"No No: A Dockumentary" about pitcher Dock Ellison is now available on Netflix streaming

[FSogol]

https://vimeo.com/104550737

For those unaware of Dock Ellis, he was a top pitcher in baseball (Pittsburgh 1968-1975 before bouncing around the league until 1979) in spite of and perhaps because of his heavy drinking and abuse of LSD and amphetamines. He was extremely outspoken and advocated for the rights of players and African Americans.

[malthaussen]

1. I quote him every year on "Talk Like a Pirate Day"

"We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I'm gonna hit these motherfuckers." (Dock before a Reds game in 1974)

-- Mal

[FSogol]

2. In that game he was mad because the Reds whould shake your hand, beat you in the game, & then talk

shit about you.

From Donald Hall and Dock's book:

“Cincinnati will bullshit with us and kick our ass and laugh at us. They’re the only team that talk about us like a dog. Whenever we play that team, everybody socializes with them.” In the past the roles had been reversed. “When they ran over to us, we knew they were afraid of us. When I saw our team doing it, right then I say, `We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I’m going to hit these motherfuckers.’ ”

“The first pitch to Pete Rose was directly toward his head,” as Dock expresses it, “not actually to hit him, ” but as “the message, to let him know that he was going to get hit. More or less to press his lips. I knew if I could get close to the head that I could get them in the body. Because they’re looking to protect their head, they’ll give me the body.” The next pitch was behind him. “The next one, I hit him in the side.” Pete Rose’s response was even more devastating than Dock had anticipated. He smiled. Then he picked the ball up, where it had fallen beside him, and gently, underhanded, tossed it back to Dock. Then he lit for first as if trying out for the Olympics. As Dock says, with huge approval, “You have to be good, to be a hot dog.”
As Rose bent down to pick up the ball, he had exchanged a word with Joe Morgan who was batting next. […] Morgan taunted Rose, “He doesn’t like you anyway. You’re a white guy.” Dock hit Morgan in the kidneys with his first pitch. “The next batter was Driessen. I threw a ball to him. High and inside. The next one, I hit him in the back.” […] Bases loaded, no outs. Tony Perez, Cincinnati first baseman, came to bat. He did not dig in. “There was no way I could hit him. He was running. The first one I threw behind him, over his head, up against the screen, but it came back off the glass, and they didn’t advance. I threw behind him because he was backing up, but then he stepped in front of the ball. The next three pitches, he was running. . . . I walked him.” A run came in. “The next hitter was Johnny Bench. I tried to deck him twice. I threw at his jaw, and he moved. I threw at the back of his head, and he moved.”

Which lead to:

Danny Murtaugh (Pirate's manager) came to the mound. “Dock it looks like you don’t have your good stuff tonight,” Danny said. I wanted to laugh. It took everything I had in me to suppress it. I’m sure Danny knew what was going on with Dock that night; he was no dummy. Knowing Murtaugh, he probably liked it, but he had to come out to the mound. Sanguillen, Murtaugh, Ellis, Oliver on the mound.

The Reds said something in the paper, and Dock told me, “I’m going to knock everybody down.” I just sat there and he threw the ball. He said, “No matter what you do, I’m going to throw the ball at them. No matter what you say, I’m going to throw at them.” Dock didn’t care. When Danny came to the mound he asked, “Dock, what happened?” Dock told him, “Nothing’s wrong chief,” and Murtaugh asked him for the ball. Danny liked these kind of players. Fighters. You want to be on a club that’s strong. That has respect.

[malthaussen]

3. Yep, that's the game.

Back when the Reds and Pirates were reliably competitive, there was no love lost between them.

The fun part is, the Reds only scored the one run in the first inning -- it finished with a pop up to Hebner and then a 5-2-3 double play. Unfortunately, the Bucs did lose, but Ellis or Murtaugh or somebody energized them, and they did go on to win the East. Too bad LA won the LCS.

-- Mal

[teach1st]

4. What an inspiring documentary!

As a sixties and seventies (and, come to think of it, even into the eighties) experimenter, and as someone who loves baseball, especially during the years of my experimentation, this extraordinary documentary hit home. Thanks for posting!

RIP, Dock. You changed people.