Baseball great Dock Ellis, over-achieving addict.
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Baseball great Dock Ellis, the former major league pitcher who threw a no-hitter while on LSD and who had no memory of his performance that day in June, 1970, dead from cirrhosis of the liver at age 63. Near the end of compiling a 138-119 career record from 1968 through 1979, mostly with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Ellis began counseling addicts at a prison in Pittsburgh. He began his drinking and using career by the time he was in high school and didn’t get permanently sober until after he retired from the game in 1980. He managed to pitch for the triumphant 1971 World Series team and was named to the All-Star team that year. He was known for his erratic behavior, once showing up in the dugout wearing hair curlers after Ebony magazine published a story on his hairstyles and, in one 1974 game, angry that his Pirates were intimidated by the Cincinnati Reds, hit Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Dan Driessen in succession. After aiming for Johnny Bench’s head twice, he was pulled.
He was also known for his outspoken views against racism in baseball and his fight for players’ rights to free agency. Jackie Robinson commended his honesty, but cautioned he talked too much for the comfort of management. Sometimes, the seemingly reckless behaviors of addicts are necessary to foment needed change.