When Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter on LSD: “I’m as high as a Georgia pine"

World Series champion Dock Ellis was a star MLB player of his time but unfortunately had a substance abuse issue. The former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher also once admitted that he never pitched without taking drugs.

Ellis once threw a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres while under the influence of LSD. As reported by the Guardian in 2020, Ellis once said:

“I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire. And once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate.”

Once in his hometown of LA, Ellis said to one of his friends:

“I’m as high as a Georgia pine."

Ellis claimed to have played every game of his career while impaired, whether it was booze or the stimulants Benzedrine and Dexamyl (these were smoked at big league clubs throughout the 1970s). But he kept the LSD secret a secret for many years. He first revealed it in a rough draft of a 1976 biography he co-wrote with friend Donald Hall.

Dock Ellis had a substance abuse problem

Although he had a substance abuse problem, Dock Ellis won the World Series championship in 1971.

He also played for the New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, and the New York Yankees. Ellis amassed a 138-119 (.537) record, a 3.46 earned run average, and 1,136 strikeouts during the course of his MLB career.

After his retirement, he admitted that he had a problem with substance misuse and had never pitched without using narcotics.

After entering treatment, Dock Ellis stayed clean and committed the rest of his life to helping others with substance use disorders in hospitals and jails. In 2008, at the age of 63, he passed away from a liver condition.

Ellis drank on the day of his no-hitter and added information about LSD's use in the 1989 revision.

The psychedelic pop song "Dock Ellis" (by Barbara Manning) and the folk tune "America's Favorite Pastime" (from Todd Snider's 2009 album "The Excitement Plan") both paid homage to Ellis and his no-hitter.

"Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No" (a 2009 animated short film by James Blagden about the game) incorporates narration into Ellis' own voice, derived from a 2008 NPR interview. The documentary about Ellis' life includes a scene from the no-hitter.