No No: A Dockumentary Page #7

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(Music)

It must have been some time

not long after

Roberto clemente died in

that horrible plane crash

that his drug use was

continuing to escalate.

I remember at one point he

pushed me against the dresser

in the bedroom and we had these

two little statues on each end,

and I remember reaching

back to grab it.

And then I realized I couldn't

hit him, you know.

And then he says,

"you gonna hit me with that?"

And I remember him jumping me

and throwing me down on the bed

and I remember him jumping me

and throwing me down on the bed

and choking me.

That's when I grabbed our

daughter, I rushed out

of the house, and our friends

lived next door, and when she

cracked her door, I just pushed

my way in and said,

"you gotta get me out of here.

I think he's gonna kill me."

I mean, I really thought my life

was endangered at that point.

In fact, I called

delores stargell,

and I told her, "you've got to

go to the airport with the team,

"and you've got to call me back

and tell me that you see

dock get on that airplane."

I still had this thought, okay,

he's gonna not get on the plane

and I'm gonna go back to

the house, and you know.

And I'm gonna go back to

the house, and you know.

So she went to the airport with

Willie and called me from the

airport to tell me that he

indeed got on the plane with

the team and they had left

and during that road trip,

I got a few things that

I wanted from the house,

and I came back to California.

Drugs had really taken over him.

I think he thought he was taking

them over, but I think it was

the other way around.

Main thing for him is

to stay out of trouble.

And being a pitcher,

what do you have?

And being a pitcher,

what do you have?

You know a pitcher only pitches

one day every four days

or every five days, right?

So you can go, and when you

leave there you should

be going home, but now you're

not married, okay?

So now you can go where?

You can go anywhere

you want to go, right?

So, hey, you kind of get

away from your objective.

You're not doing what you're

supposed to do, first,

because you remember in baseball

you have a lot of distractions.

(Music)

(Music)

Floyd Hoffman:
He went

butt wild.

When they came to town,

I went into the hotel

and there was just

ladies everywhere.

Fine ladies everywhere.

I missed a lot of

dock's stories

because of lot of dock stories

came after midnight.

Ray Jones:
He'd go in a club

and he could sit down

ray Jones:
He'd go in a club

and he could sit down

and he could drink it.

I mean, he'd drink your ass

under the table,

so he did his drinking.

Especially back there

in Pittsburgh.

God dog boy!

Peter golenbock:
Were you

doing a lot of dope

at this particular time?

Dock:
Oh, yeah.

Dock would call me

at maybe 3:
30 A.M.

When I'm in the bed.

I'd pick up the, "hello."

"Big daddy, what you doing?"

I'd say, "I'm asleep, fool!

I'd say, "I'm asleep, fool!

What the hell you

think I'm doing?"

Al Rambo:
I would just listen to

him just go on and on and on,

and I could tell that he was out

of his mind and like he was kind

of like reaching out for help.

Floyd Hoffman:
He would call

me a lot, and that was due,

because he was homesick,

and lonely.

Al Rambo:
He was the kind of guy

who was under control as far as

he was concerned, but maybe he

was reaching out for help,

and I didn't have the ability

to really respond

to his request for help.

To his request for help.

Dock:
I know in spring

training I would walk all the

way out to the backstop of a

field and sit out there, drink,

get high and plant weed,

and they wouldn't bother me,

because they'd say,

well, he's here.

He's not out in the

streets nowhere;

there he is, right there.

He's sitting over

there getting drunk!

(Laughs)

(Music)

(Music)

A literary agent of

mine who's a baseball fan

got the notion of suiting up a

number of total amateurs

and visiting spring training at

the very beginning of spring

training when things are pretty

loose, and writing about it.

So I put on the uniform and

went out and started doing

laps with the players.

And I did one lap, and then

by the time...

It was merely a lap around the

base paths, rather short...

It was merely a lap around the

base paths, rather short...

By the time I got to second

base the second time,

two young catchers who are

strong and hearty types,

picked me up under the elbows

and carried me

the rest of the way.

And a tall, black pitcher, said,

"man, you're out of shape!"

And that was dock Ellis.

Well, that day, one of the

Pittsburgh newspaper men

interviewed me.

Somebody told him I was a poet.

And dock said, "you're a poet?"

And I said, "yeah, yeah,

sure I am."

And I said, "yeah, yeah,

sure I am."

He was curious about poetry.

He had never met a poet before.

And out of the spring training,

I wrote the piece called

fathers playing catch with sons.

And I published it in playboy ,

and I think it may have been at

that point that dock said he

wanted to write a book,

and it started from that point.

(Jet engine)

Dock:
We flew into San Diego,

and I asked the manager

could I go home, because we

had an off day.

And they normally let you go

home if you're in the area,

so he said, "yeah."

So I took some LSD at the

airport when I took off

with the car, because I knew

where it would hit me...

With the car, because I knew

where it would hit me...

In LA!

(Music)

(Music)

(Music)

(Music)

I, I just took a ride

in a silver machine,

and I'm still feeling mean!

The real high from LSD came

from snorting the LSD,

where you crushed the pills and

you actually snorted the LSD.

And we did LSD in my

girlfriend's house at that time,

and we did LSD in my

girlfriend's house at that time,

and whether or not the story

becomes fictional --

as far as how he got to

San Diego and all that stuff --

I am not privileged

to that information.

A lady picked up the

phone and says,

"who is calling?"

I told him we are calling

for the pirates,

we want to talk to dock Ellis.

She said, "he's sleeping."

I tell him, you better

wake him up,

because he's supposed to

be in San Diego right now.

Because he's supposed to

be in San Diego right now.

(Music)

And the next thing I know,

I'm waking up,

and I go outside,

and I remember her saying,

"you gotta pitch today."

I said, "what are

you talking about?"

And she said, "San Diego,

you gotta pitch."

I said, "no, I pitch tomorrow."

She says, "oh, no, no, no!

Look, look!"

She says, "oh, no, no, no!

Look, look!"

And I said, "well, what

happened to yesterday?"

(Crowd cheering)

So there I was out there,

you know,

high as a Georgia pine,

tripping on acid.

We had a rookie on the team at

that particular time named

Dave cash, and he sat

next to me.

And he kept saying after the

first inning, he said,

"you got a no-no going."

"You got a no-no going."

I said, "yeah, right."

Dave cash:
He didn't

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