Lasting images for BC

Ortiz turned on the payoff pitch and launched a moon shot a little to the right of the deepest part of center field.

"It was a two-seam fastball and I thought it was gone, immediately," said Clemens.

Papi's blast had more hang time than a Ray Guy punt. This was good for Clemens. The wind brought it back a tad and when the ball finally came to earth, it landed in the glove of center fielder Robbie Anston, who was standing on the warning track.

And so for the rest of his life, Dane Clemens can tell people he got David Ortiz out. When he's in a rocking chair, Clemens can talk about his rocking-chair inning against the Boston Red Sox: 1-2-3.

The Red Sox beat the Eagles, 7-1, but the loss represented a big improvement for BC baseball. The Eagles managed only one hit last season and made a bundle of errors in a 24-0 beating. Yesterday, the college kids led the Sox, 1-0, going into the bottom of the fifth of a seven-inning game. It looked like we might be in on some history.

Then reality struck. The Sox routed the BC bullpen for six runs in the fifth and beat the Eagles for the 17th consecutive year.

It's a nifty tradition, this clash of NCAA and MLB. And like so many other things, it's unique to baseball. We don't see Jerry York's Eagles skating against the Bruins, or Tyrese Rice going one-on-one vs. Rajon Rondo. Think Bill Belichick would agree to play a preseason football game against a bunch of college kids trying to impress their coaches and parents?

But baseball does it. And has for a long time.

The first game ever played at Fenway Park featured the Sox beating Harvard April 9, 1912. The Sox played Boston College in 1916 and 1933, winning both times. In 1993, when the Sox were being run by BC grad John Harrington, the club made BC part of the annual Grapefruit schedule - usually the opener. In recent years, the Sox have added Northeastern to the spring schedule and they'll play the Huskies at City of Palms Park Saturday.