Dock P. Ellis Jr.

Mickey Spillane's hard-hitting '50s private eye, Mike Hammer, returns to television in the guise of Kevin Dobson to track down the killer of his best friend who was driving Hammer's car. Joining in the hunt are the detective's Girl Friday, the ever-hopeful Velda, and his cop friend, Pat Chambers.

When a western Pennsylvania auto plant is acquired by a Japanese company, brokering auto worker Hunt Stevenson faces the tricky challenge of mediating the assimilation of two clashing corporate cultures. At one end is the Japanese plant manager and the sycophant who is angling for his position. At the other, a number of disgruntled long-time union members struggle with the new exigencies of Japanese quality control.

Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD, then worked for decades counseling drug abusers. Dock's soulful style defined 1970s baseball as he kept hitters honest and embarrassed the establishment. An ensemble cast of teammates, friends, and family investigate his life on the field, in the media, and out of the spotlight.

An emotional tribute to Billy Martin -- a five-time manager of the New York Yankees in the 1970s and '80s -- this program combines game clips and on-camera interviews, including one with Martin recorded shortly before his untimely death in 1989. Footage features an all-star lineup of Major League Baseball personalities, including Mickey Mantle, George Steinbrenner, Rickey Henderson, Whitey Ford, Willie Randolph and Rod Carew.

In 2008, a year before the great Dock Ellis died at 63, radio producers Donnell Alexander and Neille Ilel, recorded an interview in which the former Pirate right hander gave a moment by moment account of June 12, 1970, the day he no-hit the San Diego Padres. Using their original radio documentary as the audio and inspiration, Isenberg commissioned an original animation from James Blagden whose incredible black and white illustrations, lo-fi animation and comic timing perfectly complemented Ellis’s masterful storytelling.

Dock Ellis, a Major League Baseball pitcher during the sixties and seventies, candidly describes "beaning" Reggie Jackson in retaliation for the home run that he hit off of him during the 1971 All-Star Game.

Baseball's Seasons is a documentary series on MLB Network. Each episode takes a look at a season in the history of Major League Baseball. It first aired January 7, 2009 in the first week of the network's existence. Like a lot of the network's other original programming, Baseball's Seasons airs during baseball's offseason.