Orlando Cepeda

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Orlando Cepeda
First baseman / Designated hitter
Born: September 17 1937 (1937-09-17) (age 71)
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 15, 1958
for the San Francisco Giants
Final game
September 19, 1974
for the Kansas City Royals
Career statistics
Batting average     .297
Home runs     379
RBI     1,365
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • All-Star (AL): 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967
  • Most Valuable Player: 1967
  • World Series champion: 1967
  • Rookie of the Year: 1958
  • Led NL in Doubles (38) in 1958
  • Led NL in Sacrifice Flies in 1958 (9) and 1966 (9)
  • Led NL in Home Runs (46) and At Bats per Home Run (12.7) in 1961
  • Led NL in RBI in 1961 (142) and 1967 (111)
Member of the National
Image:Empty Star.svg Baseball Hall of Fame Image:Empty Star.svg
Elected    1999
Election Method    Veteran's Committee

Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes (born September 17 1937 in Ponce, Puerto Rico) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and right-handed batter who played with the San Francisco Giants (1958–66), St. Louis Cardinals (1966–68), Atlanta Braves (1969–72), Oakland Athletics (1972), Boston Red Sox (1973) and Kansas City Royals (1974).

Cepeda was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His father, slugger Pedro Cepeda, was a baseball legend in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Some called Cepeda the Babe Ruth of Latin America. Pedro's nicknames were Perucho and The Bull, so Orlando became known as Peruchin and Baby Bull. He was also nicknamed Cha-cha.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Baseball career

In his first season in 1958, Cepeda batted .312 with 25 home runs and 96 RBI, led the National League in doubles (38), and was named Rookie of the Year. In 1967, he was named the National League MVP by hitting .325 and having a league-leading 111 RBIs. He was the second NL player (joining fellow Giant Carl Hubbell in 1936) to win the MVP unanimously (receiving all first-place votes). Also, he is the only player in baseball history to win Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards unanimously. He was the first Latin player to win the home run and RBI titles.

Cepeda was a seven-time All-Star (1959–64, 1967). He was the first Puerto Rican to be selected for an All Star Game (1959). Also he is the only Puerto Rican to be selected in two position for the All Star Game in two positions — as a first basemen and left fielder.

The "Baby Bull" is one of six players with more home runs in their first seven seasons than Hank Aaron: Eddie Mathews (253), Frank Robinson (241), Ernie Banks (228), Ted Williams (222), Orlando Cepeda (222), Mark McGuire (220) and Hank Aaron (219).

Also, he is one of eleven players who batted .300+ with 30+ homers in four consecutive seasons. The others are Babe Ruth, Hack Wilson, Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein, Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Mickey Mantle, Ted Kluszewski, and Albert Pujols.

He retired in 1975 with a career .297 BA with 379 homers and 1365 RBI in 17 seasons. Cepeda was the first designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox and the second DH in all of MLB. He was the first to win the Designated Hitter of the Year Award (1973).

His lifetime numbers are .325 batting average (fifth place), 89 home runs, 340 runs batted in and .544 slugging (second place and only Puerto Rican with .500+).

Cepeda is one of the most complete batters born in Puerto Rico. He batted for average, had power, and was a great RBI man. In his first ten years of organized baseball, he reach .300+ nine times, and in the year he missed, he batted .297. In 1956, while playing with the St. Cloud Rox, a Class "C" minor league club in the Northern League (baseball), he won the triple crown.

[edit] Retirement and drug problems

In 1975, after retirement, Cepeda was arrested while picking up a marijuana shipment in San Juan airport. For this charge he was sentenced to five years of imprisonment, of which he served 10 months of actual jail time and the rest on probation.

[edit] Induction to Hall of Fame

This drug-related episode and conviction caused Cepeda to have difficulty getting voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. By the early 1990s, when his time of eligibility was beginning to run out, many Puerto Ricans, celebrities and ordinary citizens alike, began to campaign for his induction. Many of his backers alleged that other members of the Hall of Fame had committed crimes equal to or worse than attempted drug smuggling and were still inducted. Some international celebrities and former teammates also joined in the campaign. In 1994, his last year of eligibility by voting, he came within two votes of being elected.

Finally, in 1999, he was elected by the Hall's Veterans Committee, joining Roberto Clemente as the only other Puerto Rican in Cooperstown.

Also, in 2006, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), approved a chapter for Puerto Rico, the first in Latin America, and it is named after him.

[edit] Humanitarian and additional sports recognitions

Cepeda has been recognized nationally for his humanitarian efforts as an ambassador for baseball. He served as an honorary spokesman for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America.

