The Dock

Dock Ellis (that was his real first name), former pitcher for Pitttsburgh Pirates, has died. Dock Ellis was the pitcher at the first baseball game I ever attended when I was 9. A masterful effort which truly got me hooked on baseball (it helped that the Pirates won the World Series that year). As the first link details, Dock was hooked on other things during his best years making the claim that he pitched a 1970 no-hitter while high on LSD.

I recall him not only as a good pitcher but as a brash "black power" type figure who pissed off as many fans as he excited (Rep Murtha's and Ed Rendell's comments about Western Pennsylvania this year rang true to me as I recalled family picnics where Dock was discussed). He was one of my favourites even during the time I think in the mid 70s on when, during a Sunday afternoon game at Wrigley(?), he came on to field in curlers to much hooting and catcalling. (He wasn't pitching that day). I recall the Pirates lost badly and were in a slump and Ellis's curler picture was front and center on the sports age as being somehow representative of what was wrong with the team.

I met Dock during the 1985 Baseball Cocaine trials in Pittsburgh (well, shook his hand and said hi) when I was law student working as a volunteer clerk with a federal judge (I was the real clerk's unpaid intern). He was watching the trial and commenting to local media. Apparently he went on to do some good things in the treatment area.

They say deaths come in threes (which is untrue as they tend to come in ones) but there is a common thread to this week's announcements of the deaths of Dock Ellis, 'Deep Throat' Mark Felt and Majel Barrett. I would have seen Star Trek for the first time in the early 70s and they all evoked memories of that period to me.