Sports fans have far greater access to games that were played years (and decades) ago. We can pull up specific games on our phones or laptops with a few clicks. Aside from the videos, we can call on scorecards and stat sheets through Baseball Reference and Retrosheets (I’m omitting several others). All of this allows us to review games that we never saw or only have faint memories of. It’s great although I’ll argue to the contrary in a few minutes.

Earlier this week, Michael Fulmer, stumbled his way into his second save of the season for the Cubs. Sandwiched between 3 9th inning strikeouts, Fulmer walked and hit Colorado hitters. While he’s had experience closing out games in the past, fans and the media shouldn’t be surprised that he might walk the tight rope on the way to a save.

Despite some highly paid closers, every franchise and their fans endure some nervous endings. Without consulting my notes, I can think of three Cubs closers (on postseason teams) that made things interesting for fans and managers alike. Mitch Williams in 1989, Rod Beck in 1998, and Joe Borowski in 2003 were all successful closers that had more bumpy saves than not. We all agree that 1-2-3 ninth innings aren’t necessary so long as the result is a save. We just prefer it a little less messy.

While reflecting on Roberto Clemente’s career that past few days, I realized that I probably only saw him play in person twice in my life. I’m willing to bet Mom took me to a Pirates game in 1968 or 69 on a Ladies’ Day at Wrigley, but I can’ pretend to remember. I do remember (vaguely) seeing him hit a ball into the left-center bleachers on a weekend game in either ’70 or’71. The rest of my Clemente memories come from the ’71 World Series or games on WGN as a youth.

As a young Cubs fan, I could access 162 games a year with relative ease and unlike pulling up historical games now, I could experience it in real time. There is something to be said for real time experience-even if from afar.

It’s hard to believe we existed without access to games 24/7, but newspapers, nightly news and attending games got us through. In 1979 HOF’er Bruce Sutter was brilliant for the Cubs-earning his only CY award. 1979 was a season I remember very well-partially because the Cubs were so mediocre (80-82). I remember just how great Sutter was, but I do not recall a single save specifically. I don’t even remember a specific loss either. If you were to ask Yankee fans from that era, they probably couldn’t cite the particulars of a 3-inning save that he was famous for.

Even the great closers are better remembered for their epic failures. Case in point, every Cub fan of a certain age remembers the two homers Sutter surrendered to Ryne Sandberg in 1984-when Sutter pitched for the Cardinals. And back to Williams, he is best remembered for the World Series homer that Joe Carter hit in 1993 I couldn’t point to any of Mariano Rivera’s 3287 saves (actually only 652), but I remember fondly his surprising loss in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

Closers deservedly get paid the big bucks and the better ones are successful more often than not. They get the job done in different ways. We’ve been led to believe that the most successful relievers have big arms with huge strikeout numbers. However, there’s plenty of evidence that guys can get by with different (non-blazing) stuff.

I fully expect by the time you’re reading this you’ll have already forgotten about Fulmer’s ugly save, especially if the Cubs go on to bigger and better things in October. However, that outing might not move David Ross to entrust him with the 9th inning in future games.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Marcus Stroman saved some key games for the Cubs in the next three weeks.