NO NO: A DOCKUMENTARY (Radice, 2014)
Theatrical Release
Review by Christopher S. Long
(Today marks the 50th anniversary of one of baseball's most-celebrated no-hitters. Why does anyone still care about an early-June game between the Pirates and the woeful Padres? Read on and find out.)
Dock Ellis won 138 games in the major
leagues, started an all-star game, and earned a World Series ring.
But Dock Ellis will forever be known for pitching a no-hitter while
(allegedly) tripping on LSD. As Ellis told and re-told the much-loved
story, he couldn't even see the batters and just pitched to the
reflective tape catcher Jerry May wore on his fingers. “High as a
Georgia pine,” he walked eight and hit a batter. Trust Dock Ellis to
pitch a no-hitter in his own style.
While “No No: A Dockumentary”
(2014) shows us there is much more to Dock Ellis than just his June
12, 1970 gem against the Padres (yes, no-hitters pitched against the
Padres still count officially) it still takes this cherished legend
as its primary inspiration. It was neither the first nor the last
time Dock (his given name, by the way) took the mound while under the
influence of illegal substances.
Ellis's career (1968-1979) was a
constant binge of LSD, vodka, and especially greenies, the
amphetamines in widespread use in major-league baseball during the
'60s and '70s. Ellis claims he would grab a fistful of pills from a
bowl in the clubhouse, toss them in the air and take the ones that
landed standing up... and then take the rest as needed. He enjoyed
the night life too and was fortunate to find the perfect home with
the party-animal Pirates headlined by Willie Stargell and Ellis's
roommate and mentor Roberto Clemente. Fans of the team will enjoy the
numerous interviews with Bucco stalwarts like Al Oliver (one of
Dock's closest friends), Manny Sanguillen, Bruce Kison, and others.
First-time feature documentary director
Jeff Radice plays the drug angle for the combination of awe and
stoner humor that has usually accompanied the legend of Dock Ellis,
but it's only fun and games until somebody gets hurt. The laughs stop
quickly when we learn that Ellis choked his first wife Paula (she ditched him immediately) and later threatened to shoot his
second wife, Austine, during a night-long ordeal as he raged after
being released by the Pirates. According to the movie, Ellis took the
second incident as a wake-up call, checked himself into rehab, and
embarked on an unlikely post-playing career as an advocate for
substance abuse treatment for professional athletes and a drug
counselor in prisons.
Whether you buy the final act
redemption story as neatly as presented here or not, Ellis emerges from
the movie as a complex and thoughtful character. He loved to say and
do outrageous things, but seldom did so without a calculated purpose.
If there's a common thread to the controversies this self-described
“angry black man” generated on a regular basis (I'll leave you to
discover them in the movie in case you don't already know) it's that
he didn't want anybody telling him what to do; not fans, not the
press, and certainly not his employers. Ellis's defiant message to
his teams was to watch how he played on the field and not to worry
about anything else.
The documentary also suggests a
sensitive, almost artistic side to Ellis. One of the stranger aspects
about one of baseball's strangest careers is that Dock's biography
would be written by future poet laureate Donald Hall who spotted
something unique in the outspoken pitcher. He wasn't the only one.
Jackie Robinson was inspired to write Ellis an appreciative letter in
which he cheered him for standing up for his values. Dock tries to
read the text of the letter, but can't make it to the end as he
breaks up in tears.
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