Segrist was signed by the Yankees in 1951 after helping to lead
Bibb Falk’s
Texas Longhorns to back-to-back national championships in 1949 and
1950, with the latter being the first played in Omaha. After earning
All-Conference honors as a second baseman in 1949, he volunteered to
play first base in 1950 when he saw there was unsteadiness at the
position.
“We had six different guys that tried at first base,” Segrist
recalled during a 2008 phone interview from his home in Lubbock. “I went
to Bibb [Falk] and I said, ‘Coach, I can play first.’ He looked at me
in his office and reached in his locker and pulled out this old first
base mitt that Abe Lincoln probably played with, threw it up to me, and
said, ‘Well, we’ll try.’ We made that move and everything started
gelling.”
After his success at the collegiate level, interest quickly grew from
professional teams. After he was made an offer by the St. Louis
Cardinals at a semi-pro tournament, his father sent notice to all of the
major league clubs. Quickly the offers came rolling in. Right away, the
Yankees wanted to do business.
“I ended up getting a call from the Yankees,” he said. “I [went] down
to Beaumont and they were managed by Rogers Hornsby. That was the
Yankee farm team. They were in San Antonio for a playoff. They had me go
there and work out. … They made me an offer and I was one of their
first bonus ballplayers.” (Segrist was given a $40,000 bonus.)
The only thing in the way of finalizing Segrist’s deal with the
Yankees was a physical exam on his knee. As a kid, he has
Osgood-Schlatter disease, and as a result of it, one of his legs was
bowed. This condition didn’t affect his play, but the Yankees were about
to make a substantial investment in the Texan and they couldn’t take
any chances.
“With the knee factor, they wanted me to go to Baltimore to see this
outstanding doctor and have my knee checked,” he said. “So dad and I
flew to Baltimore, and he checked the knee and we got on the train and
went on to New York.”
Most players who signed for such substantial bonuses in the 1950s had
to be placed immediately on a major league roster, but the bonus rule
was rescinded during the time that Segrist signed his contract. This
meant the Yankees could send him to the vast depths of their farm
system, but with a few strokes of luck, he wound up only one step away
from the big show with their Triple-A team in Kansas City for spring
training.
“I was probably the youngest guy there,” he recalled. “The only
shortstop we had was Roy Nicely and he had stomach ulcers. We had [a
few] second baseman and when we scrimmaged, after about five innings
they would take him out and move me to short and someone else would play
second. They did that through the entire spring. I basically, never
actually spent any time playing there.
“It was a rather unusual spring. When we left, we went north. Just
out of Florida, they had a place where there were several different
teams. After that, we got back on the bus and they cut several people;
they just left people there. We had people standing in the bus. So,
again, I didn’t know the general manager had scheduled two series with
two bases, one an Army base and one a Marine base. … I think Nicely and a
guy named Hank Workman both jumped the club either at the Army or the
Marine base. We opened the season at Louisville, guess who played short?
I played my first 60 games at short in pro ball. That’s basically how I
ended up at Kansas City.”
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| Kal Segrist (l.) with Casey Stengel (c.) and Tom Gorman (r.) in 1952 |
About halfway through Segrist’s first professional season, he was
joined by a rookie outfielder from the big league club, Mickey Mantle.
Casey Stengel felt that Mantle needed more seasoning and sent him down
to Kansas City rather quickly to fine tune his skills.
“About the time the season started, they sent Mick to Kansas City,”
he said. “One of the things he was supposed to learn was to drag bunt.
He was to drag bunt once a game. The first three weeks he hit about
.200, and the last three weeks he hit the ball like he could hit it and
he was up to stay.”
Soon Segrist would have the opportunity to join Mantle on the Yankees
the next season. With two of their top infielders, Bobby Brown and
Jerry Coleman departing for military service midway through the season, a
spot opened up for Segrist. He could have been there even earlier if he
kept his mouth shut with the press.
