Tekulve saves the day at Alzheimer event
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Frank Sunday, center, admires memorabilia, including a hat and shirt, from the 1979 World Series as Rob Mascio, Jessica Ciancio, Alyssa Marsico and Estay Mikolajcik look on.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Jessica Ciancio affixes a star to Julie Kowcheck’s baseball cap during a special event held at Country Meadows Retirement Coummunities. The Alzheimer’s Association Greater Pennsylvania Chapter and the Pittsburgh Pirates have teamed up with Major League Memories, an Alzheimer’s Association engagement opportunity for people living with the disease or dementia.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Jessica Ciancio shows Bernice Weiss the official Pirates cap worn by the players during the 1979 World Series season.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Kent Tekulve poses for a photo with baseball fan Jerry Noble.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Kent Tekulve puts an autorgraphed baseball cap on Jerry Noble’s head.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Bernice Weiss admires an autographed baseball from the 1979 World Series.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Kent Tekulve lets Alyssa Sodini, 10, of South Fayette try on his World Series ring while her mother, Jill, photographs the jewelry piece during a special event held at Country Meadows.
Eleanor Bailey/Observer-Reporter
Kent Tekulve lets Alyssa Sodini, 10, of South Fayette try on his World Series ring while her mother, Jill, photographs the jewelry and her sister, Layla, 12, looks on during a special event held at Country Meadows.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Kent Tekulve shows the Stargell stars that were affixed to Pirates caps after players accomplished something noteworthy. The awards were given out by Willie Stargell. During the Pirates run to the World Series, Tekulve earned 45 stars, including one for helping clinch the seventh and final game. Tekulve’s cap is on display at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Kent Tekulve
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Kent Tekulve
“Wonderful,” exclaimed Bernice Weiss
“Awesome,” enthused Alyssa Sodini while her older sister, Layla added, “very cool.”
“Holy cow. Amazing,” emphasized Frank Sunday. “I’d give it 100%.”
Not since saving the seventh game of the 1979 World Series and clinching the championship for the Pittsburgh Pirates has Kent Tekulve received such rave reviews. The submarine-throwing pitcher was the keynote speaker at Major League Memories – an event held at Country Meadows of South Hills in South Fayette.
In conjunction with the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Pennsylvania Chapter and the Pittsburgh Pirates, the engagement for people living with the disease or dementia was designed to connect those in the community with MLB teams through the joy of shared nostalgia.
“We love social engagement programs like this,” said Alyssa Marsico from AAGPC. “Any time we can get anybody with Alzheimer’s and related dementia out and interacting with other people is a win. We have found that through the Major League Memories program that people remember their baseball.”
At Country Meadow, they don’t just remember their baseball, they love their baseball.
In fact, residents schedule their lives around the Pirates.
“Everybody here watches baseball all the time,” Marsico said. “They have every Pirates game on.”
Jessica Ciancio concurred.
“The Pirates are an essential part of our community and the activities here. It’s a religion,” said the executive director of member’s support program. “It’s always being played on the televisions here. Every game,” emphasized the Upper St. Clair native. “The residents are always wearing their Pirates’ gear.
“Baseball is just something they grew up on,” Ciancio added. “So, obviously, they were super excited about this event.”
The residents were so enthused they assisted with all the details. They made centerpieces for the tables set up outside under a white tent festooned with black and gold as well as purple and white balloons, signature colors for the Pirates and Alzheimer’s.
The tables also held mason jars containing baseball favorites such as peanuts, popcorn and miniature Baby Ruth bars. Bobbleheads of players from every era, as well as a Charlie Brown figurine, accompanied the arrangements as well as purple and white pom-pom shakers, “Raise The Jolly Roger” towels and MLB paper lanterns.
Crackers Jacks abounded and the scent of hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill wafted through the air as residents engaged in a sing-a-long during a seventh-inning stretch in the program.
Ciancio and Marsico said the setting and environment stimulated the residents’ consciousness. It is one reason why baseball is an agent for those with memory issues.
“Any type of activity that keeps them engaged is a vehicle to help people with Alzheimer’s. So anything that can bring back that memory. Whether it’s music. Whether it’s sports, a photograph. Kent talking about his experiences as a Pirate. Anything could trigger that memory,” Marsico said.
Ciancio agreed. She said hearing “Take Me Out To the Ballgame,” eating the “Cracker Jack” and being in that environment brought back nostalgia. Seeing and hearing Tekulve talk about his career, which included 16 years in the big leagues and 722 games with the Pirates, put the residents back in the bleacher seats at Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium.
“This is what they grew up on and some of their favorite memories involve baseball so this event was wonderful because it brought back that nostalgia and the adrenaline of being at the games. Those memories that were part of the best times of their lives they will remember. Absolutely, yes,” she said.
When Ciancio showed a laminated copy of the front page of the Oct. 14, 1960 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mr. Sunday returned to his youth as he recalled where and what he was doing that autumn afternoon only hours earlier.
“I was there,” Sunday exclaimed as he perused the paper. “My best memory is being at Forbes Field when (Bill) Mazeroski hit that home run to win the World Series.”
