The thing about “history repeating itself” is, it doesn’t apply to phenomena.

Bob Beamon could never replicate his 29-foot, 2.5-inch jump. Wilt Chamberlain never scored 100 points again.

But then there was Roger Clemens.

Ten years after setting a record with 20 strikeouts in one game, Clemens somehow managed the feat again. This time it was Sept. 18, 1996 against Detroit. An older Rocket, maybe. But just as nasty.

“To be very honest with you,” former Tiger Tony Clark says, “I was surprised that we put the ball into play much at all. Put it this way – he was throwing 97 in the ninth.”

“I don’t think he even realizes how good it was,” Phil Hiatt, another Tiger, says. “It was unreal.”

“I think Roger was .500 that year [actually 10-13],” former teammate Mo Vaughn remembers. “The Red Sox were giving him some [garbage] about, ‘You lost some stuff,’ and he went out there and struck out 20.”

How good was Round 2?

Clemens struck out Travis Fryman four times. He struck out the side in the second, fifth and sixth. He struck out every batter in the Tiger lineup and for good measure, when Hiatt pinch-hit for Kimera Bartee in the eighth, well, you can guess the rest.

“He threw me three pitches,” Hiatt says. “I was done.”

Vaughn remembers that in the sixth, the Sox started to sense the drama unfolding again, recalling how, “It kind of got quiet.” But if silence was the response from the Sox, cheers were the response from the fans. What’s so strange about that?

Nothing. Except that the game was in Detroit.

In addition to the 97-mph heat, catcher Bill Haselman remembers Clemens’ splitter dropping 6-8 inches. Little wonder, Hiatt says, “You just saw guys going up there and turning right back.”

After the eighth, Haselman was told that Clemens already had 19 strikeouts. At that point, the catcher had a decision to make – should he tell the Rocket or not? Not!

“He had done that well,” Haselman says, “that I figured he doesn’t need something else on his mind.”

In the ninth, Haselman says the Tiger hitters came to the plate with a different approach. No longer was the goal to have a quality at-bat or to work the count to get a hit. Rather, Haselman recalls, the Tigers went up there simply looking to make contact. And when Alan Trammell popped out and Clark flied out, suddenly Clemens’ chances of double 20s seemed slim.

But then Fryman, whom Haselman says “was the only guy who seemed to go up there normal,” came up. And went down swinging on a splitter for 20.

When Haselman went to the mound to congratulate his pitcher, he asked him, “You know what you’ve just done tonight?”

“Yeah,” Clemens said, “we tied Cy Young in [career Red Sox] wins and shutouts.”

“You struck out 20 again,” Haselman told a stunned Clemens.

Just before he exited his stage, Clemens would solicit a memento.

“He picked up some sand from the mound and put it in his pocket and walked off,” Vaughn says. “It was almost to say, ‘You guys think it’s over? It ain’t over yet.’ “

Lesson learned. And phenomenon repeated.

Sept. 18, 1996 at Tiger Stadium

Red Sox 4

Tigers 0