Kenton Charles Tekulve ( ; born March 5, 1947), nicknamed "Teke", is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

right-handed

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...

who played 16 seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB), primarily for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. He also played for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

and

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

. Pitching with an unusual

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

delivery, Tekulve was known as a workhorse relief pitcher who holds several records for number of

games pitched In baseball statistics, games pitched (denoted by Games G in tables of only pitching statistics) is the number of games in which a player appears as a pitcher; a player who is announced as the pitcher must face at least one batter, although except ...

and

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

Career

Tekulve is a 1969 graduate of

Marietta College Marietta College (MC) is a private liberal arts college in Marietta, Ohio. It offers more than 50 undergraduate majors across the arts, sciences, and engineering, as well as Physician Assistant, Psychology, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, an ...

Marietta, Ohio Marietta is a city in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Ohio, United States. It is located in southeastern Ohio at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, northeast of Parkersburg, West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, Mar ...

. He signed that year as a free agent with the

and remained with that organization until 1985. He made his major league debut against the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

on May 20, 1974. He pitched an inning of relief and allowed one hit in the 4–2 loss. His best seasons came in and , in both of which he saved 31 games and posted

ERAs Eras is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Albert Boton and Albert Hollenstein and was released by the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1976. Eras is licensed by the Linotype type foundry. A distinct and curious feature of E ...

of 2.33 and 2.75, respectively. He saved three games in the

1979 World Series The 1979 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1979 season. The 76th edition of the World Series was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates (98–64) and ...

, including the winner, as the Pirates defeated the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

4–3. He was selected an All-Star in 1980. Early in the 1985 season, Tekulve was traded to the

for

Al Holland Alfred Willis Holland (born August 16, 1952) is a former professional baseball relief pitcher, who played Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, California Angels, and New York Yankees ...

and a minor leaguer, Frankie Griffin. He continued to be an effective reliever into his 40s. Only in his first season (1974) and his last season (1989) did he post an

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

above 4. While with the Phillies, he led the NL in

for the fourth time, with 90 in 1987 at the age of 40. Tekulve signed with the

before the 1989 season and pitched in 37 games before retiring in July.

Records

Tekulve led the major leagues in

four times, appearing in 90 or more games three times. He and Mike Marshall are the only pitchers in baseball history to appear in 90 or more games more than once, having each done the feat three times. Tekulve is also the oldest pitcher ever to appear in 90 games, when he did so in 1987 at age 40. Tekulve's three saves in the

tied the single-Series mark set by

Roy Face Elroy Leon Face (born February 20, 1928), nicknamed The Bullpen Baron, is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. During a 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched primarily for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A pioneer of ...

in the

1960 World Series The 1960 World Series was played between the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates season, Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League (NL) and the 1960 New York Yankees season, New York Yankees of the American League (AL) from October 5–13, 1960. In Game 7, ...

; it was broken by

John Wetteland John Karl Wetteland (born August 21, 1966) is an American former baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (1989–2000). He pitched for four teams: the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, New York Yankees, and Texas Rang ...

in 1996. He holds the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

record for career

in relief (), and formerly held the major league record for career relief appearances; his 1,050 career games, all in relief, ranked second in major league history to

Hoyt Wilhelm James Hoyt Wilhelm (July 26, 1922 – August 23, 2002), nicknamed "Old Sarge", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, California Angel ...

's 1,070 when he retired. Tekulve owns the career records for most appearances and innings pitched without making a single start. In , he broke

's NL record of 846 career games pitched; he held the record until

John Franco John Anthony Franco (born September 17, 1960) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed relief pitcher between and . Franco established himself as an All-Star player with the Cinci ...

passed him in . In August of , he pitched on nine consecutive days, a record for pitchers. Tekulve holds the record for most career losses without having given up any

earned runs In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an err ...

, with 12, as well as the record for most intentional walks issued, with 179.

Retirement

Tekulve appeared in a 1983 episode of ''

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (sometimes shortened to ''Mister Rogers'') is an American half-hour educational children's television series that ran from 1968 to 2001, and was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series ''Misterogers'' debut ...

'' to explain how people play baseball. Tekulve was a member of the

television broadcast team from 1991 to 1997. After several years involvement with the

Washington Wild Things The Washington Wild Things are a professional baseball team based in Washington, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The Wild Things are a member of the Frontier League, an independent baseball league which, as of 2020, is an official Partner Le ...

of the independent

Frontier League The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...

, Tekulve took a job as the

' advance scout in 2006. Tekulve worked for

AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh is an American regional sports network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit as part of the AT&T SportsNet brand of networks and is an affiliate of Bally Sports. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the chann ...

(formerly FSN Pittsburgh and later Root Sports Pittsburgh) and appeared as an analyst after each

game from 2008 to 2017. However, in the early to mid part of the 2014 Pirates season, he took a hiatus for personal reasons. Tekulve underwent successful

heart transplantation A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common procedu ...

surgery on September 5, 2014, after spending eight months on the transplant list. The surgery was performed at Allegheny General Hospital. Tekulve threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the

National League Wild Card Game The Wild Card Series (formerly known as Wild Card Game from 2012 to 2019 and in 2021) are games that serve as the opening round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason. A single wild card game was first instituted in 2012; best-of-three ...

between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Francisco Giants on October 1, 2014. Tekulve announced his retirement from broadcasting on September 6, 2017.

References

External links

Kent Tekulve
at SABR (Baseball BioProject) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tekulve, Kent 1947 births Living people Águilas Cibaeñas players American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic Charleston Charlies players Cincinnati Reds players Geneva Pirates players Heart transplant recipients Major League Baseball pitchers Marietta Pioneers baseball players Marietta Pioneers men's basketball players National League All-Stars Navegantes del Magallanes players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Philadelphia Phillies announcers Philadelphia Phillies players Pittsburgh Pirates players Salem Rebels players Sherbrooke Pirates players Waterbury Pirates players Baseball players from Cincinnati

Career

Records

Retirement

See also

References

External links