"I chewed my gum until it turned to powder."

Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr, was born on March 11th, 1945, towards the end of The Big War in soon-to-be-booming Los Angeles. A young black man with athletic talent, he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and started playing in 1968. Although not a Hall of Fame player, Dock had an incredibly successful career in baseball, lasting twelve seasons, compiling a record of 138 wins vs 119 losses, had 462 more steikeouts than walks, played in an All-Star game, won a World Series in his best year (going 19-9), and even threw a no-hitter.

He was a colorful player who retired in 1979 and died in 2008 while waiting for a liver transplant. After retiring from baseball, Dock worked as a drug counselor to the Los Angeles youth. He is best known for some incidents from his playing career. Like:

In 1972 he was maced by a security guard at Riverfront Stadium (the Pirates home) for "failing to show ID and making a threatening motion with his fist." He claimed he was just showing the guard his World Series champiopnship ring.

In 1974 he had a dispute with some of his teammates, and decided for a game to hit every single batter he faced. They were playing the Reds, so Dock hit Pete Rose to start the game, then he hit Joe Morgan, then he hit Dan Driessen. Now the bases were loaded, and he was just four or five pitches deep. Tony Perez hit cleanup, and managed to duck and dive out of the way, and he drew a walk, sending Pete Rose in to score. Johnny Bench hit next, and after two throws at his head, Dock's own manager came out and yanked him.

Those events might have been "colorful", but he is best known for that June 12, 1970 no-hitter. I've mentioned this gentleman and this no-hitter in the past, but in case it was missed, this was the infamous "LSD no-hitter." Dock wasn't the original starter, but since there was a double-header that day, and the first guy was sick, his leisurely afternoon enjoying the San Diego weather while tripping on acid was interrupted by having to pitch a ball-game.

He walked six guys, hit one, struck out four, but didn't give up a single hit. Quite an achievement. Talk about being able to function well on the spot and under tough conditions...Dock is one of my baseball heroes. Curiosity caused me to check on personalized jerseys, a cool thing fans can purchase...I tried a blank Pirates Jersey with number "17" and "Ellis" and was told that that would be permanently unavailable since there had been a player with that name. Okay...

Here's Dock's own words about the no-hitter in question:

"I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher's) glove, but I didn't hit the glove too 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. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire, and once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me."