Orlando Cepeda

Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes grew up in Ponce, Puerto Rico, with a father the island called "The Bull," Pedro "Perucho" Cepeda, one of the greatest players in Puerto Rican baseball history. Perucho starred in the Puerto Rican and Dominican leagues from the mid-1920s through 1950, turned down offers from the Negro Leagues because he refused to live under American segregation, and earned roughly $60 a week playing ball while working for the San Juan Water Department. He died after a long illness at 49, just before Orlando played his first professional game. The son carried the father's name, the father's swing, and the father's stubbornness into the major leagues and kept them there for 17 seasons.

Cepeda hit 379 home runs, drove in 1,365 runs, batted .297, won the unanimous NL Rookie of the Year in 1958 and the unanimous NL MVP in 1967, played in three World Series, and was named to seven All-Star teams. Then a drug conviction kept him out of the Hall of Fame for two decades. The Veterans Committee elected him in 1999.

The Baby Bull

Giants scout Pete Zorilla discovered Cepeda at a tryout camp in Puerto Rico when he was 16. Roberto Clemente, then 20, accompanied him to the camp. The Giants signed Cepeda and sent him to Salem, Virginia, in 1955, where he hit .247 in the Appalachian League and was released after a month. He moved to Kokomo, Indiana, hit .393 with 21 home runs in 92 games at 17, and never looked back. He won the Northern League Triple Crown in St. Cloud, Minnesota, in 1956, batting .355 with 26 home runs and 112 RBI, then hit .309 with 25 home runs at Triple-A Minneapolis in 1957.

Cepeda made his major league debut on April 15, 1958, against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Seals Stadium, the first major league game ever played in California. He batted .312 with 25 home runs, 96 RBI, and a league-leading 38 doubles as a rookie and won the NL Rookie of the Year unanimously. Willie Mays said of him that spring: "He is annoying every pitcher in the league. He is strong, he hits to all fields and he makes all the plays."

In 1961 Cepeda led the National League with 46 home runs and 142 RBI and finished second in MVP voting. He was 23 years old and already one of the most feared right-handed hitters in the game. The Giants reached the World Series in 1962, losing to the Yankees in seven games, and Cepeda went 3-for-19 in the Series. Chronic knee problems that dated back to a basketball injury at 15 worsened after a home-plate collision in 1961, and the left knee limited him for the rest of his career. A position conflict with Willie McCovey at first base complicated his final years in San Francisco.

St. Louis

The Giants traded Cepeda to the St. Louis Cardinals on May 8, 1966, for pitcher Ray Sadecki. In St. Louis, Cepeda became the emotional center of a championship team. He won the NL Comeback Player of the Year in 1966, then won the unanimous NL MVP in 1967, batting .325 with 25 home runs and a league-leading 111 RBI. He was the first unanimous NL MVP since Carl Hubbell in 1936. The Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox in seven games in the 1967 World Series.

The Cardinals returned to the Series in 1968, losing to the Detroit Tigers in seven games. Cepeda hit two home runs and batted .250 in the Series. After the 1968 season, St. Louis traded him to the Atlanta Braves, and chronic knee injuries reduced him to a part-time player. He bounced from Atlanta to Oakland to Boston, where he won the first Outstanding Designated Hitter Award in 1973, batting .289 with 20 home runs and 86 RBI. He finished his career with the Kansas City Royals in 1974.

Puerto Rico

In December 1975, Cepeda was arrested in Puerto Rico for taking delivery of 170 pounds of marijuana. He said he expected a small amount for personal use. A jury convicted him in 1978, and he served 10 months in a minimum-security federal facility before his release to a halfway house and probation. The conviction destroyed his standing in Puerto Rico, where Roberto Clemente's death three years earlier had left Cepeda as the island's most prominent baseball figure. His family received death threats. He lost his savings on legal fees and fell behind on child-support payments.

The conviction also kept Cepeda out of the Hall of Fame for 15 years on the BBWAA ballot. His support climbed from 12.5% in 1980 to 73.5% in 1994, his final year of eligibility, seven votes short of the 75% threshold. "I wasn't ready to get in before," Cepeda said after his election by the Veterans Committee in 1999. "I still had work to do in healing myself."

Cepeda converted from Catholicism to Nichiren Buddhism through Soka Gakkai International in 1983 and credited the practice with turning his life around. The Giants hired him in 1987 as a scout and community ambassador, and he served in that role for 33 years, visiting schools across the country and in Puerto Rico. The Giants retired his number 30 in 1999 and unveiled a nine-foot bronze statue at the ballpark in 2008, the fifth Giant so honored. The inscription reads: "When things like this happen to you, that's when I say to myself, 'Orlando, you're a very lucky person.'"

Cepeda finished with 2,351 hits, 417 doubles, 379 home runs, and a .297 career batting average across 2,124 games. He died on June 28, 2024, at his home in Concord, California, at 86, 10 days after Willie Mays.