Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr. was a professional baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams in Major League Baseball. His best season was 1971, when he won   19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher   for the National League in the All-Star Game. However, he is perhaps best remembered for throwing a no-hitter in 1970 while under the influence of LSD.

As Ellis recounted it:

“I was in Los Angeles, and the team was playing in San Diego , but I didn’t know it. I had taken LSD….. I thought it was an off-day, that’s how come I had it in me. I took the LSD at noon. At 1pm, his girlfriend and trip partner looked at the paper and said, “Dock, you’re pitching today!”

“That’s when it was $9.50 to fly to San Diego. She got me to the airport at 3:30. I got there at 4:30, and the game started at 6:05pm. It was a twi-night doubleheader. I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria.”

“I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher’s) glove, but I didn’t hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters, and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes, I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire, and once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn’t hit hard and never reached me.”

 ”I was zeroed in on the catcher’s glove, but I didn’t hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn’t hit hard and never reached me.”

The Pirates won the game, 2-0, although Ellis walked eight batters. It was the highpoint in the baseball career of one of the finer pitchers of his time, and arguably,one of the greatest achievements in the history of sports.

From 1984 New York Times Article ‘Sports People: Drugs and No-Hitter’

I recently wrote to NFL guru Jim Considine asking him how a team chooses a style and design, here is his response:

Dear Reagan,

I would be happy to give you some information on the uniforms worn by NFL teams.  I was involved with the Ravens during their first 7 years in Baltimore.  There was a tremendous amount of consternation during the process of picking the team colors.  It seems like everyone disliked the team colors at first.

The first thing that occurred was to determine the name of the team.  The Baltimore Sun conducted a fan survey.  The Ravens was the popular choice.  I suspect that the team colors may have been influenced by Poe’s dark and dreary story.  At this point, the design of the uniform is in the hands of NFL properties.

Northwestern won the Big Ten for the first time in ages during the 1995 season.  The black and purple colors were a departure from the teal colors that were popular at that time.  My guess is that the color combination was influenced by this as well as the dark writings of Poe.  No doubt, the choice was approved by focus groups.  I believe that they presented options to the Modell’s and the upper-management of the football team.

The font used for the numbers on the jerseys proved difficult to read by the fans and broadcasters.  The NFL “fattened” the characters in 1997, which are still used today.  

In 1998, a lawsuit was filed against the Ravens and NFL properties for a trademark infringement.  A fan created a logo, which is similar to the winged shield worn by the Ravens (1996, 1997, & 1998).  The fan claimed he faxed the drawing to the Ravens.  The fan claimed the Ravens used his design as the primary logo.  Once the lawsuit was filed, NFL properties created new logos for the Baltimore Ravens.  The logos are currently in use today.  The NFL won the lawsuit.

One story comes to mind about the team logo.  Art Modell really liked the Maryland state flag.  (This is a combination of the family crest of Governor George Lord Calvert and the Saint George Cross).  Art Modell liked it so much that they added it as a patch on the pants hip.  It is also depicted on the field at M&T Bank Stadium.  The Baltimore Orioles added a similar patch to their sleeve last season.

In addition to the control imposed by NFL properties with respect to the uniform, they also decide what color the seats will be in a new stadium.  The color chosen is designed to blend in so that television viewers will not easily notice an empty seat.  I doubt if this subterfuge stands up to the high definition pictures broadcast today.  It was sufficient for the standard definition televisions in 1998.

Finally, speaking of high definition television, I used to ponder an old peculiarity of the Ravens uniforms.  I could not figure out why the jerseys were purple but on television, they appeared to be blue.  The RGB (red, green, blue) projection of the CRT (cathode ray tube) television could not portray the colors as seen by the naked eye.

Best wishes,

Jim Considine

        There are two separate interpretations of the Montreal Expos logo — one in English and one in French.

English version: The overall outline of the logo is a stylized “M” for “Montreal” (you kinda have to squint to see this). The red “e” on the left is for “Expos,” and the blue “b” on the right is for “baseball.” Add it all up and you’ve got “Montreal Expos baseball.” The strip of white next to the “e” is essentially just wasted space — it’s not an “l” or anything like that.

French version: The red symbol on the left is a “c,” which combines      with the white strip to form a “d.” Toss in the “b” on the right and outlined “m” and you’ve got c-d-b-m, for Club de Baseball Montreal.

Source Paul Lukas of Uni-Watch