The Roger Clemens who took the mound April 29, 1986, to face the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park was known primarily as the Red Sox' brightest pitching prospect.
But he also was trying to come back after season-ending shoulder surgery the previous August that threatened to mute his 90-m.p.h. fastball and derail his major league career, which began after he hurled the University of Texas to a College World Series championship three seasons earlier.
Fewer than 10,000 fans were in the stands as Clemens faced the Mariners, a team renowned for its free-swinging lineup - always a help for a strikeout artist.
The tone was set in the first inning as Clemens fanned the side, all swinging. He also struck out the side in the fourth and fifth and had racked up nine strikeouts after four innings.
On a busy night in local sports - a Celtics-Hawks playoff, for starters, was commanding attention - the game was almost an afterthought to Boston fans. But as news of Clemens' performance began to spread, the crowd grew until the official attendance reached 13,414. Clemens later said a team official told him more than 6,000 tickets were sold after the game started, a Sox record.
A group of fans also took up residence in the back of the right-field bleachers toward the end of the sixth inning, taping ``K'' signs to the rear wall after each whiff - something that became de rigueur the rest of the season during Clemens' starts as he went 24-4, won the MVP and Cy Young Awards and pitched the Red Sox into the World Series.
Meanwhile, on the mound, after Clemens fanned the side in the fifth, he whiffed two in each of the last four innings. The record-breaker came in the ninth when Phil Bradley went down looking.
The game was scoreless until Gorman Thomas drove a homer into the center-field bleachers in the seventh, but the Sox responded with Dwight Evans' three-run blast in the bottom of the inning to cement a 3-1 victory.
Clemens' most frequent victims were Bradley (four times), Ivan Calderon, Ken Phelps and future '86 teammate/ clutch hero Dave Henderson (three times each). En route to the major league record, he tied an American League strikeout mark by fanning eight straight. He threw 138 pitches, 97 for strikes, and his fastball averaged 93 m.p.h. He issued no walks.
Later that season, Clemens, who was making $140,000 a year, said, ``Somebody might strike out 20 in a game again, but I don't think anybody will do it without walking somebody.''
Sept. 18, 1996: Roger Clemens - 20 strikeouts, no walks.
CLEMENS' TOP STRIKEOUT GAMES
Date Opp. SOSept. 18, 1996 Detroit 20
April 29, 1986 Seattle 20
May 9, 1988 KC 16
July 15, 1988 KC 16
July 9, 1988 Chicago 15
July 25, 1988 Texas 14
July 26, 1987 Seattle 14
This story ran on page d6 of the Boston Globe on 09/19/96.