Card #383 -- Diego Segui, St. Louis Cardinals
Diego Segui had the meanest forkball in the majors. It was his signature pitch.
In 1969, he pitched the final three innings for the Seattle Pilots' opening game. In 1977, he started the Mariners' first game and was tagged with the loss. However, in 1973 there was no major league team in Seattle, so he's shown here with the Cardinals. The U.S. flag in the background is a nice touch, even if Segui was a native Cuban.
Before coming over to the Cardinals, Segui seemed to be the guy the A's couldn't seem to get rid of. He played for them from 1962-'65 when they were still in Kansas City. The Washington Senators bought him at the beginning of the 1966 season, only to trade him back halfway through the season. The Seattle Pilots drafted him for 1969 and traded him back to the A's before moving to Milwaukee. The A's traded him to the Cardinals in June of '72 (which was apparently enough time for Topps to get a proper photo of him). He remained with the Redbirds through '73, and was traded to the Red Sox.
After missing the three-year championship run the A's enjoyed, Segui managed to reach the World Series in 1975 and pitched the final inning of game 5. That would be his last time on the mound in a Red Sox uniform. He played the '76 season in the minors but was picked up by the Mariners for their inaugural season in '77. However, a 0-7 mark in 40 games with 2 saves ended the career of the 40-year old pitcher.
His son David Segui would go on to play in the majors from 1990-2004.
Diego and his son David were one of two Mariner faher son combos. The others were some guys named Griffey?
ReplyDeleteBut Diego and David didn't play in an actual game together on the same team like the Griffey's did. That was awesome.
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