Shades of Billy Rohr

Congratulations to Clay Buchholz!

Billy Rohr is one of those guys and New England baseball fans over the age of 50 remember April 14, 1967, when Rohr took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in his first game in the big leagues. The game was played in Yankee Stadium and Whitey Ford was the other pitcher and Jackie Kennedy and her young son were in the stands.

Serving notice that this would be a special year for himself and the Sox, Boston left fielder Carl Yastrzemski made a running, leaping, over-the-shoulder catch of a Tom Tresh drive to start the ninth inning.

Rohr, of course, was denied. Veteran Yankees catcher Elston Howard cracked a clean single to center with two outs and Rohr settled for a 3-0 shutout. Though history eluded him, immortality did not.

Rohr would win only two more games in his major league career, but he'll live forever in Boston baseball lore.

And now there is Buchholz, who wasn't even supposed to be pitching last night.