Diego Seguí, the Cuban journeyman who pitched 15 seasons in Major League Baseball and another 10 years in the Mexican League, died on Tuesday at the age of 87.
Seguí was born in Holguín, Cuba. He initially signed with the Cincinnati Reds in 1958, but they released him. Pitching for Tucson, a team in the unaffiliated Class C Arizona League, set him on the path to the majors. They sold the right-hander to the Athletics, with whom he spent nine of his 15 big-league seasons, including his debut in ’62, their final season in Kansas City in ’67 and their inaugural season in Oakland in ’68. On the ’70 A’s, Seguí won the American League ERA title with a 2.56 mark over 47 games.
In between, Seguí pitched for the ’66 Washington Senators and the first and only Seattle Pilots team in ’69 (they were relocated to Milwaukee and became the Brewers the next year). He was named team MVP of the Pilots.
After being traded from Oakland to St. Louis during the ’72 season, the Cardinals sent Seguí to the Red Sox in December ’73. He spent the next two years in Boston. On Sept. 22, 1974, he broke the Red Sox single-game record for strikeouts by a reliever when he punched out 12 Baltimore Orioles — matching his career-high from Sept. 6, 1964 — in 7.2 innings. It was one of five double-digit strikeout performances in Seguí’s career, and his first since 1965.
On the Red Sox, Seguí was teammates with fellow Cuban pitcher Luis Tiant, who passed away last Oct. 8. Both men had made the difficult decision not to return to their homeland when Fidel Castro closed the doors in 1961.
At 37 years old, Seguí pitched in 33 regular-season games on Boston’s ’75 pennant team. On July 29, he pitched a complete game and struck out 11 in a 4-0 loss to Milwaukee when Tiant was sidelined with a shoulder injury. Game 5 of the World Series was Seguí’s second and final career postseason appearance and only World Series appearance.
For his final MLB season in 1977, Seguí returned to Seattle. There, at 40 years old, he threw the first pitch in Mariners history. Not only was he the only person who played for both Seattle teams, he also pitched in each one’s inaugural game.
Seguí finished his MLB career with a 3.81 ERA over 639 games, but he continued to pitch. Between ’78 and ‘84, he was on the mound in the Mexican League. He also spent nearly two decades playing winter ball in Venezuela and was inducted into the Venezuelan Hall of Fame in 2003.
Seguí’s son, David, spent 15 seasons in the majors as well.
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