Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball

photographer unknown

Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball

Dock Ellis (1945-2008)

Colorful ex-Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis dies at 63

Ellis, D. - The Dock Ellis Experience

thanks to Molly Lambert

Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on acid (redux)

In memory of Dock, I re-present:

Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on acid













Image: The Baseball Reliquary

On June 12, 1970, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis took the mound against the San Diego Padres and threw a no-hitter.

For those of you not hip to baseball, a no-hitter is a relatively rare event; in the days of performance enhancing drugs and pitch counts, even more so.

What most people didn't realize was that on that night in 1970, Dock Ellis was tripping his balls off.

He didn't admit to it publicly until the 1980s. I recall reading the story; it was just a blurb, actually. After that, I never heard too much about it.

Dock Ellis is a somewhat forgotten American character.

I remember being at a game in Three Rivers Stadium, back in the early '70s, and he was sent in to pinch-run. He wasn't wearing a hat and he had curlers on. He was also wearing a Steelers jacket. The ump told him to take it off, so he did. He didn't have anything on underneath. The crowd roared.

About that night in 1970:

"I didn't pay no attention to the score, you know. I'm trying to get the batters out. And I'm throwin' a crazy game. I'm hittin' people, walkin' people, throwin' balls in the dirt. They going everywhere!

"It was easier to pitch with the LSD because I was so used to medicating myself. That's the way I was dealing with the fear of failure, the fear of losing, the fear of winning."

He remembers the experience:

Dock Ellis retired from baseball in 1979. According to his agent, he spent his last years working for the California Department of Corrections to guide released inmates’ transition back into community life, along with helping administer a Los Angeles drug counseling center.

stray bullets

Pentagon plans ‘spaceplane’ to reach hotspots fast The American military is planning a “spaceplane” designed to fly a crack squad of heavily armed marines to trouble spots anywhere in the world within four hours.

The History of the India-China Border There is no territorial dispute which has been, and still is, more susceptible to a solution than India’s boundary dispute with China. Each side has its non-negotiable vital interest securely under its control. India has the McMahon Line; China has Aksai Chin. Only a political approach, climaxed by a decision at the highest level, can settle the matter. In a couple of months it will be half a century since the issues were joined. (via)

Debt Collection, Outsourced to India With her flowing, hot-pink Indian suit, jangly silver bangles and perky voice, Bhumika Chaturvedi, 24, doesn't fit the stereotype of a thuggish, heard-it-all-before debt collector. But lately, she has had no problem making American debtors cry. (via)

Biology in Science Fiction: Big Giant Heads Before transhumanism became all the fashion, science fictional depictions of far future often gave our human descendants fantastic mental powers along with giant brains. But there is a serious problem with that idea: human brain size at birth is limited by the size of the opening in the pelvis, and those far future women never seem to have extra-wide hips to go along with their giant heads. (excellent post)

also:
Stone Age man took drugs, say scientists
NASA sends probe to study edge of solar system
Books: Umberto Eco - Turning Back the Clock
Britain to get first glance at author Burroughs' paintings
Showcasing 'Hidden Treasures' from Afghanistan
Eight Reasons Why You Can't Pay Attention (via)
How to Stay Awake at Work (via)
In the computer age, handwriting is a lost art
20 Places Where Bookworms Go to Read and Socialize Online (via)
Idea Generation (visual arts) (via)
Complete Spy Cam Smaller Than an Eyeball
Open Yale Courses: Introduction to Ancient Greek History with Professor Donald Kagan (via)
Photo Gallery: Hackers delight - A history of MIT pranks (via)
List of common misconceptions (via)

viddy:
17 months and 14'000 km away from technology Swiss adventurer Sarah Marquis, who travels by foot around Europe, Australia and America, explains what happen when you reconnect with nature and try to be autonomous, finding water, getting some electrical energy, collecting food were some of the topics discussed during her presentation.
Ivo Niehe Meets Frank Zappa (’91) (narration in Dutch, interview in English)
Presenting the instrument of the moment (beautiful music on the kora)
Brainwave Synthesis With Percussa AudioCubes
D.W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln
Insane Train Stunt (completely nuts)
Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" (montage)
Order of the Knights of Malta
Boring Books
The Ruts - Babylon's Burning
Run DMC on Reading Rainbow (via)
Do the Hustle

