just beaming you with pitches for no reason other than you exist. Because he's
trying his best to throw a no hitter anyway. So one of the things
he said too was I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I
was looking at him. So he was like, not really, he was
just looking at the picture as he was throwing, or another picture at the
batter. Yeah, well, I mean you're you're looking in that direction anyway.
Yeah, but he's he's saying like he's like walking eyes with the batter
the whole time while he's throwing. Starting his lips. Yeah. And by
the way, these teams doesn't make it sexual. These Pirates teams are stacked.
Yeah. Yeah, they're really good at this point. They have Roberto
Clemente, Willie Stargel, like several Hall of famers played for these Pirates teams.
I think they won a World Series at some point together. They wanted
the next year. Okay, yeah, So another thing he said, he
chewed his gum until it turned to powder. He said, Yeah, he's
just dude, you're on speed. He's probably been chewing that gun for two
days on the day. Yeah it's Thursday. Bear in mind, he's not
he doesn't really believe it's right. Have you ever done that where you're just
chewing on gum? For like an entire day, and it's just it's like
miserable mush. Yeah. Um, they say I had about three to four
fielding chances. But I remember diving out of the way of a ball I
thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball was hit hard.
It wasn't even hit hard enough to like reach him. Like, so
he's like jumping out of the way of balls. Yeah, it was like
a squib groundball that didn't reach the mound, and he leapt out of the
way like the fucking cannonball. So all that to say. During this time
too, his teams were like, hey, man, you're going for a
noe, like the one rule got leave your team, man, your rule.
It probably wasn't even team has probably left them alone. He probably just
had a little guy on the shoulder he had. Probably he had to throw
a no hitter because he didn't want anyone to talk to him. To fucking
shitty man, I got it, um Ellis reported afterward, though he never
used LSD during the season again, so he says, lesson learned. Yeah,
I really learned a lesson there. I decided never to do acid on
a Thursday, and forget what day it was. Yeah, yeah, though
he continued to use in fetamines every day after the story was made public.
Ellis said that he regretted taking LSD that day because it robbed him of his
greatest professional memory. When did that story go public? I think the first
story went out in nineteen eighty four, so that that would not have been
kosher fort at the time people would have been like furious. So I think
one of the things that happened was he a poet was interviewing him or something
like that, and they were talking about that game. And one of the
first things I was said was he was drunk. I was very drunk on
vodka. I had to drink coffee to straighten myself out. So like he
told the story of being inebriated first, and that was the fish story for
a while. I was like, oh, Doculi, Scott fucked up.
You're right and through a no hitter, He's amazing. They had to like
tame it, though, because he I think he was working for the Yankees
at the time and he didn't want Steinbrenner up his ass. Yeah yeah,
so he was like, hey, it was acid and dexis, but yeah,
just say it's booze. Yeah, and so then, so here's some
skepticism about the story. First of all, Um Bob Smusic of the Pittsburgh
Press, who broke first broke the story in nineteen eighty four, believes Ellis
version of the events that day, although Smusic did not witness the game in
person. Bill Christie, also of the Pittsburgh Press, does not believe the
claim and was at the game that day. Christine was a beat reporter who
practically lived with a team that year. Those guys like follow, yeah,
they were. It's like, yeah, it's like war journalists practically. Yeah,
you fucking fly with the team. Yeah, even like more people are
familiar with beat journalists than war journalists, that's true. It's like Christian Yam
import the nineties, you know, remember her fair enough. So so that
guy Christine was like, no, that's not true. I didn't notice anything
different about him. But one of the things you have to consider it,
well, yeah, he's nuts. So yeah, like one of the things
you have to consider, what is baseline normal for doc Ells? Yeah,
because he's drinking and doing speed at like fourteen already, So also what is
normal, Like he's probably able to cope and function with a lot of substances.
So fuck Bill Christine for saying he didn't do it. Why I take
that away? You're saying earlier there's no recording of this stuff, so there's
like no footage of it. Really it was on TV, but it's just
not in the archives now it's it's locked in the archives, like why would
like why would Pittsburgh? So it is there, people say the film exists,
but they won't release it. Was in it was the end of Indiana
Jones where they're just wheeling. This is why people always bitch about baseball not
marketing itself. Well, m because if I was baseball, I would uh
give Mike Trout LSD until he had a personality. Why are you talking about
noted Eagles fan Mike Trout? Yeah, Mike Trout loves two things, the
Eagles and weather. Yeah, and baseball does he's a baseball player. Sometimes
I thought he's just an Eagles fan. Eagles fan, West weather guy.
