Tim Benz: 'We played Wiffle Ball almost every day ... When you were pitching, you were Teke'

A young baseball player in the 1970s, John Wehner grew up in Pittsburgh as a massive fan of the Pirates and their 1979 World Series championship team.

Now a broadcaster for the Pirates after wearing the uniform himself for nine years, those memories have not faded for the Carrick High School grad.

“I took the bus down to (Three River Stadium) by myself sometimes when I was in middle school and high school to watch them,” Wehner said before Friday’s game against the Chicago Cubs. “I can still name off all 25 guys on the World Series roster. I listened to them every night.”

So how often did he try to throw sidearm like relief pitcher Kent Tekulve?

“Almost every day,” Wehner recalled with a smile. “We played Wiffle Ball almost every day. It was the Phillies versus the Pirates. When you were pitching, you were Teke or maybe Jim Bibby if you were right-handed.”

As a natural overhand thrower, Wehner admits his Bibby impersonation was usually a bit better than his Tekulve.

“But if we had a lead late, I was dropping down,” Wehner said of Tekulve’s unique submarine style.

That unforgettable delivery resulted in 158 saves as a Pirate and his induction into the team’s Hall of Fame on Saturday.

“I did everything I could during that period of time to tell people, kids particularly, ‘Don’t throw like that because I throw that way. I throw that way because that’s how I can get people out. You throw like you normally throw. Throw the way that’s natural for you,’ ” Tekulve said after his induction. “But it seemed like the message didn’t set in because everybody wanted to do it because it looked different. It just had something to it that attracted (young kids) to do it.”

Born in Cincinnati, Tekulve said he drew inspiration for the delivery during a game of catch in the outfield with a teammate when he attempted to mimic the delivery of Reds pitcher Ted Abernathy.

“All of the sudden, the bottom just fell out of it,” Tekulve told TribLIVE’s Mark Madden during a recent interview on 105.9 The X. “It went down about 10 inches. And I’m saying, ‘Woah! We may have found something here.’ That was how quick the sinker came. It came the first time I threw a ball that way. It took a couple more years to figure out how to throw a breaking ball to complement it.”

For 34 years of his retirement, Tekulve says Pirates fans have never stopped telling him how his delivery inspired them to try the same thing in their backyards at some point in their lives.

“Every conversation to this day,” Tekulve said. “And a lot of the (younger) people I look at now, I say, ‘I know you didn’t see it (live)! So you either looked at some video, or somebody told you about it.’ I mean, literally every kid that was in Pittsburgh at that time, for some reason, was trying to do it that way.”

One of those people is Pirates bench coach Don Kelly. Born in Butler, Kelly was only 5 years old when Tekulve was traded to Philadelphia in 1985. But the Mt. Lebanon graduate admits trying to sling it sidearm like Tekulve as a little leaguer who was experimenting with pitching.

“I remember being a kid; my dad was a big fan of Teke. That was something that I tried to do,” Kelly said.

How’d that go?

“Not good,” Kelly said with a laugh. “My dad told me to start going back over the top.”

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That’s not a surprise. While Tekulve made that funky delivery look so fluid and effortless, it was hard to do. Other pitchers in Tekulve’s era — and in the decades since — have gotten into big leagues throwing sidearm. Yet few have replicated Tekulve’s success.

One of them was fellow closer Dan Quisenberry, who adopted Tekulve’s submarine style in his second season of 1980 at the suggestion of his manager, Jim Frey.

He then became a three-time All-Star with the Kansas City Royals. Quisenberry ended his career with 244 saves. Future Pirate and current team broadcaster Bob Walk was on the Philadelphia Phillies during the 1980 World Series when they played Quisenberry and the Royals.

“Somebody got an at-bat off of him, and they came into the dugout, and the first question was, ‘What’s it like?’ And he goes ‘Just like Teke, but he doesn’t throw as hard,’” Walk remembered. “And I was thinking, ‘Wow. Everybody compares anybody like this to Teke,’ because Teke is the best.”

According to what fellow Pirates Hall of Famer Steve Blass said, what separated Tekulve from most side-armers was that velocity Walk mentioned.

“You’ve got to know what you’re doing with that (delivery),” Blass said. “A lot of people think, ‘Well, it’s just all a deception.’ But he had enough speed. A lot of people say he just had movement on the ball, which he had. But he also had enough speed to keep you honest.”

Having grown up in Mars, current Pirates closer David Bednar says he is well aware of Tekulve’s legacy. But trying to close out a game with a sidearm save is unlikely.

“I don’t think I have that in the bag,” Bednar laughed.

Not surprising. Bednar’s powerful, thick frame is about as opposite from Tekulve’s lanky “Rubberband Man” appearance as you could find. But there is one posture of Tekulve’s that Bednar does want to emulate.

The celebration of leaping off the mound to close out a championship.

“That’s the goal,” Bednar said. “It’s something that we really want to bring back here sooner than later.”

It’s something Tekulve wants to see as well and something he’ll always cherish accomplishing.

“Steve (Blass) and I talk about it all the time,” Tekulve said. “Kids grew up all over this country dreaming of throwing the last pitch to win the World Series or to hit a home run to win the World Series. (Bill) Mazeroski got to do it on one end. Steve and I got to do it on the other. How lucky we are to have ever been able to live every little kid’s dream.”

Listen: Tim Benz discusses the Pirates’ Hall of Fame induction ceremonies with Kent Tekulve and Steve Blass