Tug McGraw pitched 42 games, more than 100 innings. Their saves leader, Ron Taylor (he had 13 saves, which tells us something right there) pitched 76 innings in 59 games; in the second game of the NLCS, he came in during the fifth inning to get out of a jam, then pitched the sixth. Then they pinch hit for him, and McGraw went three innings to finish.

Ryan is of particular interest. He made 10 starts and 15 relief appearances that year; in his relief stints, he pitched more than 32 innings, and five of them went at least three innings. (He also twice went at least three weeks between outings.)

And in the playoffs, Ryan gunned his way through a seven-inning relief outing against the Braves. You don’t see that done today — playoffs, World Series or regular season.

Edward Thoma is a Free Press staff writer. He is at 344-6377 or at ethoma@mankatofreepress.com. He also has a baseball blog at www.mankatofreepress.com/ethomabaseball