"Pitching a No-Hitter on LSD" [by Walter Carey]

It may be the accomplishment of which he was proudest.

He had pitched a no-hitter on LSD.

Not even his teammates knew.

On June 12, 1970, Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates

no-hit the Padres in San Diego

on the best acid trip of the several he had taken.

He had to keep it secret, although he confided the secret

to Donald Hall, the American poet, for a biography he wrote

and published in 1976. But they had to take it out of the manuscript because

Ellis was signed by the Yankees, whose owner,

the imperious George Steinbrenner, had little patience 

for this sort of thing. But word leaked out, "trickling quietly

into the zeitgeist of a pre-internet world," as The Guardian put it 

on the fiftieth anniversary of the feat. O journalism!

How great is thy tribute to the anniversaries of the world!

Comments

[Dave Read]

As someone who has tripped, and who has talked about tripping with Donald Hall, a man who let a therapist talk him out of tripping, what is your purpose here, beyond an attempt to catch a "contact high" by way of literary parasitism - by talking about an athlete who was more than a jock?

The point to be drawn from this episode is that Dock Ellis had more intellectual self-confidence and/or curiosity than his biographer did.

[Molly Arden]

The exclamatory ending of this poem is very nice.

[Ralph Nightingale]

"Literary parasitism": isn't that what they said about "The Waste Land"?

[Dave Read]

I never heard anybody talk about it; I dug parts of "...Prufrock," but generally prefer poetry by Americans unswayed by stuff out of England/Europe. I'm with Dr. Williams, whose book "Spring and All" is the literary equivalent of Thomas Paine's pamphlet, "Common Sense." Point out any troublesome aspect of public life and I'll smear my British litmus test swab against it, then propose a solution!

[vincent katz]

I've always loved this story, and in fact it makes total sense to me. I've had certain experiences in which I felt totally "in the zone". It's almost incredible that a pro athlete tripped at all, on or off the field. I think this poem could be even longer, maybe try to re-create the day. This feels like the first rush!

[David Lehman]

I agree with Vincent.