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

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

right-handed

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher or another relief pitcher has been removed from the game due to fatigue (medical), fatigue, injury, ineffectiveness, ejection ...

who played 16 seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(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 (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

. He also played for the

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

and

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

. Pitching with an unusual

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

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. The statistic is also referred to as appearances, especially to refer to the number of ...

and

innings pitched In baseball, the statistic innings pitched (IP) is the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of Batter (baseball), batters and baserunners that have been put out while the pitcher is on the Baseball field#Pitcher's mou ...

Career

Tekulve is a 1969 graduate of

Marietta College Marietta College (MC) is a private liberal arts college in Marietta, Ohio, United States. Its campus encompasses approximately six city blocks next to downtown Marietta and enrolls 1,200 students. History Marietta College began as the Muskin ...

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

. 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 () were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in the National League (baseball), National League ...

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 of 2.33 and 2.75, respectively. He won National League Pitcher of the Month for August 1978. 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 between the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates (98–64) and the Am ...

, including the winner, as the Pirates defeated the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) 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) East Division. As one of the America ...

4 games to 3. He was selected as an

All-Star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

in 1980. He was traded from the

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

to the

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

for Al Holland and minor-league left-handed pitcher Frankie Griffin on April 20, 1985. 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. Era or ERA may also refer to: * Era (geology), a subdivision of geologic time * Calendar era Education * Academy of European Law (German: '), an international law school * ERA School, in Melbourne, Australia * E ...

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. In a 16-year career, Tekulve compiled a 94-90 won-loss record with a 2.85 ERA, 779 strikeouts, and 184 saves. He had no starts or complete games in his MLB career. At the plate, he posted a .083

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(10-for-121) with no

extra-base hits In baseball, an extra-base hit (EB, EBH or XBH), also known as a long hit, is any base hit on which the batter is able to advance past first base without the benefit of a fielder either committing an error or opting to make a throw to retire ano ...

and just 2

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

in 132

plate appearances In baseball, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runner. This ha ...

. Defensively, he recorded a .970

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a baseball positions, defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putout ...

which was 18 points higher than the league average at his position.

Records

Tekulve led the National League 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 in the

1960 World Series The 1960 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1960 Major League Baseball season, 1960 season. The 57th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National Leag ...

; it was broken by John Wetteland in 1996. He holds the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

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 Roy Face'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 Major League Baseball All-Star Ga ...

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 (baseball), 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 ...

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

Post-playing career

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. It was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. Its original incarnation, the se ...

'' 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 of the independent

Frontier League The Frontier League (FL; French: ''Ligue Frontière'', LF) is a professional baseball league in North America composed of 18 teams – 15 in the United States and 3 in Canada. The FL is one of the eight independent baseball leagues in North Ame ...

, Tekulve took a job as the

' advance scout in 2006. Tekulve worked for AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh (formerly FSN Pittsburgh and later Root Sports Pittsburgh) and appeared as an analyst after each Pittsburgh Pirates 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 when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common procedure is to take a functioning heart ...

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 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

* * {{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 (baseball) players Sherbrooke Pirates players Waterbury Pirates players Baseball players from Cincinnati

Career

Records

Post-playing career

See also

References

External links