stray bullets

Mayfair, and the Deaths of Harry Nilsson, Mama Cass and Keith Moon
How to Embalm a Body (via)
Middle Eastern Contemporary Artists Booming
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Systems (via)
The Felt Toothbrush
Recommended piano books
Iain Banks talks to Writing Magazine

viddy:
This American Life - Judgement to the Wife (funny)
Zumba Cinco - Moça do Biquini Azul
São Paulo in 1943
Aldous Huxley's Deathbed (as related by his wife) (via)

stray bullets

Zodiac Killer's Identity And Weapon Uncovered? "The identity of the Zodiac Killer is Jack Tarrance. He's my stepfather," says Dennis Kaufman. (via)

'Space Cube' could be world's smallest PC Measuring just 2 inches by 2 inches, the Space Cube is roughly the size of a large die. However, the cube is actually a tiny PC, developed by the Shimafuji Corporation in Japan.

Computer meltdowns in space: a short history New Scientist highlights a few of the more prominent – and messy – failures of the past.

also:
The World's Richest Dropouts
oddmusic links
Where to Find Great Dinosaur Pictures
A photo story of the first pig to fly (I have no idea what the backstory for this is. Anyone?) (via)

viddy:
Richard Alpert on LSD (on as about, not on as in under the influence)
Non-circular Gears & Uncommon Planetary Gears
Los Po-boy-citos "Entierro" (from my homies back in The Big Easy, y'all take care, now)

If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world. -- Ray Bradbury (via)

stray bullets

Why I'm an illegal downloader My appetite for the more recherché stuff that cinema and DVD distributors ignore has turned me, regretfully, into an outlaw Interesting rationale, but I wouldn't worry too much, they tend to go after people that go for the high profile, mainstream stuff. If you have ever downloaded and used Peer Guardian, you'll certainly know what I'm talking about. (via)

IBM software acts as human memory backup Ever try to remember who you bumped into at the store a few days back? Or exactly what the company president said at the morning meeting? Well, you're not alone. And IBM researchers are working on software that just may help you better recollect all the forgotten pieces of your life. I've always felt that someone would come up with a pair of glasses that would prompt you on the details of the situation around you, help you remember your To Do List or remember birthdays and the names of a customer's kids, but having this ability on your phone or computer is more practical. Think of all the times you would have liked to dial up a conversation when there was a dispute over what was said. This new technology will change the way we live in a measurable way.

Unknown Beatles tape could go for £12,000 A Unique recording made by The Beatles in the 1960s has been unearthed in the attic of a house in Liverpool. (via)

also:
The Awful Truth: Cary Grant on LSD! (not really news, but for those of you who missed it....)
10 SKills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything (sometimes it feels like our lives are being "hacked" to bits, but I thought this was a good one) (via)
10 Shark-Infested Beaches (via)

viddy:
South Park Imaginationland: The Movie free uncensored directors' cut (via)
An anthropological introduction to YouTube Excellent, entertaining and edifying. (via)

Bloop: The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration several times during the summer of 1997. The source of the sound remains unknown. Because the Bloop noise originated near the location of the fictional sunken city of R'lyeh from H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Call of Cthulhu", the Bloop has been linked to Cthulhu by Lovecraft fans. (via)

stray bullets

The Truman Show Delusion Joel and Ian Gold, brothers and psychiatrists from Montreal, believe they have discovered a signature mental illness of the YouTube era: patients who claim they are subjects of their own reality TV shows. Can't lay claim to that one. (via)

Nixon's Presidential Daily Diary You'll get the idea after the first couple of pages. (via)

25 things you might not know about Tom Waits 6. He keeps a notebook full of interesting facts, including gems such as the fact that the average cockroach can live up to two weeks after decapitation. (via)

The following is a list of over 3600 titles recorded from my collection of 78 rpm records (via)

NOAA Photo Library (ht)

viddy:
The Mike Wallace Interview - Aldous Huxley (via)
Ray Bradbury Speaks at Writer's Symposium
Bill Hicks's Last Interview (via)
Early 60s Sci-Fi 'Shroom Self-Experimentation
Pablo Valbuena Installation At Sonar 2008 (via)
Pretoria Techno: DJ Mujava - Township Funk

Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD?

