Valleys and Troughs

UPDATE: Dock Ellis and the LSD no-no heading to Sundance.

One of our very first posts highlighted a short film produced by New York's own fashion and media bonanza NoMas, which animated short film tells the story of the no-hitter pitched by Dock Ellis in 1970 while he was on LSD. LSD. It's a great piece, and it's been selected for the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Shorts section. It's really one of the better stories in baseball's long and hallowed history, especially in light of the fact that LSD has got to be one of the least-performance-enhancing drugs out there. Bravo.

VALLEY

via indieWIRE

The King of New York.

It's official. After leading the Yankees through the World Series and restoring to New York that glory which is rightfully hers alone, Mr. November himself has been named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. We imagine Derek prefers the ring as far as accolades go, but this can't hurt his pride too much. For those of you with an appreciation for the numbers, these are pretty outstanding:

In 2009 Jeter led the American League by reaching base 289 times, finished second in the league in hits (212), third in batting average and on-base percentage (.406), fourth in runs (107) and eighth in stolen bases (30). He was named an All-Star for the 10th time, including the sixth time as a starter, while winning his fourth AL Silver Slugger as the best hitting shortstop in the league and his fourth Gold Glove as the league's top defensive shortstop.

Eighth in stolen bases! Does the Captain's greatness know no bounds? We imagine him lounging on a white sand beach in St. Bart's staring at Minka Kelly's glistening body and stifling a yawn as he deletes a text message telling him he was just named Sportsman of the Year and thinking to himself, "sounds about right." Well Derek, let us be one in a very long line to congratulate you. Nobody deserves it more.

VALLEY

via SI.com

As an aside, and because we are now feeling rather festive, how about a picture of Minka Kelly - solely for the purposes of establishing context:

Dock Ellis and the LSD no-no.

From apparel to artwork, the enlightened minds at No Mas toil under the banner, "The thrill of victory, the ecstasy of defeat." Few enough of us consider that, we believe: the sweet melancholic rapture that is hard-earned defeat. They recently produced the following, an animated short film chronicling Dock Ellis' 1970 no-hitter, which he threw while "high as a georgia pine," and which reminds us all of a pleasanter time, a more innocent time, before steroids and HGH and BALCO, when all a man needed was a few tabs of acid and a bagful of benzedrine.

VALLEY