TITLE: The Long, Strange Trip of Dock Ellis
LINK: http://www.espn.com/espn/eticket/story?page=Dock-Ellis
ANALYSIS
ESPN’s article, “The Long, Strange Trip or Dock Ellis” was written in 2012, and documents the life and times of former Pittsburgh Pirates Pitcher, Dock Ellis. Ellis was a pitcher in the 1970s, and his biggest claim to fame is that he once threw a no-hitter while allegedly high on LSD. While a good portion of the article — including the opening — is focused on this one day that many would define his career by, the story tells a lot more than just that. By using a vast array of media, one is able to get not just a complete picture of what the day of that game was like, but of Dock Ellis’ life in general. The best way to look at how each of these mediums is effective is to analyze them as they appear in the article.
The first form of media used is a simple one: text. The story opens with a line that is sure to hook most readers: “Get to the f — -ing stadium. I got to pitch.” With this, the reader becomes instantly interested, and as the text progresses, the author is able to paint a vivid picture of what that day was like. It was a great use of this medium, because there was likely no video of Ellis leading up to the game, and asking him to tell the story in a video could have led to a less boring, and less “clear” picture of those happenings. Alongside the text is a graphic of Ellis, drawn in black-and-white. It is a cartoon, and this adds an element of fun, and somewhat captures what the personality of Ellis is like. It’s a very effective secondary use of media, in this spot.
The second piece of media that the article uses is a quote, overlaid above a picture of Ellis. The large text provides a break between the introduction, and the story, and the photo that it is placed over is a real photo, so provides a contrast to the cartoon from section one.
As the main article continues into a second phase, another cartoon graphic is placed by the text, with the quote “I’m as high as a peach” above it: these were words spoken by Ellis, as he recounted his day on the mound. Because at its base, this is still an article that could be published in a magazine, there is also text next to the graphic. In relation to each other (the graphic pulls the reader back into the story, where the picture of Dock continues to be painted), this is a very effective use of both forms of media.
Continuing to scroll, and following the second “stanza,” is a picture of a ticket stub from the day that the “LSD game” occurred. It’s well placed in terms of providing a break between the two sections, but I think it’s a bit oversized, and maybe too exaggerated, as it isn’t a huge feature in the story.
After the ticket stub, the article continues further. The text continues to tell the story of the day the no-hitter happened, but alongside it is a clickable series of numbers, beginning with 9. Each number in the countdown lists a fact or statistic about what had happened during the game, and the user is placed in control of scrolling left and right between these graphics. This gives the reader a chance to take a break from “just” reading the text, and makes the article a bit more interactive. At the end of the section is a drawing of Richard Nixon in an umpire suit — this is in reference to the fact that Dock stated that he could see Nixon calling balls and strikes behind the plate, while he was on LSD. It’s effective in bringing some humor to the article, while also continuing to further the portrait of Ellis as a kind of zany character.
The next section of the article features more text, as the reader is introduced to Dock’s history, and background. This is where the article shifts from one day, into defining more of who he was. Next to the text is a series of photos: the first shows a picture of Ellis with a towel, after a game; it is included because the article talks a lot about what Ellis was like in the locker room, and how he could be very divisive at times. Underneath this photo are four photos that show the progress of Ellis’ pitching motion. This is an interesting choice, in that on the surface level it seems an animation or video may be more effective, but the photos do the job well because they are also able to catch the emotion on Ellis’ face, as he progresses from wind-up to delivery of the ball. The third photo in particular catches the intensity on his face, as he pitches, which would have been very hard to do with the video technology of that era.
After the photographs, yet another graphic appears, showing a cartoon-ized version of the extravagant Cadillac that Ellis drove. It is complete with the “Dock” vanity plate that was on the car, and is effective in continuing to both push the image of Ellis’ personality, as well as recreate a shot of a car from an angle that would have been very hard to find a photograph of. There is also a video of Ellis, in this section. In it, he talks about the day of the no-hitter, in an interview. This was a great choice (although I had to look up the video on YouTube, as it has been taken down from the ESPN site), in that it gives Ellis a voice for the first time. As readers/viewers we are able to see and hear what “all the fuss was about,” after reading about it and seeing it graphically in the previous pages. It’s a great use of video, because we also get to experience what he experienced, to some extent, as he tells his story.