Yeah, it's not the guy that comes on YouTube is like the report for
the game. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah? Is that that
guy? Do you know who Mike Trout is? I have no idea,
dude, Holy shit, he is the best baseball player in the world right
now, but probably probably one of the ten best baseball players of all time
if if his career he's doing. He needs to do a little bit more
in the playoffs, but that you I don't hold baseball players to the same
postseason standards that you would in NBA or NFL. Okay, because you can't.
It's it's like you can't do it by yourself in baseball. Yeah,
sure, yeah, sports sports, I did pick a baseball guy. I
kind of I'm asking, but you're being the one to do the sports topic
first. Well, no, the sports is fine. He's a huge sports
fan, but doing baseball baseball it literally doesn't know who Mike Trout is.
I got excited about the LSD part. I really keyed in on that and
I was like, I'm gonna tell this story. And there's also a lot
of really good, um you know, societal shit like Hacke Strey Month stuff.
So there are actually a lot of other incidents though, too, that
he dealt with after the acid thing. So the no hitter right now On
May FI, nineteen seventy two, Ellis Willie Startle and Stargel Stargel sorry,
and Rennie Stennett missed the team bus to Riverfront Stadium and a security guard to
ask them for identification. Uh, it sounds about right. Doc Ellis held
up his World Series ring on his fist and said I'm Doc Ellis, and
the cop took it as a or. The security guard just mazed him in
front of the stadium. Good lord, can you imagine if like fucking like
Marshawn Lynch got mazed in front of right, Yeah, it would be people
would lose their fucking Listen. That might happen at Fenway these days, but
nowhere else, got it. It's a Boston racist joke. So and then
then Ellis was charged with disorderly cond for that, forgetting mace, for getting
based. Yeah, Jesus Christ, that's a bad year for the pirates.
That's the year Roberto Clement he died too, died in a plane crash taking
ship to UH. I forget some hurricane ravaged place, I believe, I
forget where. Oh no, he was just transporting cocaine. Oh yeah,
he's a narco. So I don't I'm not seeing what it was for.
But the red suit Ellis for assault, and Ellis countersuit before going to trial.
The Reds, who at that time were owned by the famously racist Marge
Shot. Yeah, but they were the big Red machine. Yeah. Yeah,
that's interesting. You mentioned that too, because the municipal court dropped the
charges against Ellis. But Ellis stated that the incident made him learn to hate
better, and he really fucking hated the Reds. So like, here's some
funny shit he did to the Reds just for context, which I'm sure you
don't know much to have, let alone our listeners. The Reds and the
Pirates were maybe the two best teams in the National League around that time.
It was probably big rivalry. Yeah, yeah, they were. So they
were fairly I mean, and you had, like I guess Clement was dead
at that point, but he said like Willie Stargil obviously, and sware to
think about since the Reds and the Pirates posts are fucking coverage. Yeah.
And then, uh, just off screen over here, you had Pete Rose
and Joe Morgan on the Reds. I mean, there were two loaded ass
teams back then. Yeah. So, speaking of Joe Morgan before a game
in nineteen seventy three against the Reds, I guess one thing that happened was
the pirates told not to wear curlers and the dugout anymore, because he would
wear his curlers in the dugout and people are like, this is just too
black. Yeah, like don't do this. Yeah, you know, and
he's like, fine, fuck it whatever, I won't wear said that to
Ellis, Yeah, okay, the pirates said that. And so before the
game, though, he decides, dude, you got something, big guy,
you can keep like moving out of the way talking into the microphone.
I know, but I'm like trying to read this stuff too. So Ellis
decides like, all right, we're gonna play these Reds. Everyone's scared of
the big Red machine. I'm going to hit every app bat I can.
