One of the best closers in MLB history can trace his beginnings on the diamond back to western Massachusetts.

Jeff Reardon, a Pittsfield native and four-year letterwinner on the UMass baseball team from 1974-77, is among the top-15 in career saves in the MLB with 367 (one fewer than Boston Red Sox icon Jonathan Papelbon) and in 1985, the former Minuteman paced the MLB in saves with 41 as a member of the Montreal Expos.

Now 40 years removed from arguably Reardon’s best season — he recorded 42 saves during the 1988 season but trailed Dennis Eckersley’s league-leading 45 closeouts — Reardon credited his former manager with helping him achieve the impressive accomplishment.

“Buck Rogers, I really liked him as the manager,” Reardon said. “Even though Jim Fanning was the one to give me the ball as the closer, Buck was the one that started putting me in a lot and I think I showed him I could do it. It was fun pitching for Buck.”

Reardon began the 1985 campaign with five successful saves in eight opportunities in April, then bettered or equaled those numbers in all but two of the total seven months of the season. The month of May was when Reardon really shone as the 6-foot, 190-pounder registered nine saves in 12 opportunities.

Nicknamed “The Terminator,” he was especially dominant against the Pittsburgh Pirates that year as he picked up seven of his 41 total saves (17 percent) versus the black-and-yellow.

While most closers nowadays are tasked with pitching the ninth inning, or in some cases, a single batter, Reardon regularly tossed multiple innings to wrap up a ballgame. In fact, there were five instances in 1985 when Reardon threw three innings.

“Back then, everyone did it that way,” Reardon said. “But I did like pitching a lot of innings. I had over 100 innings as a closer a couple of times.

“It’s a different world, the way the closer role has evolved,” Reardon added. “It’s a very important role, but in my mind, they made it much easier for the closer. He doesn’t go in with guys on base anymore. I went in with so many guys on base every year, I think I went in with 700-800 guys on base in my career.”

Reardon wound up with 87.2 innings pitched, plus collected 67 strikeouts in 1985, on the way to a NL Rolaids Relief Man Award, plus, kicked off a run of four all-star game selections over the course of his career.

In terms of keys to his success that season, Reardon mentioned his mindset hardly ever wavered.

“One thing I always had was confidence,” Reardon said. “I wasn’t drafted or anything, so I wasn’t handed anything. I always had a chip on my shoulder that I wanted to prove to the baseball people that I belonged where I was. In the minors I was a starting pitcher and then Joe Torre is the one that changed me to a reliever. I was upset at first because I thought they were throwing me to the back burner. In essence, he was a smart man because I had never started a game in the big leagues in 16 years. I pitched 880 games. He knew I had something in me. It was probably my temperament and also wanting to pitch every day, always wanting the ball.”

Reardon held that confidence throughout all six seasons with Montreal, before being traded to the Minnesota Twins in 1987. Reardon’s Expos tenure concluded with a 2.84 earned-runs average in 506.1 innings-pitched and franchise-record 152 saves.

Despite helping Minnesota win the World Series in 1987, Reardon considers himself an Expo through and through.

“I would say five and a half, six years of my prime were in Montreal,” Reardon said. “If I were ever to get into any kind of [Hall of Fame] I would definitely wear the Montreal hat, even though I loved going to the Twins and winning the whole thing.”

Reardon also had stops with the New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees and Red Sox.

Montreal finished the 1985 season with a 84-77 record, narrowly missing out on a National League playoff berth. The Kansas City Royals won the World Series that season, taking down the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.