With his powerful hitting and flamboyant style of play, Mr. Cepeda became an instant star as a 20-year-old rookie with the Giants in 1958, the franchise’s first year on the West Coast.
He hit a home run in his first game and won Rookie of the Year honors in the National League. He became a favorite of San Francisco fans, even ahead of star outfielder Willie Mays.
Mr. Cepeda was nicknamed Baby Bull, in honor of his father Pedro, a Puerto Rican baseball star known as “El Toro.” His love of live Latin music and his friendly manner gave him the nickname “Cha Cha” from his teammates.
Team owner and managing partner Peter Magowan told The New York Times in 1993, “You have to remember that Orlando was the most popular player when the franchise moved from New York.” He was an all-round player. “He got our fans interested in the team.”
In the early 1960s, the Giants had one of the most formidable lineups in the NL, featuring Mays, Mr. Cepeda and the third Hall of Fame slugger, Willie McCovey. During each of his first seven seasons, the right-handed hitting Mr. Cepeda hit at least 24 home runs and drove in at least 96 runs. He completed his swing by tossing his bat above his head.
He had his most productive season in 1961, when he led the NL with 46 home runs and 142 RBI, ahead of Mays and other stars, including Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Ernie Banks.
In 1962, Mr. Cepeda was the centerpiece of a Giants team that finished the regular season with 101 wins and 61 losses – the same record as their rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the deciding contest of the three-game playoff, Mr. Cepeda hit a sacrifice fly to tie the score 4–4 in the ninth inning. The Giants won 6–4 and clinched the NL pennant, but lost the World Series to the New York Yankees.
Mr. Cepeda was on deck when McCovey was down in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7, as the Yankees held on to win the series in the deciding contest.
During their years in San Francisco, Mr. Cepeda and McCovey alternated between left field and first base, much to the displeasure of Mr. Cepeda, who believed he should have been the full-time first baseman. He also played in pain after injuring his right knee in a collision at home plate against the Dodgers in 1961.
His manager, Alvin Dark, Mr. Cepeda said, never understood the seriousness of his injury and hinted that Mr. Cepeda was not working hard enough. Dark also ordered the Giants’ Latin American players to stop speaking Spanish and listening to music in the clubhouse. The team’s superstar Messi had to intervene to stop a rebellion against the manager.
In a 1967 interview with Sports Illustrated, Mr. Cepeda said of Dark, “He treated me like a kid.” “I am a human being, whether I am blue or black or white or green. We Latinas are different, but we are still human. Dark didn’t respect our differences.
Mr. Cepeda appeared in only 33 games in 1965 before undergoing surgery on his damaged knee. In 1966 he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was installed at first base and became the NL’s Comeback Player of the Year. He emerged as a vocal leader on a team that included future Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Steve Carlton.
In 1967, Mr. Cepeda won the Most Valuable Player award with a career-high .325 batting average, 25 home runs and a league-leading 111 RBI. He helped lead the Cardinals – “El Birdos”, as he called them – to the World Series, where they defeated the Boston Red Sox in seven games.
Teammate Mike Shannon said at the time, “It’s not just his stats.” “The same thing happens in the clubhouse. It is abstract. I can’t really explain. Orlando is an iconic player, and we have that – other clubs don’t.”
Although Mr. Cepeda’s hitting declined in 1968, the Cardinals returned to the World Series but lost to the Detroit Tigers in seven games. He was then traded to the Atlanta Braves, for whom he had a stellar season in 1970, hitting 34 home runs. He later played for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, and Kansas City Royals.
He retired in 1974 with 379 home runs and a lifetime average of .297, which included nine seasons of .300 or better. His accomplishments would normally have been enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but in 1975 Mr. Cepeda was arrested at San Juan International Airport while attempting to retrieve two boxes allegedly containing 170 pounds of marijuana.
He was convicted of possession of marijuana with intent to sell and sentenced to federal prison. He was released in 1979 after 10 months of imprisonment.
His reputation was tarnished in Puerto Rico, where he was hailed as the island’s greatest baseball hero after the death of Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente in a plane crash on December 31, 1972.
“I made a huge mistake,” Mr. Cepeda told the San Jose Mercury News in 1999. “When Roberto Clemente died, they said in Puerto Rico at least we have Orlando Cepeda alive. So when I let everyone down, they got very angry. As a people we are very emotional. “We are strict against those who tamper with it.”
Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pence was born on September 17, 1937 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and grew up in San Juan. His father, Pedro “Perucho” Cepeda, was called the “Babe Ruth of Puerto Rico” and played on Caribbean All-Star teams with such stars as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell of baseball’s Negro Leagues.
The younger Mr. Cepeda excelled in baseball and basketball during his youth and in 1955 signed with the Giants, who were then in New York. His father died just before he played his first professional game for a minor league team in Salem, Virginia. Mr. Cepeda spent his $500 bonus on his father’s funeral and had to convince him to return to Virginia to continue his baseball career.
“I was only 17, and it was tough,” he told Sports Illustrated in 1991. “I lived in the black part of town, and on Sunday mornings I would hear people singing gospel music at the church across the street. I used to sit near the window in my room, listen, and cry out of sadness and loneliness.
Nevertheless, he progressed quickly through the minors and reached the major leagues in just three years.
After a drug conviction in the 1970s, Mr. Cepeda struggled for years to rebuild his life. He became a Buddhist and attended a game in San Francisco in 1989. He proved so popular with fans that the Giants appointed him as a goodwill ambassador, a position he held until his death.
His marriages to Ana Hilda Pino and Nydia Fernandez ended in divorce. His third wife, the former Mirian Ortiz, died in 2017 after 26 years of marriage. Survivors include five children from his marriage and other relationships.
For years, Mr. Cepeda was denied election to the Hall of Fame, a cause he blamed on drug convictions. (He was also fined $100 for possession of a small amount of marijuana in 2008.)
In his 15th and final year on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1994, Mr. Cepeda needed 342 votes to reach the 75 percent threshold for election. He got seven votes less.
He eventually received induction into the Hall of Fame’s Veterans Committee in 1999. He was the second Puerto Rican to be elected, after Clemente. The Giants retired his number 30 jersey and dedicated a statue of Mr. Cepeda at the entrance to the team’s stadium in 2008.
He was also liberated in San Juan, where a parade was held in his honor.
“The greatest victories are over yourself, when you control your mind and your destiny,” Mr. Cepeda told Sports Illustrated in 1999. “My life has been a drama of inner transformation.”
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