No No: A Dockumentary Page #2

---

curlers on the field,

i was defying the club because

they said I couldn't wear

the curlers because it wasn't

part of the uniform code.

That's not acceptable.

That's not the image that

major league baseball

that's not the image that

major league baseball

wants to portray.

Dock:
I was anti-management

because I didn't

believe in anyone trying to tell

me how to dress, who to date.

I remember one time I had my

hair braided and they wanted

to know what is that about.

Don't ask me about my

hair being braided.

Get out of my face.

When he decided to wear curlers,

they suspended him for 10 days,

but we resisted the suspension,

and it went away.

Dock:
You know, it's not that

you got to watch how I dress.

Dock:
You know, it's not that

you got to watch how I dress.

You got to watch how I play.

Baseball in that decade really

collided with pop culture

in a way that it never

had previously.

We saw players expressing

themselves in ways that,

you know, the media and baseball

fans weren't really

used to seeing.

He had a certain style on

the field and off the field.

Dock:
Superfly.

(Groovy music)

(Groovy music)

Dock was a... he was

a dresser, man.

I mean, the big Cadillac.

He was flashy.

(Groovy music)

We were a team that was

dressed to kill.

We loved clothes.

And dock would wear

the loud colors.

Dock:
I wasn't like

Dennis rodman.

I didn't wear any dresses or

nothing, but I wore the clogs,

the bell-bottoms, the bags,

the t-shirts.

The bell-bottoms, the bags,

the t-shirts.

Dock's the first ballplayer

that I ever remember

who wore a earring.

Steve blass:
Dock was

up-to-date.

He was up-to-date.

He was a chapter ahead.

Whatever was going on

in culture or our world,

he was at least a chapter ahead.

He called himself the

'muhammad Ali of baseball'.

I asked him... I said,

"why you act so crazy?"

I asked him... I said,

"why you act so crazy?"

He says, "'cause that'll

make me money."

He learned it from...

He said he...

Because him and muhammad Ali

became friends.

And he said he'd always talk.

And the more he talked and he

bragged about himself,

the more people came to see him,

and the more money he made.

Right, I would agree.

He was always called

'peanut.'

okay? Because of his head.

But they changed it

because he was..

He nutted up on you in a minute.

And they just started

calling him 'the nut.'

because, in other words,

he was crazy.

Because, in other words,

he was crazy.

He was a controlled crazy.

He knew how to be crazy.

Marsha:
Right, yeah.

Paula:
He knew when to be crazy.

Yeah.

Selective crazy.

And when not to be crazy.

He would have a catchphrase

like 'the nut.

Nuttier than a walnut.'

'the crazy nut.'

'nutty nut.'

he intentionally would stir

your sh*t up, and get,

get in your head to where you'd

just get so pissed off

at him, you'd just want to

knock the hell out of him.

Ray Jones:
No, he was

good at that.

Floyd Hoffman:
He was good.

He always started sh*t.

Okay?

Okay?

If you went with dock somewhere,

you was gonna get put out

or your was gonna be

asked to leave.

And also, you know, he uh...He

always wanted to be a gangster.

If wouldn't have

played baseball,

he'd a been a gangster.

I really do believe.

Peter golenbock:
When you

were very young...

Five, six, seven,

eight years old...

Do you have any strong memories

of your playing baseball?

Do you have any strong memories

of your playing baseball?

Dock:
I remember

playing center field

and throwing the ball

over the backstop,

so they put me on the mound.

As we grew older and he started

playing baseball,

and I wouldn't play baseball

with him after a while because

he would throw the ball so hard.

It would be so hard you could

hear this ball cutting the air.

And I'm thinking that he's

trying to hurt me because he's

throwing the ball so hard.

So I just quit playing with him.

So I just quit playing with him.

I said, "I'm not get

hurt out here like this."

You know.

But we didn't know anything

about him having an arm

that he could pitch like this,

but it showed that he just had

a natural talent to

throw that ball.

What was the first realization

that you said to yourself,

"hey, I got a shot here to

play professional ball?"

I knew it from the time I

could throw a ball

to my father or my cousin.

I knew then.

I always knew, and I always had

the dream, and I always ask

young kids who are playing,

"have you had the dream?"

And they know what

I'm talking about.

The dream is you

see the banners.

You don't know where you are,

but you're in the big leagues.

You don't know where you are,

but you're in the big leagues.

Dock Ellis was one of those

guys that, you know,

at an early age was a

pitcher and not a thrower.

He had that drop.

I mean, he'd throw the ball

and it wasn't a curveball

that curves like this

and like that.

It would go, and it would

drop straight down.

Dock had one of them dippers.

The curveball.

It'd just come up there

and automatically,

it dropped to the damn dirt.

It dropped to the damn dirt.

Okay, they call it

a slider today.

What he had.

But his was a lot further

than a slider.

Yeah, yeah.

But his would just

drop off the table.

Boy 1:
What is this, man?

This is warm.

What did you guys keep it?

In the sun?

Boy 2:
So me and Mike

was standing in front

of the liquor store, right?

And this big, old, fat dude

comes along, and I go,

"hey, mister.

Will you please go in there

and buy my mother some beer?"

Dock, when he got into

trouble, you know,

dock, when he got into

trouble, you know,

he always brought me into it.

And so big dock would come

over and talk to my dad

and then so now we're

both in trouble.

Big dock, he wasn't mean.

He was strict.

Some of the kids would come by

and they'd see big dock outside.

Well, they'd rather

go the other way.

He worked hard,

and my father

only had a third grade

education.

He moved to California.

He got a job working

at the post office.

And he was a longshoreman.

He worked... did the

longshoreman at night,

worked at the post office.

Then he started going

to school to learn

then he started going

to school to learn

the shoe repair business.

Floyd Hoffman:
Big dock was

not a real outgoing person,

and he was all about going to

the shop, working all day,

coming home and eating,

making sure the kids was done,

and that was his routine

every day.

Dock, he was always at the shop

with dad, and he had the kids

that he played with in Compton,

where the shop was,

which I didn't know.

But he knew all of them, all the

little so-called gang members

but he knew all of them, all the

little so-called gang members

and all of that.

He'd say,

"son, they alright."

I said, "okay.

You gonna get in

some trouble there."

Sure enough, he got us

in trouble.

He liked the lifestyle.

But, you know, his daddy was

his... you know, his backbone.

See, big dock took care

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes