“It Was Easier to Pitch with the LSD …”
If I’d been around these parts two years ago when Dock Ellis passed, then I would’ve posted this back then. Since I wasn’t, I’m posting it now. And what follows, friends, is baseball greatness captured by cinematic greatness …
Most resonant line: “What happened to yesterday?”
Damn, Dock, what did happen to yesterday? Actually, guys and things like Dock Ellis happened to yesterday, which is partly why everyone loves and is haunted by the yesterday of his or her choosing.
Oh, and the hair-curlers thing you no doubt observed and momentarily cherished is not some sort of directorial flourish …
Bowie Kuhn, who didn’t seem to like anything, predictably didn’t like Ellis’s curlers look, which, it would seem, was just a rolling pin, bathrobe and terry-cloth slippers away from something greater … Anyhow, Kuhn decreed from on well-groomed high that Ellis cut it out and affect a more baseball-y appearance. And then Dock: “They didn’t put out any orders about Joe Pepitone when he wore a hairpiece down to his shoulders.”
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I would easily pay $50 out of my pocket right now to watch that game. There was a petition going around a while back for the MLB to release the video, if they have it. There is some grey area because I guess not all games were even televised/recorded at that point in time? In any case, I’m sure the stuck up, PC suits wouldn’t let it get out even if it did exist.
Such a shame.