No No: A Dockumentary Page #4

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up the ladder,

but it's hell to stay there.

(Music and cheers)

(Music and cheers)

(Music and cheers)

Jackie robertson told me,

and satchel Paige said the

same thing, said "listen,

this is what's going

"to happen to you.

"They're going to call

you names that you've

"never been called before.

"You're going to have to do

things that you don't think

"you're going to have to do

things that you don't think

"is the right thing to do,

but there's one thing

"that you've got to

always remember.

"You can't feel

sorry for yourself.

"When you walk across those

white lines and they say,

'play baseball!'"

they said, "you better win."

Boy 3:
Winning is

where it's at, man.

Winning is everything.

You know.

The major leagues.

The world series.

That's where I'm headed.

To the big time.

Dock:
You get to the major

leagues, and you say,

"I got to stay here.

"What do I need?

Oh, yeah, I need some of

this sh*t right here."

It was dexamyl, better known

in baseball as 'greenies.'

i didn't know that the

stimulants would

enhance your performance.

It gives the impression that you

are throwing hard sometimes,

pinpoint control,

pinpoint control,

breaking off curveballs that

you've never seen before.

You're more in tune to

what you're doing,

and you're zeroed in.

You're like what they call

'in the zone' now,

and sometimes you feel before

the game, if you're warming up,

say, "ah, man, I don't

have sh*t on the ball.

I don't know what's going to

happen," and go out there

and throw a hell of a game.

I would say over 90% of major

leagues was using dexamyl

i would say over 90% of major

leagues was using dexamyl

when I was playing.

Yeah, they was all high.

Naw, it was about 95%.

Maybe 96%.

I mean, I took greenies.

Everybody did.

All it was was like drinking

15 cups of coffee and going...

Maybe 20 cups of coffee...

And going out there

and pitching a ballgame.

If you didn't take it, you

were gonna get released

and sent home.

I wasn't going back to my 'hood.

So I took it.

So I took it.

Yeah.

I mean, everybody did.

I used to hear that trainers

would distribute them

in the '60's, but then at

some point they were outlawed

and so it went underground,

but players still used it.

I didn't get into that,

but I knew other guys did.

But it was tough.

It's demanding.

You're playing 162 games in

that 180 day time period,

and it's nine innings.

It's three hours of

concentration at extremely

it's three hours of

concentration at extremely

high pitch.

All it takes is just a little

bit of a lack of concentration

in a major league game to

make the big difference.

Here's my take on it.

I don't believe that babe Ruth

and Lou gehrig

drank all night long, rode on

those trains all night long,

got up, and played a 1:00 game

on Sunday or every day

in the sun without some help.

And I believe everybody's had

help throughout this game.

Nobody knows who's

going to get hooked.

Nobody knows who's

going to get hooked.

Sometimes a player could be

using drugs or alcohol

for a long time before his

game starts slipping.

Boy 4:
I heard one of the guys

on the high school varsity

got caught drinking.

Or maybe it was with uppers,

or something like that.

But my brother said all's

the coach did was tell him

not to do it no more.

Do you think they'd kick

him off if he wasn't so hot?

When I took the job in 1967,

the first meeting I had

with the players, I said,

"I don't want them in my

trainer's room.

"I don't want anybody

to use them.

"I don't want anybody

to use them.

If you use them, don't do it

in front of me."

I was thoroughly against

the amphetamines,

especially dexamyl.

Dock:
You know, it was a

thing where I started off

with one greenie and then

i did well.

I'd take one again.

I didn't do well, I took two.

I used to take it, take them,

shake them, throw them.

If they fall down,

i wouldn't take them.

If they stood up, I did.

Then if it wasn't enough

standing, I'd take the ones

that was laying down.

If they took them,

I never saw it.

If they took them,

I never saw it.

I was thoroughly against that

because I used to read the

literature, and I used to try

to get the players to read the

literature on how later on in

life, you'll pay for that

with heart problems

and lung problems.

Dock:
I would try to

out-milligram any opponent.

Before a game, I would take

a maximum of 15, 17 pills.

Not to say that I didn't have

enough stuff to pitch

in the major leagues.

It's just that I was trying

to get the little edge.

Willie mays can't hit that.

Hank can't hit that.

They all tell you that.

We can't hit that.

I think that a lot of people

thought that dock

went out there on

his talent alone.

He thought about his craft,

he thought about what he

had to do as a pitcher,

and the mental part of the game

was big time with him.

Here's something I wrote about

him in a poem called

"baseball."

Dock said that pitcher and poet

were up to the same tricks.

Dock said that pitcher and poet

were up to the same tricks.

All I'm trying to do,

he said, is fool 'em.

When you expect Robin's egg

blue, I suppose you've got

rubberized cement instead.

Always remember, curt, that

Sandy koufax spoke

of pitching baseball as the

'art of intimidation.'

dock:
My thing was basically

intimidation.

It's the battle between the

pitcher and the hitter.

It's the battle between the

pitcher and the hitter.

Good hitters are going to hit

you, there's no doubt about it.

But you've got to

pop them sometimes.

Some of that plate is yours.

Some is theirs.

Not too much of it is theirs

because they've got the bat.

You know, I didn't have

overpowering stuff.

My ball was heavy.

It moved.

But just to look at me chewing

the gum, I know put fear in some

of them's hearts because they

didn't know what this fool

might do out there.

And you know, the rumors

about me and what I was doing.

They'd say, "well, how's he

feeling today?

They'd say, "well, how's he

feeling today?

"He looks like he's

out to lunch.

"Why is he stepping

off the mound?

"What is he doing out there?

"What is he looking for?

What's wrong with him?"

So a lot of that played a very

important part

in helping me deal with the

opponents, you know.

Commentator:
Strike three!

From a breaking pitch.

It was a treat to be on a team

that had a dock Ellis on it.

It was a treat to be on a team

that had a dock Ellis on it.

There was a lot of substance

to dock that people...

A lot of people weren't aware

of, and he was a hoot.

Al Oliver:
I can honestly say

that we could not have asked

for a better teammate because

every clubhouse has to be loose,

and most of our games were won

and lost in the clubhouse.

When you're loose

in the clubhouse,

then the game is

a piece of cake.

Anybody who ever left the

pirates and went

to another team,

you were fairly bored.

Well, dock was just crazy,

and he would do anything.

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