Discover:

At a handful of sites across the country, after a four-decade hiatus, psychedelic research is undergoing a quiet renaissance, thanks to scientists like Charles Grob who are revisiting the powerful mind-altering drugs of the 1960s in hopes of making them part of our therapeutic arsenal. Hallucinogens such as psilocybin, MDMA (better known as Ecstasy), and the most controversial of them all, LSD, are being tested as treatments for maladies that modern medicine has done little to assuage, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, drug dependency, obsessive-compulsive disorder, cluster headaches, and the emotional suffering of people with a terminal illness.

Looks like they're dusting off the psychedelics again, and to good effect it would seem. By the early 1960's there were over a thousand studies of these substances, the vast majority showing promise for individuals with all sorts of psychological problems. Then some guy thought he was a bird and jumped off a building, the Manson family came along, (trivia: Sharon Tate and co. took LSD shortly before they were murdered by the Manson family.) the shriekage began in earnest and serious study of these substances was largely shelved. By the 1980's the followers of the Grateful Dead and Alexander Shulgin were some of the only people keeping psychedelic culture alive. Now after forty years of relatively widespread amateur research, the sci and psy folks are back in the game.

A couple things to note when reading this, especially those of you unfamiliar with psychedelics: First, although many of these substances discussed in this article are chemical cousins, their experience signatures are decidedly unique. Secondly, back in the day, the researchers usually experimented on themselves first. I'm not so sure they do this, or admit to it, these days. Rick Strassman, a University of New Mexico researcher who conducted groundbreaking studies of DMT, claims to have never taken it himself.

Below is an clip from the film Hofmann's Potion featuring the research conducted by Humphry Osmond, (who coined the term "psychedelic") Abram Hoffer and Duncan Blewett in Saskatchewan during the 1950s. These guys experimented on themselves. With a lot of substances.



YouTube

Albert Hofmann 1906-2008

Farewell, Uncle Albert.

Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on acid

Image: The Baseball Reliquary

On June 12, 1970, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis took the mound against the San Diego Padres and threw a no-hitter.

For those of you not hip to baseball, a no-hitter is a relatively rare event; in the days of performance enhancing drugs and pitch counts, even more so.

What most people didn't realize was that on that night in 1970, Dock Ellis was tripping his balls off.

He didn't admit to it publicly until the 1980s. I recall reading the story; it was just a blurb, actually. After that, I never heard too much about it.

Dock Ellis is a somewhat forgotten American character.

I remember being at a game in Three Rivers Stadium, back in the early '70s, and he was sent in to pinch-run. He wasn't wearing a hat and he had curlers on. He was also wearing a Steelers jacket. The ump told him to take it off, so he did. He didn't have anything on underneath. The crowd roared.

About that night in 1970:

"I didn't pay no attention to the score, you know. I'm trying to get the batters out. And I'm throwin' a crazy game. I'm hittin' people, walkin' people, throwin' balls in the dirt. They going everywhere!

"It was easier to pitch with the LSD because I was so used to medicating myself. That's the way I was dealing with the fear of failure, the fear of losing, the fear of winning."

He remembers the experience:

Thanks, Crow!

Terence McKenna: The Purpose of Psychedelics (vid)

An important message for psychonauts. However, if you unplug the psychedelics, the message is equally relevant for all seekers, explorers and idea miners.

The Great American Psychonaut

SciAm ran a short bit on Alexander Shulgin, the 'designer' in designer drugs and psychonaut extraordinaire. His best known creation and problem child is MDMA, aka: ecstasy.

Someday somebody will catch up with this guy.

Back in 1988 I had the opportunity to try 2C-B, provided by the man himself. It was a singular experience, all that it's cracked up to be and a bag of chips, with a pickle under the waxpaper.