DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
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Tekulve[/caption]
Kent Tekulve, the closer for the Pirates' World Series champions in 1979 and popular analyst on their current games for Root Sports, had a heart transplant Sept. 5 and is "feeling surprisingly great right now," he told me Monday night.
Details of the transplant are expected to be made public at a Tuesday press conference by the Pirates, Root and Allegheny General Hospital.
Tekulve, 67, had a heart episode on Christmas Eve 2013 that he described as "the heart basically quitting on me." A pump was installed shortly thereafter, and in April, he was placed on the heart transplant list. Earlier this summer, he and Root agreed he would take a break from his duties as postgame studio commentator and, at the time, he asked for privacy and did not divulge his condition.
"The pump was never designed to be a lifelong thing," Tekulve said. "It was a bridge to a heart replacement."
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