According to his autobiography, it is. On June 12, 1970, Ellis stoned the Padres for nine innings (no pun intended), leading his Pirates to a 2-0 win. Impressive in and of itself, but it became even more incredible when he later admitted to having taken LSD before the game. Coming out of Tony Gwynn’s mouth, this would have been an eye-opener, but Ellis was never a model citizen. He once intentionally beaned the first three batters he faced in a game against Cincinnati, supposedly to wake his teammates up. On another occasion, as Pittsburgh hitters were in the midst of a collective slump, Ellis walked into the clubhouse and promptly set the entire bat rack on fire. “We’re not using them anyway,” he explained.
