Orlando Cepeda, San Francisco Giants Hall of Famer, Dies at 86

The San Francisco Giants announced the passing of Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, 86, on Friday night. The 1958 Rookie of the Year hit 379 home runs and batted .297 in a 17-year career with the Giants, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox, and Oakland A’s.

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A native of Puerto Rico, Cepeda grew up surrounded by baseball. His father, Perucho, played professionally and was teammates with Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and other luminaries of the era in the Dominican Republic. The younger Cepeda bloomed into a 6-foot-1, 210-pound first baseman as an adult.

Signed by the Giants as a teenager, Cepeda made an immediate mark on the National League as a 20-year-old first baseman on San Francisco’s first major league team. He led MLB in doubles (38), hit 25 home runs, drove in 96, and stole 15 bases while hitting .312 in 1958. In addition to his unanimous Rookie of the Year selection, Cepeda finished ninth in National League MVP voting.

From 1958-66, Cepeda would make 10 All-Star teams (in an era when there were two All-Star games every summer), lead the league in home runs and RBIs once (both in 1961) and help the Giants reach the 1962 World Series.

A knee injury limited Cepeda to 33 games in 1965, and he would play only 19 games for the Giants in 1966 before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ray Sadecki. With the Cardinals, Cepeda appeared in the 1967 and 1968 World Series. He hit .325 with 25 homers and 111 RBIs in 1967 to capture the only MVP award of his career.

After playing parts of four seasons in Atlanta (1969-72), Cepeda used the new designated hitter rule to extend his career with the Red Sox and Royals in 1973 and 1974, respectively. Not long after he retired, Cepeda became somewhat of a pariah when he was arrested for taking delivery of 170 pounds of marijuana in Dec. 1975. He served 10 months in prison.

That damaged Cepeda’s reputation both in his native Puerto Rico and in the eyes of Hall of Fame voters. As Mark Armour wrote for the Society of American Baseball Research:

Puerto Rico had made Cepeda a hero after the tragic death of Roberto Clemente three years earlier, but his arrest made him a pariah on the island. He and his family received death threats. He lost all of his money on his legal case, which caused him to miss child-support payments and led to more legal trouble. He finally stood trial in 1978, was found guilty, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Cepeda’s story found its happy ending in 1999, when he was elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Besides his gaudy stats, Cepeda’s plaque in Cooperstown notes that “his stalwart leadership propelled his clubs to three World Series.”