Page 129 - 1975 BoSox

122 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
Segui’s teams put up with his rituals, as they valued his work ethic and variety of pitches. He never com- plained whether he was a reliever or a starter, or called in for only part of an inning. And he could throw a very decent forkball. “It goes somewhere all the time. ... It acts like a screwie. It drops and sometimes acts like a screwball — sometimes.”
Segui learned to throw the elusive forkball at a farm in Cuba, where a left-handed pitcher from a semipro team taught him to throw the traditional southpaw pitch. In a Cuban cow pasture he perfected his sig- nature pitch, called the “tenedor.” But was Segui’s forkball truly a forkball? Or was it really a Pedro Ramos “Cuban forkball,” a pitch that was suspected as a spitball? After all, the doubters hinted, Segui spent such a long time working over the ball before the windup. Such an accusation was vehemently denied by Diego. “De nitely not!” he said. “Maybe it reacts a little like a spitter, but it isn’t.”3
After 21⁄2 seasons in Oakland, the A’s sent Segui to the Cardinals in June 1972 for future considerations, and he played the next year and a half for St. Louis. In December 1973 he was traded to the Boston Red Sox with pitcher Reggie Cleveland and in elder Terry Hughes for pitchers John Curtis, Mike Garman, and Lynn McGlothen. e Red Sox were in dire need of bullpen help, and asked those in the know around the National League who were the best right-handed relievers. Segui’s name came up frequently enough to corroborate a scouting report from Haywood Sullivan and Frank Malzone.
Although many within the Red Sox organization looked forward to his arrival in the bullpen, Segui wondered. As the MVP of the Pilots in 1969, the ERA leader in the American League in 1970, and owning respectable stats overall, why was he trade material year after year? In a March 1974 interview with Boston Globe reporter Clif Keane during spring training at Winter Haven, Florida, Segui said: “I sit and wonder each time that I have been traded, have I done some- thing wrong? Did I not get along with the people? Why don’t they like me, so that I have to go from one team to another so much? If you are confused about
it, “he said, “you can say that I am more confused than anyone else.”4
Segui pitched regularly early in the 1974 season with great success. By early June he developed calluses on two ngers of his throwing hand, causing a control problem that nagged him until late August. An epi- demic of bumps, bruises, and sore shoulders swept through Boston’s bullpen, forcing the starters into leading the league in complete games. In early September Segui lost a couple of crucial games in late innings and ended the season with a 6-8 record and 10 saves. Manager Darrell Johnson expressed con - dence in Segui’s ability to come back in 1975 in good condition.
In 1975 Segui resumed his role as a short reliever, willing to pitch anytime, anywhere he was needed. When Luis Tiant’s shoulder came up lame in July, Segui was ready to jump in as a starter, a role he had not played since May 1972. On the 29th he started, and lost a complete game, 4-0, to Milwaukee. “(Segui) pitched a hell of a game,” said Darrell Johnson. He gave up 10 hits, but struck out 11. ree solo home runs, two by Don Money and one by Darrell Porter, were the key blows.
roughout the 1975 season, the Red Sox pitchers kept everyone on edge. Bill Lee and Diego Segui didn’t want the paying customers to be bored, wrote Peter Gammons in the Boston Globe. Yet the hitting, elding and pitching brought the team to an American League pennant as well as the World Series, and Diego Segui made his one and only appearance on the mound at the World Series in the eighth inning of Game Five.
Just before the start of the 1976 season, Segui was released. He was not picked up by another major- league team and instead signed with the Hawaii Islanders of the Paci c Coast League. In September he was suspended by the club after a legal entangle- ment over money he claimed was owed him. When the Seattle Mariners began organizing their roster for their inaugural 1977 season, Segui’s memorable year with the Pilots was recalled, and he not only made the Mariners, he was anointed the Opening Day