Corridor of Fame first baseman Orlando Cepeda, who left an indelible stamp of excellence on two Nationwide League franchises in the course of the Nineteen Sixties, died Friday, the Giants introduced. He was 86.
“Our beloved Orlando handed away peacefully at dwelling this night, listening to his favourite music and surrounded by his family members,” his spouse, Nydia, mentioned in a press release launched by the Giants. “We take consolation that he’s at peace.”
“We misplaced a real gentleman and legend,” Giants chairman Greg Johnson mentioned. “Orlando was an amazing ambassador for the sport all through his taking part in profession and past. He was one of many all-time nice Giants and he’ll actually be missed. Our condolences exit to the Cepeda household for his or her super loss and we prolong our ideas to Orlando’s teammates, his mates, and to all these touched by his passing.”
“That is actually a tragic day for the San Francisco Giants,’’ Giants president and chief government officer Larry Baer mentioned. “For all of Orlando’s extraordinary baseball accomplishments, it was his generosity, kindness and pleasure that outlined him. Nobody liked the sport extra. Our heartfelt condolences exit to his spouse, Nydia, his 5 kids, Orlando, Jr., Malcolm, Ali, Carl and Hector, his 9 grandchildren, his one nice granddaughter in addition to his prolonged household and mates.”
Cepeda emerged as a key determine as baseball grew to become a coast-to-coast pastime when the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, earlier than the 1958 season.Traded to St. Louis in the course of the 1966 season, the “Child Bull” gained the Nationwide League Most Beneficial Participant award the next yr and was closely liable for the Cardinals’ back-to-back pennant-winning seasons in 1967-68.
Legend has it that Giants player-coach Whitey Lockman approached supervisor Invoice Rigney throughout large league camp in Spring Coaching 1958 and mentioned of Cepeda, “Too unhealthy the child’s a yr away.”
“Away from what?” Rigney requested.
“From the Corridor of Fame,” replied Lockman, conscious that Cepeda had not but performed a regular-season sport within the Majors.
Cepeda excelled instantly. He earned NL Rookie of the Yr honors following the Giants’ inaugural season in California, when he hit .312 with 25 dwelling runs, 96 RBIs and an NL-high 38 doubles.
Cepeda remained considered one of baseball’s most ferocious hitters. He totaled a minimum of 24 homers in every of his first seven seasons (1958-64) with the Giants. His 222 dwelling runs throughout this span ranked tenth within the Main Leagues. Among the many few who eclipsed Cepeda’s complete have been seven sluggers who in the end surpassed the 500-homer plateau: Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson and Eddie Mathews.
The genial Cepeda shortly grew to become a fan favourite in San Francisco. To a level, his reputation developed on the expense of Mays, the incomparable heart fielder who drew scorn from provincially minded followers just because he got here from New York with the franchise. In contrast, those self same followers seen Cepeda as considered one of their very own as a result of he and the ballclub arrived in San Francisco concurrently. His enthusiasm for San Francisco evening life, notably jazz golf equipment, additional endeared him to the general public.
A local of Puerto Rico, Cepeda additionally was on the forefront of the rising presence of Latin American athletes within the Majors. Given sports activities’ tendency to mimic life and America’s turbulent race relations within the ’60s, Cepeda sometimes discovered himself in disagreeable conditions. In a sport towards Cincinnati, Cepeda and Giants teammate Jose Pagan have been on base discussing technique in Spanish. The pitcher hollered, “Communicate English. You are in America now.” Cepeda retorted, “English? OK,” adopted by a few expletives.
Because the ’60s elapsed, the Giants encountered a uncommon drawback: Possessing an excessive amount of expertise. They struggled to seek out methods to maintain Cepeda within the lineup together with Willie McCovey, one other power-hitting first baseman. McCovey captured NL Rookie of the Yr honors in 1959, one yr after Cepeda.
McCovey carried out erratically throughout the next two seasons. However after he hit 20 homers in solely 262 plate appearances in 1962, the Giants realized that they could not hold him on the bench. McCovey began 130 video games in left discipline in 1963 and tied for the NL lead with 44 homers.
A lingering knee harm restricted Cepeda to 40 plate appearances in 33 video games in 1965. At all times in search of pitching depth to enhance their highly effective lineups, the Giants shipped Cepeda to St. Louis for left-hander Ray Sadecki on Could 8, 1966.
