happy birthday!

today is my friend elaine's birthday! happy birthday elaine.

it's also the birthday of a one dock ellis.

my baseball-minded readers will know mr. ellis.

for those who don't, dock ellis pitched for a number of teams including the pittsburgh pirates.

in june 1970, dock was under the impression that he wasn't pitching that day. so he dropped acid with his girlfriend. and then discovered he was actually pitching.

imagine your worst moment on acid. i don't have any since i've never taken drugs*, but i know some of you have. now imagine that worst moment AT WORK.

whew. that would truly suck.

here's the crazy part: HE PITCHED A NO-HITTER.

you can read the story here:

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. 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.

*not necessarily true