Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Dock Ellis: Turn on, tune in, drop out



I was over at snopes.com trying to verify a ridiculous email forward that I got sent (fyi: Walmart did sell flip flops that caused terrible skin infections), and randomly came across the story of Dock Ellis, a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates back in the 70's.

If you are not part of the enlightened, here's a rundown of one of the most colourful ball players of all time:

-during pre-game warmups, he'd show up in curlers

-he intentionally hit three consecutive batters at the top of the 1st inning. The fourth batter was able to dodge the plunkers and drew a walk. He then drilled two pitches at Johnny Bench's head before being pulled.

-pitched a no-hitter while tripping on LSD!!

I just checked his career stats, and they are pretty good: 138-119 with an OK 3.46 ERA.

Respectable numbers, for someone that probably won't be remembered for them.

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