Forty years from now, they'll look back and write about the night the poor, little Pirates beat the great Roger Clemens at PNC Park.

At least a million people will insist they were there to see the 7-0 win even though -- the truth -- there might not have been 10,000 in the stands.

That's OK, it will be worth lying about.

This wasn't like it was in '65 when the Pirates beat Koufax and Drysdale in a September doubleheader at Forbes Field. It was better. Those were the Pirates of Clemente, Stargell and Mazeroski. These are the Pirates of Jason Bay, Jack Wilson and a bunch of kids Clemens never heard of, the worst team in the National League.

Really, what were the odds of Pirates rookie Ian Snell, who started the night with zero big-league wins or exactly 340 fewer than Clemens, outpitching a seven-time Cy Young winner?

Or of Wilson, who came in 1 for 13 against Clemens, getting three hits and scoring two runs?

Or of Bay, who was 0 for 8 against Clemens, reaching base four times?

Or of Freddy Sanchez, who had just two home runs in his first 465 major-league at-bats, lighting up Clemens for a home run and two doubles?

Or of the Pirates, who still need another win to assure they won't lose 100 games in this forgettable season, beating the Astros, who are clinging to a one-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card race?

Fifty years from now, 2 million people will insist they wouldn't have believed it if they hadn't been there and watched it with their very eyes.

It was a joy just to see Clemens. This was the first time he has pitched in Pittsburgh, making us the last of the big-league cities to get a first-hand look at the man some will argue is the greatest right-handed pitcher of all time. Twice last season and twice earlier this season, the Astros came to town but Clemens stayed home to be with the family because he wasn't scheduled for a start. That's one of the unbelievable concessions Houston management made to him to lure him out of retirement after the 2003 season.

Pretty ridiculous, isn't it?

You're either a part of a team or you aren't, right?

Of course, the Astros will argue Clemens is the one player who deserves an exemption from the team-first rule. He helped to pitch them within one game of the World Series last season and has more than done his part to have them in the chase again. He took a 1.77 earned run average into the start last night, a mind-boggling number that was 0.65 better than anyone else in baseball.

So how in the world did the Pirates rough up Clemens for six runs (four earned) and 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings?

"What I featured out there isn't good enough to get it done," Clemens said.

The man had an excuse, if he wanted. He buried his mother, Bess, Saturday. But he insisted he got his between-starts work done. "I owe that to my teammates and, anyway, it's kind of therapy for me." This was just one of those nights.

"It seemed like I was in the stretch a lot," Clemens said. "I had to battle to make pitches. Once I gave up that second run [on Sanchez's fifth-inning home run], I needed to buckle down and keep the game right there. Once they got up four, that was pretty much it."

Actually, the Pirates needed only one run to win, the run they scored in the third inning on Wilson's triple to right field and Bay's single to center.

On many nights, the opposition needs just a run to beat Clemens.

Do you believe this was the ninth time the Astros have been shut out in one of his starts this season?

He would be a 20-game winner on his way to an eighth Cy Young and they would be locked into the playoffs if they had given him any kind of support.

"Certainly, he didn't have his best stuff, but, once in a while, you've got to pick a guy up," Astros manager Phil Garner said.

"It's just gotten stupid, what's happening with us scoring runs. [Snell] didn't even use his second pitch. He just threw fastballs and he didn't even have to throw 'em hard. He just said, 'There it is,' and we didn't do anything with it. I don't know what to do about it. We got this demon hanging over our head and it's a zero."

Clemens will go out again and try for his 341st victory in Chicago Saturday against the Cubs.

No matter what happens in that game, it won't be as strange or as wonderful as this night.

If this was the only time Clemens pitches at PNC Park -- he's 43 and probably will retire after the season -- he and especially the Pirates gave us a terrific memory.

One day, 3 million people will be glad they were there to see it.