In 2001, he won the Ernie Banks Positive Image Lifetime Achievement Award. The citation for the award reads, in part, "The legacy he is leaving is an impressive one indeed. His commitment to community service includes credentials for a Humanitarian Hall of Fame. He is now recognized nationally for his humanitarian efforts as an ambassador for baseball and the San Francisco Giants." It goes on to list many of his national and community contributions, including his regular visits to inner-city schools throughout the country in conjunction with HOPE: Helping Other People Excel. "Each December, Orlando tours as part of the Giants Christmas Caravan visiting hospitals, schools and youth groups including the UC San Francisco Medical Center pediatric cancer ward. He is a participant in Athletes Against AIDS. He is also a public speaker for the Omega Boys and Girls Club, counseling at-risk children in the community."[1]

The Giants retired Orlando Cepeda's number 30. It hangs on the facing of the upper deck in the left field corner of AT&T Park. Cepeda is currently working in the Giants front office.

In an article in 1976 in Esquire magazine, sportswriter Harry Stein published an "All Time All-Star Argument Starter," consisting of five ethnic baseball teams. Cepeda, a Puerto Rican, was the first baseman on Stein's Latin team.

Cepeda is a Buddhist and Sōka Gakkai International (SGI-USA) member. Cepeda shared his experience at a SGI-USA meeting: "I had to fight every day," said Cepeda, explaining how he endured growing up in his native Puerto Rico. "But when I joined the SGI-USA, I learned that peace comes from inside. From my Buddhist practice, I have learned how to be a person who cares about others."

[edit] Recent drug possession charges

On May 2 2007 in Solano County, Cepeda was booked into jail after a routine traffic stop on Interstate 80. He faces charges of marijuana possession and speeding. Cepeda posted a $10,000 bail and has been released from the Solano County jailhouse.

California Highway Patrol Officer Amy Mulata stopped Cepeda for speeding on Highway 12 just west of Highway 80 and smelled marijuana in the vehicle, the California Highway Patrol said. Mulata found a "usable amount of marijuana", a bindle containing a suspected controlled substance-believed to be either cocaine or methanphetamines-and one syringe, the CHP reported. The Lexus was searched with a narcotics dog and no additional drugs were found, the agency said.[2]

Cepeda has said through his attorney that the drugs weren't his and that they belonged to his wife with diabetes that had a prescription to use marijuana for medical purposes.[3]

[edit] Quotes

  • "He is annoying every pitcher in the league. He is strong, he hits to all fields, and he makes all the plays. He's the most relaxed first-year man I ever saw." — Willie Mays about Cepeda (1958)
  • "I've always regarded Orlando as the greatest right-handed true power hitter I ever saw in our day." - Willie McCovey
  • "He was a great player. He is, I know, remembered most for his bat, but he was a damned good glove man, had a solid arm and ran the bases intelligently." - Jim Davenport
  • "This is the best right-handed pure power hitter for a young player I´ve ever seen*" - Bill Rigney (1958)

[edit] Books by and about Orlando Cepeda

  • My Ups and Downs in Baseball by Orlando Cepeda with Charles Einstein. Putnam (1968; 2000).
  • High and Inside: Orlando Cepeda's Story by Orlando Cepeda with Mary Kelly. Hardwood Press (1984).
  • Baby Bull: From Hardball to Hard Time and Back by Orlando Cepeda with Herb Fagen. Taylor Trade Publishing (1998).
  • The Orlando Cepeda Story by Bruce Markusen. Pinata Books (2001).

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ernie Banks Positive Image Lifetime Achievement Award (2001). Retrieved on 2007-10-27.
  2. ^ Bob Bensch (2007). Baseball's Hall-of-Famer Cepeda Arrested for Drugs. Retrieved on 2007-05-02.
  3. ^ Noel Algarín (2007). Asegura la droga es de un pariente y es legal. Retrieved on 2007-05-03.

[edit] External links


v • d • e
St. Louis Cardinals 1967 World Series roster
11 - Eddie Bressoud | 34 - Nelson Briles | 20 - Lou Brock | 32 - Steve Carlton | 30 - Orlando Cepeda | 21 - Curt Flood | 16 - Phil Gagliano | 45 - Bob Gibson (World Series MVP) | 43 - Joe Hoerner | 31 - Dick Hughes | 39 - Larry Jaster | 25 - Julián Javier | 23 - Jack Lamabe | 9 - Roger Maris | 27 - Dal Maxvill | 15 - Tim McCarver | 10 - Dave Ricketts | 18 - Mike Shannon | 26 - Ed Spiezio | 17 - Bobby Tolan | 44 - Ray Washburn | 36 - Ron Willis | 46 - Hal Woodeshick
Manager: 2 Red Schoendienst
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