He He goes through eight guys. He hit eight batters. He hit eight
batters in a row. I believe it's in a row. Let me double
check. A bit counterproductive. I don't know how you don't get tossed after
like six three, yeah, because it's not It is not easy. That
was in the nineteen seventy four that he did Okay, yeah, I skipped
around. It is not easy to make it look like an accident. It's
if you hit eight betters in rows, it does not ever look like an
accident, right, but even two in a row, it's not easy to
make that look like an accident. Oh, it was just wild. Yeah
yeah at different time though, yes, different times. Yeah, so after
Else did more hardcore back then, this was about the time that batting gloves
started to get used. Banngloves didn't get used for a long time. I
like guys that don't use betting gloves. What's the point, like, just
for not tearing your hand apart and just grip grip. Yeah, so after
you look cool. After Else defeated the Ads in a nineteen seventy three game,
this is where the curlers comes in. Dan Joe Morgan claimed that Ellis
was throwing a spit ball and Anderson had the umpire like check Ellis's to get
it. Yeah, but you know they found no evidence put in nineteen eighty
book. When a book came out in nineteen eighty Elis actually but he's like,
yeah, he used to just take the stuff off my hair and used
to throw spitballs. So he was actually confirmed. He admitted to that,
which is the type of cheating. I love again. I love that,
I fucking very koy just just like dirty easy cheating like that. You know,
yeah, steroids, so it super easy. In nineteen seventy four is
when he decides to hit everyone at that. But he was a little concerned
about how Pete Rose would feel about it because he loved Pete Rose. Weird,
but he's like he inspired Pete Rose. He was concerned how he would
respond to it, but Ellis in the moment, decided to do it anyway.
It's um. While pitching for Oakland, the team asked him to get
I mean, dude, Rose was kind of a hard ass, like who
who is member in a fuck the All Star Game? Yeah? Where he
catchers catch? Yeah, what did he do? He was a play at
the plate in the All Star Game, so it didn't even matter. The
All Star Game counted towards like who had home field advantage for the World Series,
which it doesn't anymore again, but yeah, yeah, but well it
was a big there's a little like twenty years or something, yeah, something
like that. But yeah, Pete Rose ended this dude's career. He trucks
him at the plate, injured him so bad that it is his career was
over. That sucks. Yeah, so Pete Rose would fuck you up.
Ry for Buster Posey. Yeah, this was the biggest catcher collapse yep collision.
Another thing he did while pitching for Oakland. The team asked him to
keep charts I guess in the dugout or in the bullpen or whatever, and
he said, uh, fuck that. And when they like turned around to
leave, he lit the charts on fire tight in the dugout and he's like,
that's the craziest thing I ever did in my career. It's like,
no, no, no, doc. I think it was the acid game.
But let's see here, why do you like the charts on fire?
Just because he didn't want to do it, He's just say I'm not keeping
charts. He's not an analytics guy, not a big analytics guy. Here's
a here's a fun thing I just found modern baseball fans would hate him.
Oh yeah, novely a fun headline I found about Pete Rose Ray Fossey that
was the catcher Ray Fosse still feels effects from collision collision with Pete Rose in
nineteen seventy All Star Game. Can we just make that like being Fosseed being
a anytime somebody gets truck sticked. Yeah, just being Fosse fause, but
Rose made like a cheap shot too. Just watch the video. He like
went specifically after his arm. Oh my god, that's awful. Yeah,
so Pete Rose will suck you up. Yeah, totally respected the move.
Maybe yeah, like proposition yeah, like uh, the last thing of note,
just like the ridiculous shit he did doc Ellis. When he was at
the Rangers, he complained about the manager, Billy Hunters liquor policy, and
Hunter was responding like banning liquor basically from team flights because there's a big fight.
So Ellis was like, I'm bringing liquor on the plane to Toronto no
matter what. So he brings a bunch of liquor on the plane. And
it said that Ellis led a player insurrection against Billy Hunter, and he declared
that Hunter maybe Hitler, but he ain't making no lampshade out of me.
This is like public comments about like team management for the team you're in,
and then I love this man so far. So the Rangers organization initially blamed
Ellis for the team's disappointing finish in nineteen seventy eight when this happened, and
indicated that they would trade Ellis, but later the owner Brad Corbett sided with
Ellis over Hunter and fired that manager tight, so Ellis stayed around. He's
like, no fucking I'm drinking on the plane. That guy sucks. He's
racist. But all these stories are really funny, and you know, they're
kind of crazy. It's kind of sad though that a lot of people talk
about Doc Ellis as Joe, this one dimensional like he's the guy that threw
at or threw No Hitter on acid because he had a really crippling addiction problem.
