No No: A Dockumentary Page #4

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And I'm thinking that he's

trying to hurt me because he's

throwing the ball so hard.

So I just quit playing with him.

So I just quit playing with him.

I said, "I'm not get

hurt out here like this."

You know.

But we didn't know anything

about him having an arm

that he could pitch like this,

but it showed that he just had

a natural talent to

throw that ball.

What was the first realization

that you said to yourself,

"hey, I got a shot here to

play professional ball?"

I knew it from the time I

could throw a ball

to my father or my cousin.

I knew then.

I always knew, and I always had

the dream, and I always ask

young kids who are playing,

"have you had the dream?"

And they know what

I'm talking about.

The dream is you

see the banners.

You don't know where you are,

but you're in the big leagues.

You don't know where you are,

but you're in the big leagues.

Dock Ellis was one of those

guys that, you know,

at an early age was a

pitcher and not a thrower.

He had that drop.

I mean, he'd throw the ball

and it wasn't a curveball

that curves like this

and like that.

It would go, and it would

drop straight down.

Dock had one of them dippers.

The curveball.

It'd just come up there

and automatically,

it dropped to the damn dirt.

It dropped to the damn dirt.

Okay, they call it

a slider today.

What he had.

But his was a lot further

than a slider.

Yeah, yeah.

But his would just

drop off the table.

Boy 1:
What is this, man?

This is warm.

What did you guys keep it?

In the sun?

Boy 2:
So me and Mike

was standing in front

of the liquor store, right?

And this big, old, fat dude

comes along, and I go,

"hey, mister.

Will you please go in there

and buy my mother some beer?"

Dock, when he got into

trouble, you know,

dock, when he got into

trouble, you know,

he always brought me into it.

And so big dock would come

over and talk to my dad

and then so now we're

both in trouble.

Big dock, he wasn't mean.

He was strict.

Some of the kids would come by

and they'd see big dock outside.

Well, they'd rather

go the other way.

He worked hard,

and my father

only had a third grade

education.

He moved to California.

He got a job working

at the post office.

And he was a longshoreman.

He worked... did the

longshoreman at night,

worked at the post office.

Then he started going

to school to learn

then he started going

to school to learn

the shoe repair business.

Floyd Hoffman:
Big dock was

not a real outgoing person,

and he was all about going to

the shop, working all day,

coming home and eating,

making sure the kids was done,

and that was his routine

every day.

Dock, he was always at the shop

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