"Man, Rocket, you got a chance for an all-time record" - Al Nipper (4/29/86)...
Twenty years ago tomorrow, baseball witnessed a rocket launch that still hasn't come down. That was the day that Roger Clemens came of age. All "The Rocket" did that day was what had never been done before - strike out 20 batters in one game. The game was of little consequence, a 3-1 win over the Seattle Mariners although it did place another brick in the Red Sox wall that would lead to a meeting with the Mets in October. By striking out 20, Clemens topped the 19 of Carlton, Seaver and Ryan, all in the Hall of Fame by the way...
A small gathering of the Fenway Faithful, 13,414 on a chilly Tuesday New England night offered their support knowing that history was about to be made with each strikeout and then it happened. Phil Bradley was victim #20 and when third baseman Wade Boggs came to the mound to shake Clemens hand, Roger thought "Hey, the game is over"...
Can lightning strike twice ? In September 1996 it did. "The Rocket" did it again. Clemens struck out 20 for the second time at the age of 34 against the Detroit Tigers...
Ten years after his second 20K masterpiece and now 44, Clemens is as hot a property as ever as the guessing goes on, will he end his career with the team he started with ? The Red Sox. Will he go to the Yankees ? Will he stay at home and play for the locals in hometown Houston ? Stay tuned. We'll find out soon...
April 28 Memories...
1789] Remember the movie, "The Caine Mutiny" ? It really happened when the crew of the British ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific...
1914] W.H. Carrier patents the design of his air conditioner...
1945] Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were executed (hey, at least they went together)...
1947] A 6-man expedition sailed from Peru aboard a balsa wood raft named the Kon-Tiki on a 101 day journey across the Pacific to Polynesia (and I couldn't get my balsa plane to fly with that damn metal tip in the front)...
1959] "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" (he had friends ?) fades to black on CBS-TV. The show started on television in 1949...
1965] The "My Name is Barbra" (starring...who else spells Barbara, without the second "a" ?) special scores high numbers on CBS-TV...
1965] Lindsey Nelson does the Mets game from the Astrodome from a gondola, 208 feet above second base and as always does a superb job but privately complains of a nosebleed. After the game he parachutes down...
1966] The Young Rascals are #1 with "Good Lovin"...
1966] Led by Bill Russell, Sam Jones, John Havlicek, Tom "Satch" Sanders and Don Nelson, the Boston Celtics win their 8th straight NBA title (no other team has won 8 years in a row in any sport, including marbles)...
1967] Cassius Clay (not yet Muhammed Ali, but soon) is stripped of his heavyweight title when he refuses to be inducted into the Army (that's when he became Ali)...
1969] French President Charles de Gaulle resigns (or was he pushed ? and do we care ?)...
1974] Grand Funk takes "Loco-Motion" to the top of the charts for the 2nd time (remember Little Eva in '62)...
1975] Two Beatles on the tube: Ringo is on "The Smothers Brothers, John on "The Tonight Show"...
1983] Michael Jackson "Beat(s) It" to #1 with a little help from Eddie Van Halen on lead guitar...
1985] Billy Martin becomes Yankee manager for the 4th time (do you see a George Steinbrenner pattern developing here ?)...
1988] The Baltimore Orioles set a new American League record for consecutive losses with loss #21 to the Twins (Mgr. Cal Ripken Sr. was 0-6 and his replacement, Frank Robinson 0-15) but ah, there's relief on the way. The O's snap the streak the next day against the White Sox (too bad, they were only 2 losses shy of the modern major league record of 23 by the 1961 Phillies)...
1994] Former CIA operative Aldrich Ames, a double spy for the Soviets, pleads guilty to espionage and tax evasion and is sentenced to life in prison without parole...
2001] The 1st space civilian, California businessman Dennis Tito and 2 cosmonauts are launched on a journey to the international space station (Tito forgot his passport and was forced to parachute back to earth)...
2004] The 1st photos of Abu Ghraib (oops) are shown on tick...tick...tick "60 Minutes II"...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
"E-mails, we get e-mails. We get lots and lots of e-mails. Dear Melly, etc. etc"...
So great to hear from Norm N. Nite who enjoys reading this blog. Thank you Norm, I feel honored with praise coming from someone like you who has written the "Rock On" series of books, made television appearances (including "The Today Show") and continues on radio with his own show on Sirius' Gold (channel 5) from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (wed-sun 3-6 p.m.). Norm is the unofficial, official keeper of the Alan Freed flame and we go back to our NBC Radio days together in 1976 and then later WCBS-FM. Norm is also in wikipedia with his own page. Now that's impressive Norm. Check Norm out on Sirius...
Happy Birthday To...
1941] Ann-Margaret...
1949] Paul (Capt. Brass on "CSI") Guilfoyle...
1950] Jay Leno...
1953] Mary ("Dances with Wolves") McDonnell...
1974] Penelope Cruz...
1981] Jessica Alba...
[Today is the 118th day of 2006 with 247 days left in the year and 31 days till Memorial Day]...
