MLB Hall of Famer Cepeda Dies at 86

Major League Baseball suffered another devasting loss.
San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals legend Orlando Cepeda has died, the Giants announced Friday. He was 86 years old.

“Our beloved Orlando passed away peacefully at home this evening, listening to his favorite music and surrounded by his loved ones,” his wife, Nydia, said in a statement released through the team. “We take comfort that he is at peace.”

Elected to the greatest team you could ever be a member of, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 1999 by the veterans committee, Cepeda was among the most-feared and respected power bats of his era and one of the first great Puerto Rican baseball players in Major League Baseball. His passing comes a mere 10 days after the death of Willie Mays, aka the ‘Say Hey Kid’, whom he starred with on the Giants for nine seasons.

The Giants announced his death during a game against their arch rival Los Angeles Dodgers, with a moment of silence prior to the sixth inning. They got the win in his honor in dramatic, walk-off fashion.

Cepeda, nicknamed “Baby Bull”, hung up his cleats in 1974 with honors and accomplishments that were a mile long. He was named to eleven All-Star teams, an NL MVP, a World Series champion, a Rookie of the Year and one of the Giants’ great players. However, he struggled with life after baseball and was arrested on charges of transporting 170 pounds of marijuana from Colombia to Puerto Rico.

Facing a slew of legal troubles, Cepeda spent 10 months in prison. He spent the next several years attempting to do everything he could to rehabilitate his image and reputation, as he returned to the game he loved and America’s pastime as a scout, converted to Buddhism and worked for the Giants as a community ambassador.

After just barely missing out on Hall of Fame enshrinement by nine votes in his final year of BBWAA eligibility in 1994, the veterans committee stepped up on his behalf five years later to make him the second Puerto Rican to be inducted, joining Roberto Clemente.

Cepeda entered baseball from humble beginnings, growing up poor in Puerto Rico with a father who was a good baseball player, but unable to attempt an MLB career due to the color barrier, that was eventually broken in 1947.

He made to the U.S. in 1955 to try out for the Giants, then playing in New York. It went well enough that he found himself on the team’s Class D squad, but the launch of his professional career was put on hold by the death of his father due to malaria. Cepeda spent his signing bonus on the funeral.

After three seasons in the minors, Cepeda made his MLB debut in 1958, the Giants’ first season in San Francisco. He adjusted to the pro game right away and found stardom as the league’s top rookie and became a fan favorite and a fixture of the Giants’ lineup, often batting fifth behind Mays and Willie McCovey.

His career with the Giants suddenly ended in 1966 in the weirdest way, when San Francisco dealt him to the St. Louis Cardinals, during a series against the Cardinals. That trade paid huge dividends for St. Louis, which went on to win 101 games and the 1967 World Series. Even with two greats on the team in Stan Musial and Bob Gibson, it was Cepeda who won MVP unanimously after slashing .325/.399/.524 with 25 homers and 111 RBIs.

Cepeda fell off a cliff in the next season, but the Cardinals still returned to the Fall Classic in the “Year of the Pitcher,” losing to the Detroit Tigers in seven games. He was on the move again the next season, this time to the Atlanta Braves, where he played four seasons before finishing out his career with one-year stints on the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals.

“Orlando Cepeda was one of the best hitters of his generation,” said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement. “He starred for three historic National League franchises, and the 11-time All-Star played alongside Hall of Fame players throughout his career. Orlando was the 1958 National League Rookie of the Year when Major League Baseball debuted in San Francisco, where later ‘The Baby Bull’s’ number 30 was retired. In 1967 he earned NL MVP honors during the St. Louis Cardinals’ World Championship season.

“Orlando overcame challenges throughout his life to build a Hall of Fame career. This beloved figure from Puerto Rico was one of the many players of his era who helped turn baseball into a multicultural game. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to his family, his friends across our game, and his many fans in Puerto Rico, San Francisco, St. Louis, Atlanta and beyond.”