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Dock Ellis is a pitcher who isn’t known by many baseball fans, though those who do know him probably know what this story will involve. In 1970, Ellis threw a no-hitter under the most extraordinary circumstances. He no-hit his opposition when he had taken LSD just a few hours before.

It wasn’t until 1984 that Ellis shared his secret with the world, so none of his teammates had even known that he was on LSD during this game. Still, this is something cray that people had a hard time believing after he revealed this.

Why would a pitcher ever take drugs on the day of his start, you ask? Well, it wasn’t as if he purposely did this. He actually mistakenly believed that his next start wasn’t for a few days, so he had taken LSD on his day off, not thinking he would have to pitch until a few days later. When he learned that it was his turn to start, he rushed to the stadium immediately.

As far as the game goes, Ellis really doesn’t remember much of what happened. He says that all of his attention was on his catcher. Ellis was extremely wild during this game. He hit a few of his opponents and walked some batters. Somehow, they couldn’t hit his pitches either.

Teammates had to let him in on the past actions of the hurler. He had a few fielding chances, but jumped out of the way. Sometimes he said the ball looked very small, while other times it was big.

There’s no doubt that LSD is a drug that should never be taken. Ellis’s accomplishment is still extremely weird and intriguing though. No one would ever expect someone to pitch so well under the influence of such a powerful drug.

The feat will always be more infamous than famous, but this is one record that hopefully will never be broken. I’m not sure if anyone could if they tried.

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It’s amazingly been over 90 years since it occurred, but the legendary ‘19 World Series scandal most definitely lives on with baseball historians and any enthusiasts of the game. With much controversy these days about Pete Rose and his possible place in Cooperstown, another figure with parallels to Rose is Shoeless Joe Jackson, who played for the’19 White Sox (also known as the “Black Sox”) for their role in throwing the’19 World Series against the Reds.

Shoeless Joe has some very impressive stats over his- year career. He is known for playing with the White Sox, but played with a total of 3 other teams, having played with ith the Athletics, Naps, and Indians for half a season. He posted very good standard stats that should alone be hall of fame worthy.

Some of Jackson’s career numbers include 1,772 hits, 54 home runs, 785 RBI, and a career batting average of .356. Jackson lacked in the power department, but his averages were clearly impressive.

The power is low, but this came in an era with much deeper home run fences, and just before Babe Ruth made his impact as the first major power hitter in baseball, revolutionizing the game. Players hit for average, with an emphasis on extra base hits (Jackson averaged- triples per season). A closer look at Jackson’s stats show some very impressive attributes.

9.4 walks percentage, 4.2 strikeout percentage, .423 on base percentage. 517 slugging percentage, and a .940 OPS. These are great numbers and H.O.F. numbers in fact.

Now let’s get into the Black Sox scandal of’19. The White Sox faced the Reds in the World Series. The White Sox lost the series and Joe Jackson, and eight other players were accused of throwing the series. But Shoeless Joe stats show he did not play poorly. Do you think a .375 average and 12 hits (a world series record) is throwing the series? His fielding percentage in the series was 1.000, having made no errors.

Some have pointed out an abnormally high number of triples the Reds hit to left field (where Jackson played), but research shows this to be inaccurate, as the Reds hit no triples to left field that series. Contradicting his numbers is the fact that Jackson did accept a $5,000 check. It would seem that Jackson reluctantly accepted the money with his teammates, but most likely didn’t want to actually throw the series.

This begs the question: does Shoeless Joe belong in the hall?

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You have to love what’s happening in Major League Baseball this year. Many were expecting a lackluster season in the face of more steroids allegations and other info that marred the integrity of the sport, but things are really looking like they did decades ago. Teams that we never thought had a shot at going anywhere somehow look good.

Nearly every divisional race, even though there’s plenty of season left, is surprisingly close. In fact, all but one division has a situation where the second place team is two games or less behind the leader.

To make things even more interesting, there are plenty of third place teams vying for their pieces of the action as well. Let’s take a look at a few of the more interesting divisional situations in the league.

One of the best examples of this is in the National League, and most notably the East. The Mets, Phillies, Braves, Marlins, and Nationals all have a shot at winning this division and even the last place team is just a few games out of first.

It seemed like just week that the Marlins were at the top of the division, and it nearly was. A mini losing streak somehow shifted them into last, while the Mets climbed out of the cellar and near first place with a small winning stream.

Who would have expected the Nationals to be this good? Granted, they’re not great, but they’re playing near .500 ball and you can be certain that the arrival of Stephen Strasburg will fire this team up some more and breathe some new life into the pitching staff. What a debut he had!

There are so many similar races going on around the league that it would take too long to recap them all. However, one more surprisingly nice story line is going on in San Diego, where some of the best pitching in baseball is unexpectedly taking place. The team may just have what it takes to make the playoffs and an exciting pennant race should take us through the end of the season as they go up against Colorado, LA, and San Francisco.

At the end of the day, there are now a handful of new teams that we never thought we’d be taking seriously. That’s what baseball is all about.

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