Orlando Cepeda, 1937-2024

This has already been a difficult season for baseball in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Oakland Athletics have been terrible, and have announced their move to Las Vegas, with a stop at Sacramento in between. The San Francisco Giants have also struggled, and are below .500. And they just lost their greatest legend, Willie Mays.

Now, they have lost another: Orlando Cepeda.

Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes was born on September 17, 1937 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His father, Pedro Cepeda, was a professional baseball player, known as "The Big Bull" and "Perucho." Orlando later became known as "The Baby Bull" and "Peruchin." Due to his love of Latin-flavored jazz and dancing, he also became known as "Cha Cha."

Baseball was, metaphorically speaking, in his blood, and he got off to a good start. But the seeds of his difficulties were also sown early, as he injured a knee playing basketball at age 13, and it never fully healed. Pedro was a heavy drinker, and caught malaria in 1955. This combination killed him, but not before his son was signed by the New York Giants. Orlando paid for the funeral with his signing bonus.

The Giants moved from New York to San Francisco in the 1957-58 off-season, which denied Orlando the chance to play in front of New York's huge Puerto Rican population. But it helped him in his new home: San Franciscans took to him, and to the other rising stars of the Giants, like Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, and the 3 Alou brothers, who were Dominicans like Marichal. (Although founded by Spanish monks, San Francisco did not, then, have a large Hispanic community.)

This worked in the young players' favor, but worked against their established star, Willie Mays, who was seen as New York's star, an interloper. Frank Conniff of the New York Journal-American, perhaps the only man ever to interview both men, wrote, "This is the damnedest city. They cheer Khrushchev and boo Willie Mays."

Cepeda and the West Coast made their major league debuts together, on April 15, 1958, at Seals Stadium in San Francisco. The Giants played their also-transplanted arch-rivals, the Brooklyn, now Los Angeles, Dodgers. Batting 5th, playing 1st base, and wearing the Number 30 he would wear for most of his career, Cepeda went 1-for-5, the hit a solo home run off Don Bessent in the 5th inning, and the Giants cruised to an 8-0 win. Cepeda was named the National League's Rookie of the Year. In 1959, he was named to the 1st of 11 All-Star Games. 

In 1961, Cepeda batted .311, and led the NL with 46 home runs and 142 runs batted in, making him the 1st Hispanic player to lead either League in both categories. But the Cincinnati Reds won the Pennant, and so Cepeda finished 2nd to Frank Robinson in the voting for the NL's Most Valuable Player. In 1962, the Giants won their 1st Pennant in San Francisco, with Cepeda batting .306 with 35 homers and 114 RBIs. But they lost the World Series to the Yankees.

But he re-injured his knee playing in Puerto Rico's Winter league. After playing through the injury with strong seasons in 1963 and 1964, he only made 40 plate appearances in 1965, and that may have cost the Giants the Pennant, as they fell just 2 games short of the Los Angeles Dodgers. There was also the issue of the fact that both Cepeda and McCovey were natural 1st basemen. There was no designated hitter at the time, and both men hit too well to be kept out of the lineup.

And so, on May 8, 1966, not only did the St. Louis Cardinals lose to the Giants, 10-5, in their last game at Busch Stadium, formerly known as Sportsman's Park, which opened in 1909 as the last in a series of ballparks on the site starting in 1866, but they traded pitcher Ray Sadecki, even-up, to the Giants for Orlando Cepeda.

Interviewed 20 years later by former Cardinal teammate Tim McCarver, Cepeda said he knew that the trade was contingent upon him passing a physical exam. So when the Cardinal team doctor asked him to show the knee, Cepeda showed the other knee. It was fine, the doctor approved the trade, and Warren Giles, President of the National League, approved the trade. Cepeda rebounded, and was named NL Comeback Player of the Year.

In 1967, Cepeda put the Cardinals on his back, and carried them to the Pennant. Ace pitcher Bob Gibson missed a few weeks when Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a line drive off his shin. Lou Brock had another strong season, but Cepeda batted. .325 with 25 homers and a League-leading 111 RBIs. It was a well-balanced team. Cepeda was a unanimous choice for NL MVP. Oddly, McCarver came in 2nd in the voting, while teammates Brock came in 7th, Julián Javier 9th, and Curt Flood 13th. 

Noting the team's Hispanic influence, fans called the team "El Birdos," and came to the new Busch Memorial Stadium wearing Mexican-style sombreros, unaware of the huge differences in Latin America or in the nature of the Spanish language: "The Cardinals" would be "Los Cardenales," "The Birds" would be "Los Aves," and a Puerto Rican would be more likely to wear what's known as a "Panama hat."

Still, as they had when winning the World Series in 1964, the Cardinals had a good combination of "white" and "black," and now had enough "brown" to be a nearly fully-integrated team. Managed by 1940s 2nd baseman Albert "Red" Schoendienst, and bolstered by a resurgent Gibson and the acquisition of Roger Maris from the Yankees, the Cards beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Orlando Cepeda had his ring.