I mean he had, he was in it. He never really checked
in rehab. He's self medicating and that was all from the sis or everything
everything. Yeah, every alcoholism for sure. I think it's like for a
lot of these guys, the underlying like medicine, but it's just you have
to self medicate to plan your mood out. I bet he had a few
sex like sex capades. But it's worth noting that a ten percent of all
of his walks in nineteen seventy were from his No Hitter geez, ten percent
of his walks that season, ten percent of his walks we were on acid.
Yeah, and he started thirty games that he had eighty seven walks and
kind kind of checks out though eight percent like that game, so about ten
probably on acid, Like, yeah, it would it would be weird if
he didn't. Like the majority of the walks weren't in one game. Ye,
So doc Ellis was kind of this figure that for the most part.
You know, a lot of black athletes that were very good at what they
did that talks, or had any sort of descent from the normal status quo
were labeled bad people. And a lot of people would call doc Ellis a
bad person, especially regarding drug use and stuff like that, Like he's a
tyrant or not a tyrant, but you know what, do you want to
call it degenerate? Right, Yeah, like he's he's a loud mouth,
he's degenerate. There's a lot of good things that doc Ellis did too after
he stopped. You know, it sounds like a human being. Yeah,
totally, And I think, you know it's it's kind of I want to
bring to light some of that stuff. Like, for one, he helped
his teammate Willie Stargel, like you were saying, he helped him get the
word out for sickle cell as part of the Black Athlete Foundation. Even talked
on the Senate floor to the Senate about this too, and he helped kids
in need as well. He started a lot of different programs for kids to
keep them out of trouble, you know, because he didn't have that,
you know, like growing up, so he relied on drugs and alcohol to
get him through a lot of stuff. Um, you know, someone was
saying to you that like these days, like the stuff he was doing,
and they'd be like, oh, he's an activist now, but like back
then, it's like you're just a piece of shit. Shut up, swing
your bat pitch. He was on the mountain in nineteen seventy one when the
Pittsburgh Pirates became the very first MLB team to field an all black starting lineup.
That's also the year, um, the year they won the World Series,
turns out, Yeah, I believe that was the we Are Family Pirates.
Like their their theme song that year it was wait ah Family, that's
a good one, Yeah banger. That was a really uh in terms of
baseball history, they have a fun team like pieces and yeah, we're not
any sisters, I guess, but yeah, I know that team was is
like widely remembered as being like really like fun and infectious for sure. You
got a guy that fun man. Yeah, yeah, he was also during
that earies, like I guess it. Vita Blue or Vitae Blue was the
Oakland Athletics pitcher that year, and he was the pitcher for the American League
All Star Game, and dolls like, well, I'm not gonna be picked
because they're never gonna let two black guys pitch. And of course, so
like that kind of forced the hand where it's like, okay, doc ellis,
yeah, you're gonna pitch now. Well, so it should be noted,
uh that with the all with the Baseball All Star Game, so the
starters are all picked by the fan vote except the pitcher. Oh really,
so the start the fans pick the starting eight like catcher, center field,
all that shit, and then the uh pitchers don't even get voted in.
The manager picks the pitchers. Yeah. And typically if like my team's manager
is the All Star coach, I want our biggest rival on the mound,
and I want him ran into the fucking ground right like I want if it's
uh like when Manuel would coach the All Star Game or whatever, I would
want a Mets pitcher on the mount. Yeah. Yeah, just for like,
yeah, no, no, he can go seven. Yeah, yeah,
makes sense. Watch him warm up real close for a couple of days
of the Yeah right. Actually, so when he said that about not being
able to play and they made him play or they elected him to be the
pitcher, Jackie Robinson actually wrote to him and said, I read your comments
in our paper the last few days. I wanted to let you know how
much I appreciated your courage and honesty, which is I mean, that's a
huge moment for Jackie Robinson to reach out to Doc Ellis and be like,
yeah, things for baseball. Um. He also said you need to sail
a little less though, like maybe tone it down a little bit. Funny,
surprise me, jack Here the reason they picked Jackie Robinson as the first
one, Like, he wasn't necessarily the He was a top five black baseball
player at that time, but he wasn't necessarily the absolute best. But they
knew they needed to pick someone who was gonna keep it clean, clean cut.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's why Robinsons like family friendly, yes yeah,
very adjustable yeah yeah yeah. Yeah, So that makes sense that Robinson
would say something that because it's very of his personality. Yeah, Robinson actually
uh wrote an article one time. Uh he I forget what paper it was
in, or maybe it was published in a bunch of papers, but he
wrote an article uh politely disagreeing with Martin Luther King Junior on his stance on
the Vietnam War because Robinson was pro oh really yeah Vietnam War um or like
pro to an extent, like saying just like you know, like viet Cong
or bad Communism is bad. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he was like
he was like, don't let this disagreement fool you or anything. No,
I think Martin Luther King is the shit. But like he was like I
love him and he's the best leader of the Black Communic could have. But
oh he didn't wholesale behind to someone else's politics. Yeah, he had like
his own uh nuanced opinions. Also a human being from what I recall,
Yeah, totally yeah. Um. So the other things that were really big
for elis as first baseball activism goes. He was like a huge advocate for
free agency as well, because he was tired of people getting locked into dogshit
contracts. Yes, so baseball players. Uh, Kurt Flood was the first
one to actually do the free agency stuff, and he had his career ruined
over it. But yeah, baseball players, they were still getting rich,
but they were also getting like still fucked by ownership. There's like, it's
the free agency what basically was invented in like the sixties or seventies essentially,
right, But I think like it was pretty frowned upon too, wasn't it.