“My second year, I came back and I was in spring training with New
York until we broke camp,” he recalled. “This fella who was a nice guy …
he wrote an article on me and was asking me questions. One of the
things was about playing in Kansas City or New York. My reaction was,
‘I’d rather be in Kansas City playing, than on the bench in New York.’
Casey heard that and he accommodated me. One thing I learned, it was
hard to play in New York if you are in Kansas City! If you are sitting
on the bench in New York, you have a chance to make a play or make a
move.
“I got back sent back to Kansas City and by July 4th, I hit over 20
homers and was hitting well over .300. I got the word from the manager
that I was being called up.”
In his first major league game on July 16, 1952, Segrist singled in
the 10th inning against the Cleveland Indians and scored the winning
run on a single by Hank Bauer. He stayed with the Yankees for just over
two weeks, and in 27 plate appearances, it was his only hit. He found
that balls that were dropping in the minor leagues ended up deep in the
mitts of speedy outfielders.
“We played Cleveland and I hit two balls that would have
been out anywhere else,” he said, “one to right center, and one to left
center. They had a center fielder [Larry Doby] that could fly and run. I
came back and said, ‘What do you have to do to get a hit in this
league.’ We were on the road and had a tough road trip. We were in
Detroit and if I would have hit them three feet farther, they would have
been out of the park, but they were fly outs.”
After a down year in 1953, Segrist picked it up with an All-Star
performance with Kansas City, slugging 15 home runs while manning third
base duties for the entire season. Just as things were looking up for
the Texan, the Yankees shipped him off to the Baltimore Orioles as part
of a 17-player trade that brought Don Larsen and Bob Turley to the
Yankees. Moving to one of the lower-tier clubs should have provided
more of an opportunity for Segrist to play, but the same bonus rule that
saved him from a major league roster when he was signed, was now
holding him up from occupying one.
“It was disappointing,” he lamented. “Baltimore signed several
players and the rule at that time if you signed someone for so much
money, they had to stay on the big league roster and you couldn’t send
them down. I got caught in a trap.”
Segrist, ever the consummate team player, accepted a demotion at
manager Paul Richards’ behest to Double-A San Antonio so that he could
be on 24-hour recall. They paid him an additional $2,000 to accept the
offer. He hit 25 home runs and in September 1955, he got to experience
another taste of major league life. This time around he fared better,
batting .333 in nine at-bats; however, he was hobbled by a leg injury he
suffered earlier in the season.
By the time Segrist fully recovered from his injury, the Orioles had
another third base prospect emerge, and that was future Hall of Famer
Brooks Robinson. With their attention focus on Robinson, Segrist
languished in the minor leagues until 1961, when he finished up with
Mobile Bears of the Southern Association. In 11 minor league seasons, he
hit a respectable .280 with 156 home runs.
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| Segrist signing autographs for Chris Potter / Chris Potter Sports |
Segrist returned to school and earned his physical education teaching
degree. After teaching junior high for two years, he went to Texas Tech
at the urging of his cousin Herman Segrist, who chaired the physical
education program. Serving as a teaching assistant and assistant
baseball coach, Segrist integrated himself into the Texas Tech baseball
program. By 1968, he earned the head coaching position, a far less
glamorous title than today’s Division 1 standards.
“I took over totally and was there from ’68-83,” he said. “The thing
about Tech, baseball wasn’t their most important sport. We didn’t even
have a facility. We had trees in the outfield. I was not only the coach,
I was the only groundskeeper. It’s a different deal now. Back then, I
never had an assistant coach. … The guy that is there now has about six
guys. The only thing I needed was a paid pitching coach, everything else
I could handle. It was a challenge.
“I had to learn how to lay out a field, put down the grass, lay down
home plate, the pitching rubber, first base, etc. I had to learn these
things at Tech. When I got done in 1983, our ballpark that we have now, I
got a new park built. We had $100,000. Most of the parks in Texas are
in the millions; I designed with that $100,000. I got us a basic class
ballpark built. Since then, they added to it, upgraded, and done a good
job. It’s unbelievable what they got now than what I had to deal with.”