The 1968 season was the "Year of the Pitcher": Despite the Cardinals winning another Pennant, but losing the World Series to the Detroit Tigers, Cepeda had his worst statistical full season yet, with career lows in batting average, .248; home runs, 16; and RBIs, 73. He reported late to Spring Training in 1969, and the Cardinals traded him to the Atlanta Braves for Joe Torre.

Cepeda was concerned about Jim Crow laws, but found himself treated well in Atlanta. He bounced back, and, in that 1st season of Divisional Play, helped the Braves win the NL Western Division. (Why they weren't in the East until the 1994 season, I don't know.) He had an even better season, statistically, in 1970.

But early in the 1971 season, he re-injured his knee, and hardly played over the next year. In mid-1972, the Braves traded him to the Oakland Athletics. He played 3 games before the injury ended his season. The A's did not include him on their postseason roster, and released him. He was 35, and looked done.

Then came the designated hitter, only to the American League, in 1973. He signed with the Boston Red Sox, and became the 1st player to hit at least 20 home runs in a season with 4 different teams, including what would now be called a walkoff homer against the Yankees at Fenway Park on April 8.

But the knee remained a problem, and he was released in Spring Training 1974. The Kansas City Royals picked him up, but he only played in 33 games, and was released at the end of the regular season. He was finished, with a .297 lifetime batting average, 2,351 hits including 379 home runs, 1,365 RBIs, and a career OPS+ of 133. Impressive -- but worthy of the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Cepeda married 3 times, and had 3 sons and a daughter. His 2nd wedding came shortly after his retirement. Shortly after that, he was running a baseball clinic in the South American nation of Colombia, when he was asked to help them move some marijuana to Puerto Rico. Already a longtime smoker, he had no problem with this. But the shipment turned out to be a lot bigger than he expected, and someone tipped off the San Juan police, and he was arrested. It took until 1978 for the case to reach trial, and he was sentenced to 5 years in prison, though he only served 10 months.

Shortly after his release, he was hired as a scout by the Chicago White Sox. In 1987, he was brought back into the Giants' fold, first as a scout, and then as a goodwill ambassador to Latin American countries.

In 1999, with many believing the drug conviction had held him back, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, making him only the 2nd Puerto Rican, after Clemente, to be elected. The Giants subsequently retired his Number 30. In 2000, in reflection of Boog Powell's barbecue stand in Baltimore, Orlando's Caribbean BBQ opened at the Giants' new ballpark, now named Oracle Park. In 2008, the Giants dedicated a statue of him outside the park.

I don't know why his statue is wearing a road uniform.

The Cardinals have not retired his number, but they have elected him to their team Hall of Fame. He has also been elected to the Puerto Rico Sports Hall of Fame, the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Orlando Cepeda died today, June 28, 2024, at the age of 86. His wife, Nydia, released a statement: "Our beloved Orlando passed away peacefully at home this evening, listening to his favorite music and surrounded by his loved ones. We take comfort that he is at peace."

* Bob Melvin, manager of the Giants, who grew up as a Giants fan in nearby Palo Alto, California: "Man, what another gut punch. Another just incredible personality and just beloved here. Statue out front. The numbers he put up, there are a lot of legends here and he's certainly right in the middle of that. To have it so close in proximity to Willie, it's kind of staggering."

* Dave Roberts, manager of the Dodgers, who were playing in San Francisco when the Giants announced Cepeda's death: "I don't think there's anyone in baseball that can say a bad word about Orlando. To lose two baseball greats, two great Giants... there was a somberness in the stadium tonight."

The Giants won this past Monday, in their 1st home game since Mays died; and again last night, after Cepeda died, both times on walkoff plays. Seems fitting. In the postgame spraying of water bottles, the letters "O.C." seemed to form, and had nothing to do with Orange County, home to the Los Angeles Angels.

With his death, there are now 4 surviving members of the 1962 National League Champion San Francisco Giants: Juan Marichal, Felipe Alou, Jim Duffalo and Manny Mota.

There are 8 surviving members of the 1967 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals: Steve Carlton, Julián Javier, Dal Maxvill, Ray Washburn, Bobby Tolan, Ed Spiezio, Dick Hughes and Larry Jaster.

There are 5 players left from the East-West All-Star Game played in Los Angeles, as a civil rights charity game in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King in Spring Training 1970: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Reggie Jackson from the West team; and Reggie Smith and Mike Andrews from the East team.

And there are 7 players left who were their teams' 1st-ever designated hitters in 1973: Ron Blomberg, Tony Oliva, Tommy McCraw, Rico Carty, Mike Andrews, Bill North and Terry Crowley.

It was in writing this post that I learned that, in Spanish-speaking places, the Hall of Fame is El Salón de la Fama. People who believe "Everything sounds better in Spanish" certainly have a case there.

Orlando Cepeda was great in any language.