Yes, for most sports too. It's just like it was a very
slow release a free agency. Like, no, not everyone was doing it
immediately. Kurt Flood, who was also black, by the way, interesting,
was the was the guy who pioneered. He was a Saintlist cardinal,
but he was the guy who like pioneered free agency essentially. Yeah, I
mean, so we did a lot of stuff like that, Like, okay,
so do you think the Cardinals having that banner that no, there is
no Kurt Flood number up on the on the I was just gonna say there
and take credit for that championship. Yeah, I mean, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know baseball stuff, dude. Anyway,
he did a lot for baseball, obviously, he did a lot for sickle
cell activism, and he did a lot for young people in his community.
He also stopped being involved with baseball. I want to say after he checked
out a rehab he went to school for becoming a substance abuse counselor at UC
Irvine, and he you know, he was doing obviously counseling for people in
Beverly Hills for a long time, and then someone asked him, like,
hey, why aren't you doing this for people in your community. He's like,
you're absolutely right. He started a program where he would go into prisons
and actually help people that were recovering from addiction. And there's a lot of
people that to this day where like I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for
Doc Ellis, And he's helping people that probably need it more like that probably
need that rehabilitation more than jail time is going to help them. Right,
So he passed recently, Like what year, two thousand and nine? It
was that long ago? Yeah? Really? Fuck is that? Thirty for
thirty short like short documentary came out. He did stuff. This this story
regained virility on the Internet or whatever while he was still alive. It was
like, oh five, it was viral videos and stuff were getting big.
Yeah, because there's like a funny cartoon. I remember reading about it,
like on dead Spin. Yeah, I think I think the video I sent
y'all came out in like two thousand and four. It was two thousand and
nine. Yeah, I was gonna say, well, that video was posted
at least on in two thousand and nine. Died in two thousand and eight.
This went viral. Maybe it was around that time, but it went
viral, Like I remember being in college and it like kind of blowing up
the Internet for a day or two, oh for sure, like when people
were like, what this guy? Yeah, it was one And actually there
was a dead Spin writer who eventually lost his job, and because he was
part of the whole Kogan thing, he was like the main guy who put
but he tried to do uh, he tried to do uh pitch. He
took acid and tried to pitch no Hitter on on MLB the show Yeah or
whatever. Yeah, I sent you a dead Spin link. Yeah, then
I clicked that link was recommended for me afterwards. That was one of the
funniest, like dumb things I've ever read. That. Yeah. Yeah,
Like he couldn't do it. No, he couldn't throw a video game no
Hitter on acid. Yeah, Yeah, that was pretty funny because he's like,
I can't control all the players. That's one thing to you that gets
kind of lost in the sauce is like he had amazing teammates. Yeah,
so I don't build him. Did you ever balls were hitting play? Well,
he only had six strikeouts, which means the other twenty one. Yeah,
we're recorded by his teammates. Yeah. I mean I could have pulled
like verbatim. Yeah, the stuff that would have been list interesting to you.