Many Giants followers regard the commerce because the worst one within the membership’s historical past. Sadecki, a 20-game winner in 1964, went 3-7 for the Giants in ’66 as they completed 1 1/2 video games behind the first-place Dodgers within the NL standings. One yr later, Cepeda was the league’s unanimous alternative for MVP as he hit .325 with 25 homers and 111 RBIs for the Cardinals, who completed 10 1/2 video games in entrance of the second-place Giants. St. Louis proceeded to edge Boston in a seven-game World Collection.
Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver recalled ready on the staff bus earlier than a trip to New York’s Shea Stadium for a ballgame. Each member of the staff was aboard apart from Cepeda. The bus was about to depart when Bob Gibson, the staff’s ace right-hander and a future Corridor of Famer, ordered the driving force to halt. Stated Gibson, who was pitching that day, “This bus is not going wherever with out Orlando” — a tribute to Cepeda’s presence within the lineup.
Regardless of the respect Cepeda commanded, St. Louis dealt him to Atlanta on March 17, 1969, for third baseman Joe Torre. Cepeda’s first two seasons in Atlanta have been productive ones. He amassed 22 homers and 88 RBIs to assist Atlanta win the NL West in 1969, then batted .305 with 34 homers and 111 RBIs in 1970.
Cepeda had another large yr left in him. One of many first gamers to serve solely as a chosen hitter, Cepeda took benefit of its inception in 1973 to hit .289 with 20 homers and 86 RBIs for Boston. He was named the American League’s Designated Hitter of the Yr. Cepeda retired after the 1974 season, when he hit .215 with one homer and 18 RBIs for Kansas Metropolis. His statistics in a profession that spanned 17 seasons featured a .297 batting common, 379 dwelling runs, 1,365 RBIs, a .350 on-base proportion and a .499 slugging proportion.
Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes was born on Sept. 17, 1937, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His father, Pedro, nicknamed Perucho, gained renown as an expert ballplayer in a Puerto Rican league. Inevitably drawn to baseball, the youthful Cepeda joined the Giants group as one of many many Latin American gamers found by famed scout Alex Pompez.
Initially signed as a 3rd baseman coming into the 1955 season, Cepeda moved throughout the diamond one yr later. This was removed from probably the most difficult transition he confronted. Like most Latin American gamers, Cepeda didn’t communicate English; nor did he perceive the racist Jim Crow legal guidelines in impact all through most southern Minor League cities — together with Salem, Va., the place the Giants initially despatched him. He was transferred to a different Class D squad in Kokomo and completed the season with a .364 batting common, 22 homers and 91 RBIs total. Promoted to Class C the following yr, Cepeda gained the Northwest League Triple Crown with a .355 batting common, 26 homers and 112 RBIs. Although he spent one other yr within the Minors, he was clearly prepared for the massive leagues.
Cepeda wasn’t blindly grateful to the Giants. He clashed with common supervisor Chub Feeney over his wage and with supervisor Alvin Darkish over his insistence that Latin gamers communicate English within the clubhouse.
In 1978, Cepeda was convicted of marijuana possession, a cost stemming from a 1975 incident. He spent 10 months of a five-year sentence in a Puerto Rican jail earlier than serving the remainder of his sentence on probation.
Cepeda rejoined the Giants group after attending a 1987 fantasy camp. He scouted for the group in Latin American nations earlier than returning to northern California to serve the staff in neighborhood relations, a submit he held till his demise.
Cepeda grew to become eligible for election to the Corridor of Fame in 1980. He by no means got here near receiving the 75 p.c of the voters wanted for induction till 1994, his last yr on the poll, when the Giants and different supporters launched a marketing campaign on his behalf. He obtained a vote complete of 73.5 p.c, seven votes shy of election. The Veterans Committee elected him to Cooperstown in 1999.
That very same yr, the Giants retired Cepeda’s jersey quantity, 30. On Sept. 6, 2008, the membership unveiled and devoted a nine-foot-tall statue of Cepeda outdoors of Oracle Park. In contrast to the sculptures of the opposite San Francisco-era Corridor of Famers, who’re depicted hitting or throwing, Cepeda’s bronze picture is standing and smiling, about to throw a ball for a sport of catch.
