Like his Red Sox teammates, Roger Clemens has a day off today. But while most of them will be trying to forget the past, the big righthander still can enjoy the memory of striking out 20 Seattle Mariners, the best performance in a nine-inning game in major league history, which happened 10 years ago today.
What Clemens accomplished April 29, 1986 at Fenway Park, will live forever in Red Sox history. Only 23, and only a few years removed from the University of Texas and the College World Series, he was magnificent in a 3-1 victory, not walking a batter.
Things have blown hot and cold in recent years for Clemens. But on that night, he had a lot of fun.
``It was fun because my teammates and the fans enjoyed it a lot,'' said Clemens. ``They made it very memorable for me. And the guys I played with at that time still talk about it when I run into them.
``The game was so competitive. Thank God Dwight Evans hit the three-run homer in the seventh inning. Without it, we might have been on the down side. As I recall, Mike Moore pitched a pretty good game himself.''
Clemens allowed just three hits, one of which was a solo home run by Gorman Thomas.
While pitching his gem, Clemens was unaware of the hoopla building. At the start, there weren't a lot of people at Fenway, but by game's end the crowd had swollen to 13,414 as fans came from all over Boston, mostly on word of mouth. Clemens said he heard later that some 6,000 seats were sold after the start of the game, a club record.
When the contest began, two of Clemens' most ardent fans were home listening on the radio. As the strikeouts began to mount, Richie Barnett of Newton, a Brandeis student at the time, and his brother Bob, a student at Johns Hopkins, sprinted to Fenway and talked their way in. They had started the practice of putting up a `K' card for every Clemens punchout. They had taken the night off, and fans were puzzled why the `Ks' weren't on the portion of the center field wall behind the bleachers. Suddenly, in the sixth inning, 13 `Ks' were spread across the wall. Television cameras quickly picked them up, and if all of New England wasn't in on the excitement before, it was then.
``I was sitting at home watching the game on TV,'' said Richie Barnett, ``and [color analyst] Bob Montgomery asked, `Where is the K guy?' With that, I decided to come to the game. But I knew if I drove, I would have no place to park, so I had my mother drive me to the park.
``I bribed my way into the right-field stands and then went to the bleachers. As soon as I could, I put up 13 Ks, and we just kept going from there. There was space for 19 Ks. And when he got No. 20, I put it on top. Naturally, people began to mob me and wanted one of the Ks. The only reason I was able to get away is that I hired a bodyguard on the spot and promised him he'd get one if he helped get us out of the park.''
Clemens didn't know about the record he was on the verge of breaking until the eighth inning. He was trailing, 1-0, in the seventh after the homer by Thomas. Fortunately, Evans' homer gave Boston a 3-1 lead, but it still was anybody's game.
``Around the fifth and sixth innings, I'd try to start a conversation with somebody, but they'd go and get a drink and not come back,'' Clemens said. ``Finally, in the ninth inning, Al Nipper approached me while I was changing undershirts. He finally said, `I've got to tell you that you have 18 strikeouts and you need two more to get the record.' All I had to do was strike out two of three in final inning.''
Clemens went to work like he was pitching the Longhorns to an NCAA title. Pressure gets to most young pitchers. But Clemens responded quickly in the bottom of the ninth, retiring the side in order. First he got the record, striking out Spike Owen and Phil Bradley. Then he got Ken Phelps on a groundout to win the game. At the time, winning was the most important thing. The Sox would go on to the World Series and Clemens would finish 24-4, winning the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards.
``What transpired after the game and the next 48 hours was unbelievable,'' said Clemens. ``I got a ride home with Nipper and he kept saying you don't realize the magnitude of what you've just done. I got home between 11:30 and midnight and the phone continued to ring until 3 in the morning. That's when it finally sunk in.''
Maybe if he'd been older, it would have sunk in sooner. But it didn't.
``I kept saying to myself, `It's hard enough to strike out a guy when you want to,''' recalled Clemens. ``And these were big league hitters. Fortunately, I got the punchouts first [in the ninth]. We were so intent on what we were doing, we didn't even think about getting the ball. Thankfully, it didn't get fouled off. When Phelps grounded out, we made sure we got the ball.''
The ball is, of course, in Cooperstown. Clemens thinks he may have had better stuff in the years that followed. But he never pitched a better game.
It would be nice to report that the 20 K cards that fans saw that night also are in the Hall of Fame. But they're not. Rich and his brother retained possession of all but one of the Ks for several years. They showed up in Section 41 to see Clemens pitch whenever possible the next two years. But by 1988, there were several other Ks on display and they soon stopped. The stack has disappeared.
``I blame my father Sumner,'' said Rich Barnett. ``I have already accused him of trashing history. He denies it, of course, but he's never going to live it down. He's a guy with suitcases from the 1930's and the Ks are missing. We're still searching, and they may turn up.''
This story ran on page 39 of the Boston Globe on 04/29/96.