A baseball card mystery: finding Kent Tekulve

Kent Tekulve was easily the skinniest player I’ve ever seen play in a major league game. He was listed at 6-foot-4 and 180 pounds, but in reality, he could not have weighed an ounce over 165 pounds, perhaps even 160 pounds. He looked like a scarecrow on the mound. Taken a step further, I’d be tempted to say he looked almost skeletal out there.

With a pronounced Adam’s apple and large wire-frame glasses, Tekulve hardly intimidated in the way of other great relievers of his era, like a Goose Gossage, an Al Hrabosky, or a bearded Bruce Sutter. That Tekulve even made the major leagues was a testament to his perseverance. Signed as a lowly regarded amateur free agent in 1969, he did not make his big league debut until the 1974 season, when he had already turned 27.

image

Without an overpowering fastball, Tekulve relied on sink, deception, and one of the funkiest deliveries in history. Long before Chad Bradford made the major league scene, Tekulve used a submarining motion in which his right elbow came within a few inches of touching the dirt on the pitcher’s mound.

With excellent sinking action on his fastball, plenty of sideward movement on his slider, and a slow curveball that he used as a change-up, Tekulve became one of the great relief aces of the late 1970s and early 80s.

Emerging as the Pirates’ primary closer in 1978, Tekulve saved 31 games. He matched that total the next season, coinciding with Pittsburgh’s second world championship of the decade. He also recorded the final out of the 1979 World Series to seal the title for the “We Are Family” Bucs.

Tekulve’s pitching fell off somewhat in 1980, as his ERA rose to 3.39. In the strike-shortened season of 1981, he lost the closer’s role to a bullpen committee headed by Enrique Romo and Rod Scurry. Even though Tekulve forged the best ERA of any Pirates reliever, he had to settle for only three saves.

To his credit, Tekulve regained the role of relief ace in 1982 and ‘83 before eventually being traded to the Phillies for hard-throwing left-hander Al Holland.

Exceedingly durable, Tekulve pitched 90 or more games three times in his career. With his underarming motion, he practically never had a sore arm. He lasted through the 1989 season, pitching for the Reds at the age of 42 and more than making up for the late start to his big league career.

Now that we’ve established his credentials, let’s tackle this week’s mystery. Tekulve’s 1981 Topps card shows him pitching in an afternoon game against the Mets at Shea Stadium. The baserunner appears to be Ron Hodges, the Mets’ longtime backup catcher, who is leading off second base.

What assumptions can we make? This is probably a game from the 1980 season, though it is possible that it could be from a 1979 game. The situation is likely in the late innings, when Tekulve pitched the vast majority of his innings.

So can we pin down this situation to a specific game, and a specific inning? Let’s go.


Bruce Markusen has authored seven baseball books, including biographies of Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda and Ted Williams, and A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, which was awarded SABR's Seymour Medal.
14 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jim
11 years ago

Probably the best I could find also with only one flaw.  According to “Dressed to the Nines”, the Pirates did not wear the all yellow uniform in 1980, only 1977 thru 1979.  Unless, the Hall of Fame site is wrong.  If the game was during those 3 years, there is not a day game where Tekulve was the pitcher and Hodges was on second at the same time.  So, I suspect the uniform site is missing a uniform.

Carl
11 years ago

Many other 1981 Topps cards show a similar all-gold uniform, including Willie Stargell, Victor Cruz, and the 3 guys on their prospects cards.  Victor Cruz, Rod Scurry show the black hat as well.  Don Robinson’s card, also an in-action card, shows the all gold uniform w the black hat.

I remember Shea having blue outfield walls. Is this bad memory, were the walls changed at some point, or did the picture just become really washed out?

dj
11 years ago

June 8th, 1980.  1st game of a doubeheader. Hodges singles off of Teke. Steals second.  It’s most likely him.  Other lefty-swinging Mets that year.  Jorgensen; Phil Mankowski.  1979 (in case they used the pic from year before) was Hebner & Bruce Boisclair.  Without doing more research, I’m betting Hodges.

metsilverman
11 years ago

Forget the color of the uniform and what happened in the game… RON HODGES STOLE A BASE?! I must not have been watching on Channel 9 that day because I would have remembered that.

Fr. H
11 years ago

Jim said the the Pirates didn’t wear the all-gold uniforms in 1980, citing “Dressed to the Nines.”  The illustrations on that web site were taken from Marc Okkonen’s book on uniforms.  Okkonen could not show all the different combinations in the space allotted, so he did various representations.  In 1977-79, they had no “home” or “road” uniforms, doing a mix-and-match of all the possibilities.  In ‘80, they dropped the stripes off of the white uniforms and made them the home outfit.  The all-black, all-gold and mix-and-match were used as road uniforms.  So it could be 1980.