The reflections continued.
“When Ralph Kiner was playing for the Pirates, we went to every game. I got in free. I had a baseball cap on. It said the Pirates. I went with my uncle. He was a big fan. Kiner and Hank Greenberg were my favorites,” Sunday said.
While residents mentioned Josh Bell and Starling Marte as their current favorites, Tekulve was the man of the hour this day at Country Meadow.
“He was great,” Weiss said. “He presented himself just beautifully.”
Teke to the rescue
After the residents viewed a highlight video, Tekulve took the stage to discuss a career that spanned 16 years in the big leagues with three different teams -the Pirates, Phillies and Cincinnati Reds.
Tekulve owned a 94-90 lifetime record with a 2.85 ERA and 184 saves. His 722 games pitched as a member of the Pirates are the second most in club history. Tekulve led the National League in games pitched in 1978, 1979, 1982 and 1987. His three saves for the Pirates in the 1979 World Series against Baltimore helped preserve the World Series championship.
Tekulve quizzed the residents, asking about their favorite things. When they responded home runs, he reminded them he was a pitcher and didn’t care too much for the long ball.
He inquired about their heroes.
While many answered Roberto Clemente, Tekulve indicated Willie Stargell was among his favorites particularly because of his way of saying ‘thank you’ to somebody. Rather than signing autographs, which Stargell believed was not “personal” he handed stars. He did this, too, to the players, awarding them “Stargell Stars” for their outstanding contributions in games.
Tekulve received them for wins and saves. He received an extra one once for playing outfield in a game. In 1979, Tekulve had so many stars that he ended up with two rows all the way around his baseball cap. He noted after the World Series and after picking up his 45th star, the people from the Hall of Fame wanted two things to display at Cooperstown – the Stargell’s home run ball that clinched the seventh game and Tekulve’s hat.
“When you donate things to Cooperstown, you never get them back,” Tekulve said with a sigh, “but that hat has been on display for 40 years in the same place. I am so proud of that. I’m proud of what we were able to do. I had the good fortune to go out and play baseball with a bunch of great friends and I was lucky enough, too, that my friends were great baseball players. Obviously, that is why we won.”
The Pirates won their last World Series in 1979 in part because of Tekulve’s pitching. He shared that as his secret to success.
Tekulve said his unusual style of pitching sidearm was a necessity rather than a novel way to stand out among the crowd.
While according to doctors, his throwing motion put less strain on his arm than throwing overhand, he stressed to the crowd, that is not why he threw that way. He also noted his young fans wanted to throw like he did and he cautioned them not to do it.
“I don’t do it because I think it’s cool,” he said. “It’s because that is how I could get people out. You throw the ball the way you can get people out.
“If you are a pitcher and if you can figure out how to get people out on a regular basis, you are going to get to play a long time and they are going to hand you some nice size checks,” he added. “If you can’t, you are not going to play very long and not get those nice checks.”
While Tekulve continued to share his baseball memories by conducting a discussion of the memorabilia he brought along as well as answering further questions about his career, he had achieved his goal for the event.
While he professed not to be a professional, he felt that for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia and memory issues, “anything that you can do, that can stimulate remembering things from the past has to be good. To be able to come here and present something that helps them remember and gets them talking about has to be a good thing.
I don’t know if I made anybody’s life better today,” he added. “Hopefully, I made them smile.
Kathy Sodini of South Fayette did smile and that made her daughter, Jill, cry. At 69, Kathy is at the end-stages of the disease and under hospice care. She has lived with Alzheimer’s since her husband passed away from a heart attack at 58 nearly a decade ago.
Jill noted she looked forward to the event at Country Meadows. She felt it was something her whole family could connect to because baseball has been a big part of her mother’s past. Her parents took she and her brother, Michael, to games. Jill brought her two daughters, Alyssa, 10, and Layla, 12, to the event as well.
“An event like this helped us all but it was something I could bring up things about with my mother and say, ‘hey mom remember when we used to go to Pirates games.’ She would smile and say ‘yeah’ and this brought that back. I am sure they were just fleeting thoughts but little memories that made her smile, made her happy,” Jill said.
Jill Sodini believes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Although she tested positive for the genetic markers that harbor Alzheimer’s Disease, the South Fayette resident is determined to fight the diagnosis that has gripped her mother, Kathy, for nearly a decade.
Sodini admitted she is twice as likely to get the disease but she acknowledged, “Genes are not your destiny. There are a lot of things that you can do.”
Education is one. The Alzheimer’s Association is another. Visit alz.org for more details.
“You can learn more about these things and I am hopeful for the future and hopeful for what the association finds,” Sodini said, “but I also know that I can do in my day-to-day life things to help prevent it from a lifestyle perspective.”
As a health coach, Sodini takes those precautions. As mentioned she carries an extra variant of one of the genes for the disease. However, she stays physically fit, consumes a balanced diet and keeps her mind active.
Noting Alzheimer’s is called Diabetes Type III, she suggests watching sugar consumption. She said that socialization is vital as are diet and consistent exercise. She recommends at least 140 minutes per week if not more.
