Saturday, December 20, 2008
Dock Ellis
Have to mention the death of pitcher Dock Ellis, one of the great personalities in baseball during the 70's, an era packed with personality. Dock is remembered in New York for coming to the Yanks in a 1976 trade that included Willie Randolph, winning 17 games, a year the Yanks at last returned to the World Series.
Among his notable moments: While in the minor leagues in 1964, he went into the stands & swung a bat at a racist heckler. He gave up a home run to Reggie Jackson in the '71 All Star Game & later beaned Reggie in the face. A bad vibe incident for which we must forgive Dock. In 1974 he tried to hit every player in the Cincinnati lineup, nailing Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, & Dan Driessen & throwing at Tony Perez & Johnny Bench before he was pulled with nobody out in the first inning. Only Reds fans took offense. He hooked up with future U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall on a biography, Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball. There's always been a Bardic Cult of Baseball among American poets, & Dock was one of the few major league players to even know it exists. (Marianne Moore was the original priestess. I studied with a devoted cultist but am not myself an initiate.)
Dock's most notorious moment occurred on June 12, 1970 when he pitched a no-hitter for Pittsburgh against the San Diego Padres while still high on LSD. The story is too bizarre to be fiction. He wasn't even aware he was scheduled to pitch until game day, & had to fly from L.A. to San Diego. It was a sloppy no hitter as those things go, but that doesn't matter, the gem always glistens. Ellis broke one of baseball's most strict taboos by acknowledging it in the dugout during the game. He claimed he couldn't feel the ball or see the batter or catcher clearly, & aimed at reflective tape on the catcher's glove. He later said he was high on coke or booze whenever he pitched, & Dock's career stats are no advertisement for chemical enhancement.
Yet, Ellis was a considered a "stand up guy," charitable, outspoken against racism at a time when white America wanted blacks to pretend it wasn't a problem anymore (it's always that way, isn't it?). So some in the old school sportswriter fraternity made him the Bad Negro, along with Dick Allen & Curt Flood, Ellis later devoted himself to counseling ballplayers against alcohol & drug abuse.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Among his notable moments: While in the minor leagues in 1964, he went into the stands & swung a bat at a racist heckler. He gave up a home run to Reggie Jackson in the '71 All Star Game & later beaned Reggie in the face. A bad vibe incident for which we must forgive Dock. In 1974 he tried to hit every player in the Cincinnati lineup, nailing Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, & Dan Driessen & throwing at Tony Perez & Johnny Bench before he was pulled with nobody out in the first inning. Only Reds fans took offense. He hooked up with future U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall on a biography, Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball. There's always been a Bardic Cult of Baseball among American poets, & Dock was one of the few major league players to even know it exists. (Marianne Moore was the original priestess. I studied with a devoted cultist but am not myself an initiate.)
Dock's most notorious moment occurred on June 12, 1970 when he pitched a no-hitter for Pittsburgh against the San Diego Padres while still high on LSD. The story is too bizarre to be fiction. He wasn't even aware he was scheduled to pitch until game day, & had to fly from L.A. to San Diego. It was a sloppy no hitter as those things go, but that doesn't matter, the gem always glistens. Ellis broke one of baseball's most strict taboos by acknowledging it in the dugout during the game. He claimed he couldn't feel the ball or see the batter or catcher clearly, & aimed at reflective tape on the catcher's glove. He later said he was high on coke or booze whenever he pitched, & Dock's career stats are no advertisement for chemical enhancement.
Yet, Ellis was a considered a "stand up guy," charitable, outspoken against racism at a time when white America wanted blacks to pretend it wasn't a problem anymore (it's always that way, isn't it?). So some in the old school sportswriter fraternity made him the Bad Negro, along with Dick Allen & Curt Flood, Ellis later devoted himself to counseling ballplayers against alcohol & drug abuse.
Labels: baseball, obituary, sports