Jim
11 years ago

Okay then, it looks like it is the June 8, 1980 game.

87 Cards
11 years ago

MetSilverman’s jibe at Hodges’ stolen base set me to seeking and searching about stolen bases and caught stealing and such basepath things.  Here is the gee-whiz stuff from the hunt:

1.    Hodges’ stolen base off of Tekulve was his only SB of 1980 and was 10% of his career output.  Ron was 10 for 23 lifetime on the paths.

2.  He stole it off of Ed Ott who gunned down 37% of his 1980 runners (the league average was 32%).  Tekulve’s base stealers had a 77%  success rate (his long-leg whip into his right-handed sidearm gave runners a good jump).

3.    The Bucs 34% cut-down rate was fourth-best against the steal in 1980 (Cubs 41%/Mets and Expos 38%…Dodgers last 23%).  This was just before Tony Peña and his 9mm arm joined the Pirates and forced Ott to the Angels in 1981.

4.  While poking around 1980 catchers’ throwing stats, I was surprised to learn that Bob Boone of the World Champion Phillies led the league in steals allowed (61 CS/183 attempts; 33%) even with Steve Carlton credited with 50% caught-stealing.

5.    Tim Blackwell of the NL-worst Cubs topped in catcher-throwing with 41 % gunned down rate (65 CS/159 attempts).

6.    I strongly agree that minimizing the running game is the shared responsibility of the pitcher, catcher and infielders—but cannon-armed catchers are a good show.

87 Cards
11 years ago

Kent Tekulve-an inspiration to skinny, near-sighted pitchers of my youth.

On Sunday, June 8, 1980, the Pirates started play 0.5 games up on the Montreal Expos for the NL East League.  This despite the losing the first two of a four game set in Shea to the Mets (23-26, 6 games back coming into play).  A Sunday doubleheader closed out the series.

In the bottom of the eight inning of Game One, Hodges led off with a singled, stole second off of Tekulve and Ed Ott, the catcher. He was sacrificed to third base by Ed Glynn, Mets pitcher. He did not advance further.

The Pirates dropped game one 6-4 and won the nightcap.  Eddie Solomon and Tekulve combined for a 3-0 shutout, “Ichabod Crane” getting the three-inning save.

The Pirates left New York that night in second place-0.5 games behind the Expos.  Montreal had swept the Cardinals in a doubleheader that day for wins 5 and 6 of a ten-game winning streak to move into first place.

Jim
11 years ago

Hugo raises an interesting point.  In 1980, only two non-Hispanic or non-African Americans reached second base for the Mets against Tekulve in a day game.  One was Stearns in the 9th inning on 6/7/80 and the other was Hodges the next day in the 8th inning.  I did not go back to any other year.  Interesting, both catchers, one day apart and both built almost alike as Hodges was one inch taller.  I looked at Topps pictures of both and Stearns was more clean cut, but from the picture it is hard to see if that difference is noticable.

Bruce Markusen
11 years ago

It’s definitely Hodges and not Stearns. One clue is the flap on the helmet. It’s on the side for a left-handed hitter (like Hodges) and not a right-handed hitter (like Stearns).

And like MetSilverman, I am stunned that Ron Hodges stole a base.

87 Cards
11 years ago

June 7, 1980, the night before the picture on the Tekulve card, Hodges pinch-hit for Doug Flynn in the 11th inning and singled home Stearns for the winning run…here is video of it from: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H0b1EsE0wY

Ron is at the 0:32 cue..that is Bert Blyleven in a rare relief appearance for the Bucs.

Hugo Anversa
11 years ago

Could be John Stearns the Mets catcher?

salvo
11 years ago

Unlike Hodges, Stearns actually was a catcher who was a base-stealing threat, with four seasons in double figures including 25 in 1978, representing the fifth-highest single-season total for a catcher.

James B
9 years ago

I get the feeling that you guys like facts. Alas, I cannot give you any. What I can tell you is that I was a young catcher growing up in Brooklyn around the time this photo was taken, and even though he was not all the good a hitter, Ron Hodges was a bit of a hero of mine. I can tell you with personal certainty that is Ron Hodges.

For what it’s worth, I found this board after doing a search of Kent Tekulve…my all-time favorite baseball player.