There is a large quote from a letter from Jackie Robinson, following Ellis’ video. I think that this is once again effective, in showing that the personality of Dock was versatile. Coming from one of the most well-respected and beloved players in this history of the game, it legitimizes Ellis not just as a baseball player, but as someone who was making real change and leaving an impact on the real-world.
The next portion of text in the story is titled “Killing Himself to Live,” and details Dock’s reliance on drugs, psychedelics, and other vices, as he was a major-league player. There are photos on the side of the text, showing Ellis alongside female fans, as well as playing a trumpet entertaining a mascot and the crowd, and posing with a fellow player outside of Shea Stadium. This all comes together to paint a picture of “Sex, Drugs, and Rock-N-Roll,” but with baseball replacing the music. Together, it shows how Ellis was living a larger-than-life lifestyle, that would ultimately lead to his downfall, and quick exit from MLB.
Building on his downfall, the text then moves into the issues that Ellis dealt with, growing up, and going into the majors. It is stressed in the large quote/graphic that article uses: next to a photo of a young Ellis with the Pirates, a quote is overlaid saying “All he ever wanted was to see his dad come around that locker room corner after a game, just one time.” Taken with each other, this does an effective job of humanizing the larger-than-life character that had been painted earlier. It is effective in bringing the reader closer to the subject, and together would be more effective than a video of player or former manager saying something similar, because we get to see the emotion on Dock’s face, in the photograph.
The next section of the article shows both sides of Ellis: there’s the unorthodox side, where he’s literally pitching naked on a pitcher’s mound, after trying to hang on to his fading career; then there’s the side of him where he is talking about blotting out the real world after losing his father. This use of text is fantastic in that it directly follows the portion where the reader feels a connection to the vulnerable side of Ellis, that took so long to get to. It is effective in further connecting the reader to the subject.
As the article winds down, a series of baseball cards is shown. These provide a great snapshot of Ellis from his rookie season (1969) to his last season (with the New York Mets in 1979). You can see Ellis’ development from a fresh-faced kid, to the man who would struggle later in life, and it’s a great timeline-like progression to see how he changed over the years, and where he pitched. After the cards are a list of Ellis’ career wins and losses. Presented in a graphic displaying his career wins and losses with each team that he pitched for, they sum up his entire career on the mound, in numbers, as well as providing some context on him as a player, and how he stacks up to others. It is an effective reminder that while the story was about his struggles, lifestyle, and legend off the field, Ellis also remained a very productive player on the field, and that was the reason he was able to create those memories in the first place.
The final section of the piece shows what Ellis was like at the tail-end of his life. It talks about how in love he was with his wife. How he counseled people to stay away from drugs, and how he worked with incarcerated men. The text paints almost the opposite picture of the crazed, divisive, drug-abusing man who the baseball world remembers him as. It’s a strong way to close out the article, and leaves a lasting impact on the reader. At the end is a link to a trailer of a documentary documentary that ESPN produced, detailing much of the same things that this article covered.
STRENGTHS:
For the most part, I thought all of the multimedia used in this article was extremely effective. The way that the text was mixed together throughout, while the other forms of media were interspersed to build on that text was very effective. In the end, you come away with a very complete picture of who Dock Ellis was. It’s hard to choose “favorite” parts, but I was drawn to the quotes, as well as the video of Ellis, because I liked to hear the story in his own words. I also felt that the clickable/scroll-able facts graphic was very effective, and well-placed.
WEAKNESSES:
Since I was a huge fan of the multimedia package overall, it was hard to pinpoint a lot of weaknesses. That said, there were some interface things that I didn’t like. The way the site is set-up for the package, you can’t use your arrows to scroll up and down, else it could skip a large portion and you could miss something. I also felt like some of the images (i.e. the large ticket to divide sections) were irrelevant, or maybe stressed too much.
