Who here can close their eyes and visualize the sidearm/underarm delivery style of relief pitcher, Kent "Teke" Tekulve? This unique delivery and his physical stature earned him the rubberband man nickname.
There is so much I could write about Teke, but I'll defer to a previous episode of The Athlete Archives for anyone that is interested.
https://youtu.be/SezIrxe49Ts?si=f8_x3RNvwD9EbcpS
Teke was one of my favorite Pirates from the era. An excellent relief pitcher and (for one play) one hell of a left fielder. I wanted to show a few recent cards I picked up and a photo from 1985 that I recently found in a box at my parent's house. The Topps card has a period correct autograph and the second card is the O-Pee-Chee version of the same rookie card.
Teke's Rubberband Man entrance music was cool way before Enter Sandman, Hell's Bells, or Renegade brought a closer to the mound.
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Another cool thing that most people don’t remember is that Teke and Goose Gossage were in the bullpen together in 1977. Teke was 10-1 with 7 saves (3.06 ERA) and Goose was 11-9 with 26 saves and a. 1.62 ERA. That is a serious bullpen.