Dock Ellis. The legend.

Pittsburgh Pirates fans are abuzz about the situation that took place last night in the ninth inning when Andrew McCutchen was beaned by Ardolis Chapman.  We were talking to an old friend this morning at the six pack shop who retold his most memorable beanball incident.

Of course it involved Dock Ellis.

Talk about unbelievable…this is taken from the book Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball by Donald Hall Fireside, 352 pp., $22.95.

On May 1, 1974, Ellis’ Pittsburgh Pirates, in last place, played the Cincinnati Reds, a team in the midst of its Big Red Machine dominance over the National League. Ellis thought his club showed too much fear around the Reds, and he set out to correct that. He remembered thinking (and saying to teammates) before the game, “We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I’m going to hit these motherfuckers.”

True to his word, Ellis beaned Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Driessen in quick succession to load the bases. It’s hard to imagine a pitcher not being ejected from a game today for intentionally hitting the first three batters of a game. But Ellis was left in to do his best with Tony Perez, who barely managed to dance away from danger and draw a traditional walk. With the score now 1-0 and the bases still loaded, Ellis threw two pitches in the vicinity of Johnny Bench’s head, and was lifted from the game by his bewildered manager.

The Reds won the game 5-3.

Damn.  How interesting would it be to watch that video?  And we wonder what Dock will be thinking as he watches this one tonight.  RIP Dock.  You are missed.  You crazy bastard.

Andrew McCutchen didn’t even rub it.  Hell, it didn’t even knock him down.  When a 101 MPH fastball hits steel, apparently it doesn’t hurt.   The MVP favorite simply gave Aroldis Chapman a stare, tore off his shin pad, and fired it toward the dugout.

McCutchen never went down

Chapman took care of the rest with a whiff of Garrett Jones.

After the game, the cameras flashed to McCutchen who had some choice words toward the Reds post game/pre game Marty Brennamen head shaving event. Jeff Banister was the last to the leave the dugout, intently staring in the direction of the Cincy dugout.

We’ve heard from some good sources that the Reds dugout aren’t big fans of Chapman.  It’s awful curious where this came from looking back on it now.

It was a strange game.  An inside the park homerun, Charlie Sheen is alive and well—in a box at Great American Ballpark, Bob Davidson–the home plate umpire walked to the fence behind homeplate and had a word with a fan–apparently telling him to hold it down, Reds pitcher Mat Latos crushed a two-run bomb on a two-seamer away that gave the Reds right hander a three run cushion.

Still Wandy impressed.

Stay tuned.

_________________________

McCutchen refused to talk about the pitch after the game.

We had opportunities that we weren’t able to get.  We got the short end of the stick.  We will show up tomorrow and get ready to win.

Andrew McCutchen wasn't real happy after the game.

We think he is saying he is FFFFFFired up for tomorrow night.