Yeah, I just don't have it. It's fine. Yeah, no,
maybe maybe Dan can do a follow up episode. Yeah, but anyway,
No, I just think it's interesting that, like all people know about
this guy is he was the acid guy for the no hitter, But really
he had a crazy He had other crazy stuff happened to him in his career,
and just that Pirate's team. Yeah, Pirates team is amazing. One
of the probably about the first time a baseball team is fielded with all black
starters and they win the World Series. Coincidence maybe, I don't know.
But also he had to deal with he had to deal with a lot of
oppression in other ways. He definitely didn't go out of his way to stay
out of it though, either like he wasn't he was being himself, the
whole type of personality. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's something that's meritus
and also being able to help your community after the fact and realizing that,
Like, I mean, it's kind of a shame that the thing that he
was trying to help other people get over was the thing that killed him,
was liver services. Yeah, so, I mean it's it's kind of a
sad story, but it's also ademing one too. He definitely changed his life
for the better and helped a lot of people. Sad that he died relatively
young. Yeah, sixty three three's young. Yeah, but what a legacy.
Yeah. No, I mean, great story. I loved reading about
this, dude. I'm happy I got to So. I was surprised you
picked that because you're not a baseball guy. You are an LST. I
got learned in with the ASCID. Yeah. Man, they would have had
a field the CIA would have had a field day with me with your topics
with LSD. Yeah, I'll clear to do it. Let's just have an
episode where we see what we can get Jake into. If acid is the
gateway. Yeah, we're just like two guys, fuck on acid? Do
I have to do acid? I don't know. We'll figure it. We'll
do an episode where you do acid. Yeah, and try to and try
to lead. So you need to block off about twelve to fifteen hours.
Yeah, yeah, and we'll just do it a live a live stream day,
all right. If he can throw a no hitter, you can throw
you know, an hour and a half podcast on LSD. Yeah, that's
true. You should try to get me to do tasks. Yeah, yeah,
we can do that. I would be fine. Do you remember this
is for anyone that ever listened to us before the show, But do you
remember read the when we did the BAC reader, I wasn't on that that.
Oh Rob, were you in that one? I was like, I
wasn't. Yeah. Where we did where we just tried to see how high
we can get our BAC over the course of two hours or an hour or
whatever. Yeah, the one that ended with Bush at like point three eight
bashing had into a conference room table. Yes, yeah, that was fantastic.
I miss those things. We should do one of those again. Yeah,
maybe we'll get We'll get Bush back. Yeah we should bring yeah,
just as all his Thailand swords anyway, did you never held stories deep deep,
especially he's in a serious relationship. No, he doesn't need a serious
relationship. He needs to never speak of his trip to time. I can't
believe he told all on tape because he's oblivious and he doesn't he doesn't understand
the implications of he he he's just a puppy whatever. That was the best
podcast we ever did. It's fantastic. It was It was a it was
a guy that didn't realize what sex toroism was describing a sex worism trip.
It was amazing, so kind of I mean, we would just be like,
dude, you understand what you just said on there, Yeah, you
understand what happened. And no, he didn't. It wasn't He had no
idea. Yeah it wasn't. It wasn't great. Anyway, what did you
did? You guys take anyway thing away from this? Did you enjoy it?
I just think we should probably move away from sports for the rest of
the month. Okay, sorry to ruin that for you. More than just
black athletes, they've contributed in other ways in society. Peanut butter, right,
like peanut butter, just peanut butter. Peanut butter and acid. It's
god, it's so fucked up. People think George Washington Carver about a peanut
butter, but that's such a common thing. But he didn't do it.
You know, he just thought maybe George Harver is actually not a bad one.
Dude, He's got some interests. So like it's very very white dudes
went to George Carver, Like, but I don't know, what are you
supposed to? Oh my god, I can't believe George Washington Carver is the
only thing people get wrong in history. You know, people love Barack Obama.
We should do Barack Obama. What how he it's from Hawaiian used to
smoke weed and do go. There's nothing and it's fun, like it's just
a guy that's that's a thing. Like there's a lot of cool people out
there, but it's hard to find. So yeah, Rob has his topic
next week, and yeah, I'll close out. And I think I was
just gonna do slavery j just I think it's about time we read. That's
it for tonight. I'll find something good, Okay, cool for Rob Fox
and danar Jester, I've and Jake Goldman and you just got soft served.
Thanks shouts of Xander Meander, the guy that the soft serves. Oh yeah,
no, Universal Dhi. Thank you.