Ellis is best-known for several incidents during his career:
Beaning Reggie Jackson
Beaning Reggie Jackson in the face in apparent retaliation for Reggie's monstrous home run off Ellis in the
1971 All-Star Game in
Detroit.
June 12, 1970 no-hitter
No-hitting the
San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970 despite being, as he would claim in
1984, under the influence of
LSD throughout the course of the game. Ellis had been visiting friends in Los Angeles under the impression he had the day off and was still high when his girlfriend told him he had to pitch a game against the Padres that night. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. Ellis claims catcher
Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers which helped Ellis to see his target. Ellis walked eight, struck out six, and was aided by excellent fielding plays by second baseman
Bill Mazeroski and center fielder
Matty Alou.
[2] During the game, Ellis is reported to have commented to his teammates on the bench between innings that he was pitching a no-hitter, despite the superstition that discourages mentioning a no-hitter while it is in progress. Because the no-hitter was the first game of a double header, Ellis was forced to keep track of the pitch count for the night game.
[3]As Ellis recounted it:
"I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher's) glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me."
[4]The incident inspired the song "Dock Ellis" by
indie rock singer Barbara Manning.
May 1, 1974 game against Cincinnati
Attempting to hit every batter in the
Cincinnati Reds lineup on May 1, 1974. In an effort to prove a point to teammates, Ellis hit
Pete Rose,
Joe Morgan, and
Dan Driessen in the top of the first. The clean-up batter
Tony Perez avoided Ellis' attempts, instead drawing a walk, and after two pitches aimed at the head of
Johnny Bench, Ellis was removed from the game by manager
Danny Murtaugh. Ellis' box score for the game reads: 0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.
