On a night where ESPN kept the Roger Clemens hype machine running at full speed by televising his first outing of 2007 (against the Class A Fort Myers Miracle), the Boston Red Sox and NESN countered admirably, taking advantage of a rain out to air the "Red Sox Classic" from April 29, 1986 - the day Clemens mowed down twenty Seattle Mariners. (I don't know what was shown in the game's regular time slot, but this came on around the time they would have been doing the "Sox in 2" encore.)

Well played, NESN. Well played.

I don't remember this game at all - I was 6 1/2 when it was played - so it's always good to hear the broadcasters (Ned Martin and someone I can't place - thought it was Jerry Remy at first but now I'm not so sure) and the way they call the action. It's a very laid-back approach that works because Martin managed to weave all the necessary information into the in-game banter with his partner. They covered a lot of ground, but never allowed the broadcast to stray more than a step or two off the path of the game.

The video of the game doesn't appear to be available on YouTube, so you'll have to be content with a link to the box score from Baseball-Reference.com. Check out that attendance. And, just believe I love you all, here's another link, to his second twenty strikeout game ten years later against Detroit. Note the pitch count. - OMDQ