RespectTheDetails

Hi thanks for the question. It was Donald Hall's biography of Dock that convinced me there was a feature length film, both in that material covered in the bio and the easily apparent friendship between the old white New England poet who talked about playing softball with Robert Frost and the hip, slick Black pitcher from Los Angeles. I was sold after I read his bio.

A lot of people believed in the story and my ability to tell it as a doc for us to get to the point that Ad Rock's score appeared in the film. First, I found out Glen E. Friedman met Dock as a kid, and reached out to him about being interviewed. He never was, but he became a mentor to me and close advisor. A baseball Dock signed for GEF does make a cameo. So Glen mentioned it to Adam. If my memory serves, Adam's sister Rachael had previously been involved with a film or script about Dock.

So he knew about Dock's story and knew I was making a "Dockumentary" but the final piece was after we reached out to Richard Linklater for help. He put us in touch with Randy Poster, who became our music supervisor. He was way out of our league, but believed in the project. He made the pitch to Adam, who agreed to score the film. One of these days I'll share the titles of the songs we used. I've been asked for them many times.

There is a very minimal amount of footage of the actual no no game in No No. Very little footage is known to exist. You'll see ... we used each clip twice ... maybe three times. A lot of artistic liberties were taken. What you get is all I have ever seen. Since my movie has come out, I have not been informed of more footage existing.

1970 was a different era in sports broadcast. Baseball telecasts in 1970, certainly for a bad expansion San Diego team, were rare. You'd get a game of the week maybe 1-2 more in certain markets. Radio had every game broadcast and I had hoped there were recordings of the radio play-by-play. Even the pieces of radio that I use are purported to have been recreations done at the end of the season for a "best of" type promotion.

The minimal amount of Dock's no no game that we have was shot in black & white 16mm film, by Les Banos, the Pirates team photographer. Les said once they realized Dock had a no-hitter going he went in to the press box with a camera and filmed what he could. The angles aren't great, but you get all of what is known to exist. Some conspiratorial types believe that MLB is suppressing footage of the game, but I don't.

Thanks for the question. Both Chuck Brodsky and Todd Snider were supportive while we were making the film and I like both of their songs, but I have to say my favorite is definitely Barbara Manning and the S.F. Seal's "Dock Ellis" from 1993 on Matador Records.

It covers more than just the LSD incident in Dock's life. She really did her research as a songwriter back in the days when there was no wikipedia entry. The person who first clued me in on the folklore of Dock pre-millennium found out about it through Barbara Manning's music. Plus it just rocks. You can find the official video for the song on YouTube. Woefully underappreciated. Not even 1,000 views per year!

I've never pitched on LSD nor on cocaine, so I'm not qualified to answer that. Dock served as an advisor to some players and teams during the Pittsburgh drug trials. Recall, the cocaine scandal was centered in Pittsburgh. Also, Enos Cabell, who was suspended for a season because of it, appeared in No No and was very honest with us about the problems both he and baseball had with drugs and should be commended for his candor.

I firmly agree with what Scipio Spinks said in the film about Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig playing day games and partying all night and riding on trains, "I believe everyone has had help along the way." I agree. I further believe that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens should be in the hall of fame. Part of the story I was trying to tell about baseball is that "a little help" has always been a part of the game ... I'm told later on it was Adderall and prescription medications for ADHD.