Orlando Cepeda
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| Orlando Cepeda | ||
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| First baseman / Designated hitter | ||
| Born: September 17, 1937 Ponce, Puerto Rico |
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| Batted: Right | Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | ||
| April 15, 1958 for the San Francisco Giants |
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| Final game | ||
| September 19, 1974 for the Kansas City Royals |
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| Career statistics | ||
| Batting average | .297 | |
| Home runs | 379 | |
| RBI | 1,365 | |
| Teams | ||
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| Career highlights and awards | ||
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| Member of the National | ||
 Baseball Hall of Fame |
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| 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.
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[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 start in an All Star Game (1959). Also he is the only Puerto Rican to be selected in two position for the All Star Game; as a first basemen and left fielder.
The "Baby Bull" is one of seven players with more home runs in their first seven seasons than Hank Aaron: Albert Pujols (282), Eddie Mathews (253), Frank Robinson (241), Ernie Banks (228), Ted Williams (222), Orlando Cepeda (222), Mark McGwire (220) and Hank Aaron (219).
Also, he is one of twelve 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, Frank Thomas 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).
Cepeda is one of the most complete batters born in Puerto Rico. He batted for average, power, and was a great RBI man. He is the only Puerto Rican that in his first ten years of organized baseball, reached .300+ nine times, and in the year he missed, batted .297. In addition, he is the only Puerto Rican player to win a triple crown in organized baseball. In 1956, while playing with the St. Cloud Rox, a Class "C" minor league club in the Northern League (baseball), he was leader in batting (.355), home runs (26) and RBI (112).
His lifetime numbers in the Puerto Rico Baseball League are .325 batting average (fifth place), 89 home runs, 340 runs batted in and .544 slugging (second place and only Puerto Rican with .500+). He batted .300+ eleven times, most in league's history.
[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 seven 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.
Cepeda belongs to twelve hall of fame, most by any Puerto Rican athlete:
1. San Francisco Bay (1990) 2. Puerto Rico Baseball Hall of Fame(1991) 3. Latinoamerican Sports, Laredo(1995) 4. Santurce Hall of Fame (1997) 5. Puerto Rico Sports Hall of Fame(1993) 6. Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown(1999) 7. Missouri Hall of Fame (2000) 8. Guayama Hall of Fame (2000) 9. Ponce Hall of Fame (2001) 10. Cataño Hall of Fame (2002) 11. Hispanic Heritage Hall of Fame (2002) 12. African American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame (2007)
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 an 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 1, 2007 California Highway Patrol officers arrested Cepeda after stopping a speeding car on westbound Interstate 80, about 40 miles northeast of San Francisco. An officer found marijuana, cocaine and hypodermic syringes in the car.
In court, in May of 2008, Deputy District Attorney Joe Camarata agreed to a plea deal allowing Cepeda to plead no contest to a charge of being in possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana. The cocaine and a hypodermic syringe possession charges were dismissed. The action led to the immediate dismissal of Camarata by Solano County District Attorney David Paulson. Paulson said that Camarata had been told to either get a felony plea or take the case to trial. He said Camarata's unilateral decision to drop cocaine possession charges violated office policy and protocol and "makes it look like we made a special deal for someone who's famous."
[edit] Quotes
- "The trick against Don Drysdale is to hit him before he hits you." [1]
- "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
- Players from Puerto Rico in MLB
- List of famous Puerto Ricans
- Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
- Top 500 home run hitters of all time
- List of major league players with 2,000 hits
- List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles
- List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
- List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
- List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
- List of Major League Baseball home run champions
- List of Major League Baseball doubles champions
- Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game
[edit] References
- ^ Ernie Banks Positive Image Lifetime Achievement Award (2001). Retrieved on 2007-10-27.
[edit] External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
- baseballhalloffame.org – Hall of Fame biography page
- Citation for 2001 Ernie Banks Positive Image Lifetime Achievement Award
- Latin Sports Legends biography and photos
- An Account of Cepeda's 1999 Hall of Fame induction ceremony
- jrank Free Encyclopedia brief biography
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