On June 12, 1970, in San Diego, Dock Ellis tossed the fourth no-hitter in Pittsburgh Pirates history, defeating the Padres, 2-0. He struck out six batters, walked eight, hit another with a pitch, and allowed three stolen bases. Oh, yeah – and he did it all while tripping on LSD.
Today In 1970: Pittsburgh #Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis hurls a no-hitter vs. the San Diego #Padres while tripping on LSD! #MLB #Baseball #History pic.twitter.com/cINmSOI8vd
— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) June 12, 2025
June 12, 1970: Ellis and the LSD No-Hitter
The Pirates had arrived in San Diego the day before. It was an off day for the Pirates. Ellis, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, decided to use the day to visit friends. He figured he’d be back in plenty of time to make his scheduled start in the first game of the doubleheader. He dropped a tab of acid, rented a car, and headed out to the home of a friend’s girlfriend. There, a party ensued with liquor and marijuana. The next day, Ellis awoke from what he believed was a catnap and dropped more acid. Then a friend entered the room with a newspaper sports section. Ellis was scheduled to pitch in four hours. His reaction, as Ellis recalled to the New York Times in 1984: “What happened to yesterday?”
From the mound on that evening, Ellis didn’t always see his catcher, Jerry May. When he did, he rarely hit his target. In the fourth inning, he thought Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire. One time, he thought the batter was Jimi Hendrix, swinging a guitar. Ellis was clearly in a Purple Haze of his own making.
Good Defense Helped Ellis Preserve His No-Hitter
Although Ellis would recall later that the Padres loaded the bases “two or three times” during his no-hitter, no Padre reached third base. The Padres came close to a hit just three times but were robbed by the Pirates’ fielders. Center fielder Matty Alou, who was not known for his defense, ran down Chris Cannizzaro’s line drive in the second inning and charged in to catch Nate Colbert’s line drive at his knees in the eighth. The closest the Padres came to a hit was when pinch-hitter Ramón Webster led off the seventh inning with a line drive headed toward right field. However, second baseman Bill Mazeroski, known for rising to big occasions, dove to his left and made the grab. Lost in the excitement of the no-hitter were Willie Stargell’s two solo home runs, accounting for the game’s only runs.
The previous game’s starter, Bob Moose, was charged with keeping the pitching chart. But he abandoned that task to see the trainer in the second inning. Thus, there’s no exact count of the number of pitches Ellis threw en route to his no-hitter, but it was estimated at 150. (Managers and pitching coaches of today, take note. A man exceeded 100 pitches by about half, and his arm didn’t fall off.)
“The Tanks Were Parked Right Outside Our House”
After the game, there was no indication that Ellis was high on anything or that something was off with him. He spoke intelligently to Bill Christine of The Pittsburgh Press and Charley Feeney of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He told Christine he felt no pressure. He’d lived through the Watts riots in 1965 when his mother was almost shot. “The tanks were parked right outside our house,” he said. “That was pressure.”
Of Webster’s ball, Ellis told Christsine, “When that ball was hit, I wasn’t worried about it being caught. Maz is the master out there.”
“His fastball was sailing tonight, and his breaking ball was real good,” said Padres center fielder Ivan Murrell in the same article. “He might have been throwing harder when we faced him in Pittsburgh [and he beat the Padres with a six-hitter], but he was tougher to follow tonight.”
“I Had a Feeling of Euphoria”
Why Ellis chose to reveal the true story behind his no-hitter to Press reporter Bob Smizik on April 8, 1984, is unknown. It was the same day the Press reported that Pirates pitcher Rod Scurry was seeking treatment for a cocaine addiction. Perhaps Smizik contacted Ellis, then working as a drug counselor, to discuss Scurry’s situation. Instead, Smizik had landed a big scoop. “I can only remember bits and pieces of the game,” he told Smizik. “I had a feeling of euphoria.”
By 1984, trainer Tony Bartirome was the only current member of the Pirates who was with the team when Ellis pitched his no-hitter. He accused Ellis of lying. “That’s crazy,” he told Bruce Keidan of the Post-Gazette. “I wonder what he wants to lie for. I don’t know why he’s saying that, but if he were standing right here, I’d tell him to his face what a liar he was.” Then again, Bartirome, who was born in 1932, apparently knew little about such matters. After all, he never noticed anything was amiss with Scurry.
Keidan gave Mazeroski a call to get his take on the matter. “Maz” was more succinct. He had “no idea” whether Ellis was on drugs that night. “He always seemed weird to me,” he said.
Main Photo Credits: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
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