Imagine this nightmare scenario: You learn you're slated to pitch in a major league baseball game in six hours, only minutes after ingesting acid.

That's exactly what Dock Ellis claimed happened to him 38 years ago today. And rather than calling in sick, the Pittsburgh Pirate right-hander proceeded to throw a no-hitter, one of baseball's most difficult achievements.

We checked the consistently reliable reference page, Snopes, to find out more about Ellis's blanking of the San Diego Padres, and a few details about the legendary performance popped out at us.

Learn more about this day in psychedelic history after the jump.

-- Ellis thought it was an off-day when, around noon, he and his girlfriend took LSD, a drug that takes about 12 hours to leave the system. At 1p.m., his girlfriend was reading the newspaper and discovered Ellis was scheduled to pitch in San Diego at 6:05 pm. They were in Los Angeles at the time.

-- After catching a flight and taking the mound, Ellis recalled in a 1984 interview, "I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the [catcher's] glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much ... The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him."

-- Though Ellis may always be remembered as the guy who threw a no-hitter on acid, he has worked for various charities since leaving baseball. One position saw Ellis helping to rehabilitate prisoners in the Pennsylvania penal system, many of whom were incarcerated on drug-related offenses.