Saturday, April 29, 2006...
April 29 Memories...
1852] The 1st edition of Peter Roget's "Thesaurus" is published (lets see, what's another word for "thouest" ?)...
1941] The Boston Bees agree to change their name to the Braves (worker bees in New England protest by staging a swarm-in and attacking their former namesakes)...
1944] "Dancing Romeo" becomes the last "Our Gang" film (but relax, you would have your "Little Rascals" on television in the future)...
1945] Adolph Hitler marries Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker but the next day they commit suicide (but at least they went together)...
1945] American soldiers liberate the Dachau concentration camp in Germany...
1960] Dick Clark denies any involvement in payola before a House subcommittee (Dick however, divests himself of his record interests)...
1961] ABC's "Wide World of Sports" debuts (oh, "the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" symbolized by the skiier doing a wheelie and a cartwheel and wiping out several cameramen at the same time)...
1967] Aretha Franklin releases "R-e-s-pect"...
1986] Roger Clemens strikes out a record 20 batters (feature story)...
1988] Eric Clapton files for divorce from Patti "Layla" Boyd...
1990] "Tear down that wall Mr. Gorbachev"...The Berlin Wall starts to come down...
1992] Paula Adbul (uh..uh..I mean...you...are...an...American Idol, sniff, sniff) and Emilio Estevez walk down the aisle (Simon Cowell is not Paula's best man)...
1992] Deadly rioting erupts in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley acquits 4 LAPD officers of almost all charges in the beating of Rodney King, captured on video tape (54 die and $1 billion in damages are the result)...
1993] An animated Barry White appears on "The Simpsons"...
1996] Former CIA Director William Colby is missing and presumed drowned after an apparent boating accident in Maryland (Colby's body is later discovered) (HELLO !)...
1996] Exactly 12 years after he gained his 1st save as a Red, Mets' reliever John Franco becomes the 1st lefty to record 300 saves (I was at that game)...
1997] Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, a drill intructor at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland is convicted of raping 6 female trainees (he's sentenced to 25 years and a dishonorable discharge)...
1997] Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev go on the 1st U.S.-Russian space walk...
2003] Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud, files a lawsuit against Best Buy that claims the store did not have permission to use his likeness in a print ad ("I pity that Best Buy fool")...
2004] A national World War II monument saluting both the men and women who served, opens to the public in Washington, D.C...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, miltiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Happy Birthday To...
1919] Actress Celeste Holm...
1928] Carl Gardner of the Coasters...
1933] Poet Rod McKuen...
1947] Tommy James...
1955] Jerry Seinfeld...
1957] Daniel Day-Lewis...
1957] Michelle Pfeiffer...
1970] Uma Thurman (Lettermen's favorite Hollywood name)...
1970] Andre Agassi...
[Today is the 119th day of 2006 with 246 days remaining in the year and 30 days till Memorial Day]...
Sunday, April 30, 2006...
April 30 Memories...
1789] George Washington takes office in New York as 1st President of the United States (on Wall Street)...
1901] The Red Sox win their 1st game as Cy Young beats the A's 8-6 in Philadelphia...
1931] The George Washington Bridge, spanning from Manhattan to New Jersey opens...
1939] Lou Gehrig plays his last game with the Yankees...
1939] The New York World's Fair, billed as a look at "the world of tomorrow" opens in Flushing Meadow...
1957] Elvis records "Jailhouse Rock" (with some of the strangest lyrics of any Elvis song, not that there's anything wrong with that)...
1961] Using utility player Joey Amalfitano's bat, Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants becomes the 9th player in history to hit 4 home runs in a game as the Giants beat up on Milwaukee 14-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium...
1970] President Richard Nixon announces that the U.S. will send troops into Camodia...
1991] An estimated 125,000 die as a cyclone hits Bangladesh...
1993] Top-ranked women's tennis player Monica Seles is stabbed in the back during a match in Hamburg, Germany by a 38-year old Steffi Graf fan (Seles will never be the same after the wound that's reported to be 1/2" deep)...
1997] ABC-TV airs the "coming out" episode of "Ellen" in which the title character played by Ellen DeGeneres admits she's a lesbian (ya think Ellen was trying to tell us something ?)...
2001] Federal government intern Chandra Levy is last seen at a health club near her apartment in Washington, D.C. (her remains are found more than a year later in a city park)...
2003] The U.S. Navy withdraws from its disputed Vieques bombing range in Puerto Rico...
2004] Former Net star Jayson Williams is acquitted of aggravated manslaughter in the shotgun slaying of his limo driver at his New Jersey mansion...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Happy Birthday To...
1926] Cloris Leachman...
1933] Willie Nelson...
1940] Burt (Paulie in "Rocky") Young...
1941] Johnny Farina of Santo & Johnny ("Sleep Walk")
1943] Bobby Vee...
1944] Jill Clayburgh...
1961] Isiah Thomas (so you wanted the Knick job, did ya ?)...
[Today is the 120th day of 2006 with 245 days remaining in the year and 29 days until Memorial Day]...
