Recreating the Dock Ellis "tripping balls" no-hitter on XBox on LSD

Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio attempted to re-create Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis' infamous no-hitter of June 12, 1970 against the San Diego Padres, pitched while tripping on acid. Daulerio did so by dropping LSD, and re-enacting the game on the Xbox version of MLB2K11. The resulting post is a great read.

Only once did I feel a brief flicker of hallucinatory terror. We were in a pizza parlor, in the friendly Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, and I was having difficulty deciding which slice to purchase because even though my stomach said "plain slice" my mind begged for "chicken jalapeño with shredded garlic knots," which wasn't even available but, dammit, it should have been that day. It didn't feel like an unreasonable amount of time had passed. Then a slice of white pie was whooshed out of the giant oven by the pizzaman, and the gurgling cheese appeared angry with me. Maybe I was holding up the line. I ducked behind the soda fountain to refocus my fritzy thoughts for a couple extra minutes until that ricotta stopped messing with me. I ordered two plain slices quickly, then added on a slice of white because I felt the need to assert myself. Hey, white pizza. I eat you. You don't eat me.

Video, NYO story, Deadspin post, and historical background.

• [sauce]

  Cant remember if this was posted here before, but it is a great short film animating Doc Ellis’ narration of what happened on that great day.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vUhSYLRw14

  • [Blaine]

    Is that the one where he’s talking about hanging out with “a cat named Al Rambo”? Because for the past 10 years everytime someone mentions Doc Ellis, I immediately think of him sitting on a couch with a tabby wearing a belt of bullets around its chest.

• [hassenpfeffer]

  Heh. Bob Smizik is still a sports reporter for the Post-Gazette, which absorbed the Pittsburgh Press after a strike/shutdown kinda thing.

  Perhaps the current Pirates roster is tripping on acid, given that the team is above .500 for the first time since, oh, the Reagan Administration or so.

• [emmdeeaych]

  Aim high folks.

  • [DaveP]

    s/Aim/Am/

• [irksome]

  In an interview, he talked about only being able to see the catcher’s mitt and knowing that’s where the ball is supposed to BE. As an ex-’70s acidhead, I consider this the greatest achievement in professional sport.

  As to some hipster on acid with an X-Box, I say “meh”.

• [drkptt]

  The feat inspired songs by both Chuck Brodsky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg9DXRP4Ywo and Todd Snider http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG2SPjcKM4M

  Chuck’s take seems to be coming from a baseball fan; Todd’s from an fan of acid.

• [MacBookHeir]

  I’d never heard this Dock Ellis story. Is it true? I mean, I’ve never, ever come across it before until now. Maybe I was out of the country. Did he really take acid? And play baseball? What a trip!

  • [Mujokan]

    Check out the YouTube link above (I would’ve posted it if sauce didnt’!)

  • [Modano]

    It is true! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_Ellis#June_12.2C_1970_no-hitter
    Not to be too harsh but it sort of amazes me that someone with internet access would type out a long question like that, when you could find out that info for yourself with even less typing.

• [jeligula]

  Am I misremembering or was not LSD criminalized in October of 1968? Not that that means very much, as I once had an existential crisis with a 7-11 chicken sandwich in Eugene, OR. The ecclesiastical claims the chicken sandwich was making weren’t that hard to deal with, but the tile on the floor kept moving me away from the heat cabinet. I grabbed the sandwich and just barely remembered to pay for it before continuing the conversation in the van, but it had nothing to say at that point. So I ate it. Damned thing had the nerve to taste like chocolate cake, stupid sandwich.

  • [hassenpfeffer]

    Yes, it probably was, but aren’t anabolic steroids currently banned? Taken a look at the number of athletes on trial for doping right now?

  • [dculberson]

    Three dozen thumbs up, would trip again.

• [Anonymous]

  Alternate title: What not to do for your first LSD experience. :)

• [Anonymous]

  The NYO story is painfully grayfaced.