“You want to keep your mind going,” she said, adding that she is a voracious reader. “Diet and consistent exercise are important. Try for balance and stay away from the processed stuff. Sugar is a big concern,” she added and noted that her mother had a ‘sweet tooth’ and a high-sugar diet.
“It becomes the perfect storm when you have these things coupled with your genetics. That is when things get turned on. So just trying to pay attention to that, the sugar, the processed food, watching the chemical overload, trying to eliminate some of the day-to-day bad things we do. It’s a lot of that.”
Sodini cautions people do not need to become fanatical. She admitted she was going to indulge a little after celebrating the little triumph when her mother smiled and enjoyed a recent outing at Country Meadows Retirement Communities-South Hills campus. Kent Tekulve made an appearance at the Major League Memories Event, sponsored in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Alheimer’s Association Greater Pennsylvania Chapter.
“On a day like today, I’m going to eat the burger, the hot dog or whatever,” she said of the cookout that followed the event. “You’ve gotta live your life, too. It’s all about balance.”
While balancing visits and care of her mother, who at 69 is at the end stages of the disease and is under hospice care, Sodini is a mother of two daughters, Alyssa, 10 and Layla, 12. In addition, the Altoona native, who earned her college degree from Duquesne University and holds certifications from the Health Coach Institute and Mindful Schools, founded Habitual Health By Jill. She does individual coaching as well as corporate and school sessions and workshops in stress management.
“Stress management,” she emphasized, “is a huge facet regarding Alzheimer’s as well. It’s something I learned that I had to do particularly in the last seven years with this disease with my mom.
“Every stage has been difficult in its own way and you have to take care of yourself too and you have to learn that you can only control so much. The other stuff you have to let it go.”
While she is ready to let her mother go because she knows that she will finally “be at peace,” Sodini is not ready to let Alzheimer’s go or educating others about the disease. When asked what one thing she thought people ought to know about the disease, Sodini let out a heavy sigh as there are so many.
“The most important thing,” she paused then said, “is if you are somebody that is a caretaker or a family member or you are friends with someone who is a caretaker or family member that has the disease, it teaches you to life in the moment all the time.
Just learning to life in the moment is something that we all can take away from it but really you have to do it when you have a person with Alzheimer’s in life in anyway shape or form and even understanding that caregivers now tend to do that in their lives all the time. It’s a different way but it’s the best way to get the most out of life in every way. And again every minute. Because it changes so you learn to appreciate things a lot differently.”
Sodini said that the Pirates and the Alzheimer’s Association made a difference in her mother’s final days, especially with the special event featuring Kent Tekulve.
“It’s great,” she said and noted how the event did spark some memories in her mother and produced a smile, priceless in these long days.
“Any time that you have a big organization pairing up with such an amazing cause that gets the word out, people understand that it is a good organization that they can invest in. Maybe some donations or time to raise awareness because it really is all that we have when you suffer from this disease there just isn’t a lot out there and they are struggling to find the answers. We just need to keep supporting these types of organizations that can help us once we get there.”
The statistics regarding Alzheimer’s Disease are staggering.
It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
Between 2000 and 2017 deaths from Alzheimer’s have increased 145 percent while heart disease has decreased by nine percent.
One in three seniors die with the disease or another dementia. It kills more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
5.8 million Americans are living with the disease with the numbers swelling to 14 million by 2050.
Every 65 seconds someone in the U.S. develops the disease.
Only 16 percent of seniors receive regular cognitive assessments during routine health check-ups.
Jessica Ciancio, however, wants people to remember this one thing regarding Alzheimer’s.
“It is an invisible disease,” said the executive director of our member’s support program at Country Meadows-South Hills. “So people can not see it.”
Ciancio, who has worked at Country Meadows since her high school days at Upper St. Clair, added that children may think their mother is just being difficult but really she is struggling.
“Remember it is a disease and recognizing that. Remember to take a deep breath and it’s okay in re-directing them and letting them, the wife, the parent, whoever is struggling with it.”
Ciancio, who has adopted her charges at her grandparents, finds working at Country Meadows rewarding. She loves being with the residents on a daily basis.
“I love being able to help them live days of dignity and respect and really engaging with them. I always say it’s like I have over 100 grandparents every day. You come to work and they look forward to seeing you. They’re happy, well-taken care of. You can’t really ask for a job that is this rewarding and this much fun.”
Kent Tekulve, who was the keynote guest at the Major League Memories event held recently at Country Meadow, agreed. He embraced the opportunity to speak to the residents now that his is no longer employed as a baseball analyst. In addition to staying involved with his grandchildren, the Upper St. Clair resident welcomed the opportunity that retirement now affords at age 72.
“I just want to stay active,” he said. “It’s about being a part of what is happening and investing yourself into that activity as opposed to just going out and sitting on the porch. I don’t have anything I have to do today so I can just go sit on the porch. Well, I don’t want to sit on the porch. I’ll find something else to do. I’ll read. I’ll do something else to keep myself busy, to keep my mind busy.”