06/06/06 History for Lexington and Johnny Drennen

Well it was almost what some would say is a perfect night. It was in the high 70's and cool even in the sun as nearly 9300 people in Lexington, KY flocked to Applebee's Park. You see 06/06/06 (or 666 as some see it) was suppose to be the apocalypse, well at least for the Lake County Captains.

The Captains, a single A farm team for the Indians, were in town to play Lexington own Legends. (the Astros single A farm team) What's the big deal just some unknowns who we may see in 5 or 6 years in the majors playing a game? A bunch of 18, 19 and 20 years olds playing a game in hope of being a Hall of Famer someday, what's the big deal?

The deal with A ball is you never know who is going to the show or who could be considered one of the greatest one day when they are done, well until this past Tuesday night that was true. For this week Roger Clemens was in town to start his 2 week training before going back to the Majors. The Captins "Omen" for the evening.

It has been a possibility that people have discussed since the beginning of the year. See his oldest son, 19 year old Koby plays for Lexington. So it was only fitting that Roger go all the way down to A ball not to start off slow but to play with his son one time in a real professional game.

The city was a buzz for a week and come Tuesday night it was surreal. Media people from all over were there for baseball in KY. Yeah not basketball but baseball. ESPN even had a remote there with Jeff Brantley and Pedro Gomez breaking in to do some reporting on the events.

{which in an aside, we have the baseball world looking at us and what does the park do? They play dueling banjo's over the P.A. while 2 guys have a milking contest with a fake cow. Like they say you can take the countryboy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy.}

The stadium packed beyond belief, my buddy Wes and I had tickets well down the 1st base line but still on the 3rd row, not bad we thought going into the park. Well they turned out to be great less than 15 Ft away from where Roger warmed up.

Here he was a future first ballot Hall of Famer playing for the Legends. Awesome. Remarkable. Unbelievable or any cliche you can think of, it was that and more. Especially if you like baseball.

So suddenly we were being over run by people wanting to get pictures in our area when Roger comes to warm up. After several minutes of picture taking and being crowded in my seats that I paid for (not to mention my claustrophobia kicking in). I finally began to say things like. You know he will be pitching most of the night. Going to be a lot more picture opps people.

Finally all was calm, somewhat. So quickly Wes and I began to debated over how the first guy would go down. I said a strikeout looking Wes said it would for sure be a strikeout. It was he swung.

Before that we talked about someone getting a hit. I said that I thought for sure that at least one guy would get a hit, because after all it was his 1st game all year and they still are baseball players he is facing. One of us said what if he got a HR. Then we both laughed and said nah its just A ball.

The history would strike again when young 19 year old Johnny Drennen stepped up to the plate with 2 outs (K's by the way). He had told Pat Forde a writer for ESPN that to him he was just facing another pitcher and added that if you "look fastball, hit fast ball". Wow did he.

The Kid took the Rocket for a ride over what is the Pepsi Party Deck. Being a lefty he pulled it down the right field line where the wall is 318 away. Yet the ball was barely on its downward path when it hit a good 20 feet above the wall on the Pepsi sign. I have seen several homers in that park, truly that was one of the fastest out of the park and longest that I have seen by a lefty.

So by the end of the night we had seen a record crowd at the park, a record number of media people for baseball in KY, a father playing pro ball with his son, a towering shot by a kid that was just 2 months old when Clemens won his first of 7 Cy Young awards, and one of the top 5 pitchers of all time in MLB history play for a single A team in Lexington.

Truly 666 was good to the fans that night.

Here is link to see some of the pics of Roger Clemens in Lexington.