Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, the right-handed-hitting slugger affectionately known as the “Baby Bull,” passed away on June 28th at the age of 86. Cepeda’s death came only ten days after Hall of Famer Willie Mays died on June 18 at age 93. Cepeda and Mays were teammates with the Giants from 1958 to 1966.
Twenty-six years after Roberto Clemente was inducted in 1973, Cepeda became just the second Puerto Rico native elected to the Hall of Fame (in 1999). Two other Puerto Ricans have been inducted into Cooperstown in the years since (Roberto Alomar in 2011 and Ivan Rodriguez in 2017).
Cepeda, the National League Rookie of the Year in 1958 and Most Valuable Player in 1967, is one of just two players in N.L. history (along with Albert Pujols) to unanimously win both awards.
Current Giants manager Bob Melvin grew up in the Bay Area as a Giants fan.
“Man, what another gut punch. Another just incredible personality and just beloved here. Statue out front. The numbers he put up, there are a lot of legends here and he’s certainly right in the middle of that. To have it so close in proximity to Willie, it’s kind of staggering.”
— Bob Melvin, San Francisco Giants manager (June 28, 2024)
“For a long time, we referred to our Hall of Famers as the living monuments. They were bigger than life as players, but as we got to know them and watched them live their lives as retired Giants players, they really were much bigger than life. It hurts to lose him. He was such a gentle soul. He was such a good man. It’s been a rough 10 days.”
— Mike Krukow, San Francisco Giants broadcaster (June 28, 2024)
Cooperstown Cred: Orlando Cepeda (1B)
- Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999 (by the Veterans Committee)
- San Francisco Giants (1958-66), St. Louis Cardinals (1966-68), Atlanta Braves (1969-72), Oakland Athletics (1972), Boston Red Sox (1973), Kansas City Royals (1974)
- Career: .297 BA, .350 OBP, .499 SLG, 2,351 Hits, 379 HR, 1,365 RBI
- Career: 133 OPS+, 50.1 WAR (Wins Above Replacement)
- 1958 N.L. Rookie of the Year (.312 BA, 25 HR, 96 RBI, 3.0 WAR)
- 1967 A.L. MVP (.325 BA, 25 HR, 111 RBI, 6.8 WAR)
- 11-time All-Star (in 7 different seasons)
- Member of 1967 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals
(cover photo: Getty Images)
San Francisco Giants (1958-66)
Orlando Manuel Cepeda was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on September 17, 1937, to Carmen Pennes and Perucho Cepeda. Orlando’s father (“Pedro” for short) was known as the “Bull” for his strength. He was a professional baseball player, often called the Babe Ruth of Puerto Rico. As his son, Orlando became known as the “Baby Bull.” He was 6’1″ and 210 pounds by the age of 16. Orlando, whose Major League Baseball career was eventually curtailed by knee troubles, first injured his right knee at the age of 14; he had cartilage removed that year.
In the spring of 1955, Orlando and a few other young Puerto Ricans were invited to a tryout camp with the New York Giants in Melbourne, Florida, accompanied by the 20-year-old Clemente (on his way to spring training with the Pittsburgh Pirates) because they were underage. Cepeda impressed enough to sign a contract with the Giants. After a slow start in 1955, Cepeda was dominant in the minor leagues, hitting .341 in three seasons with over 20 HR and over 100 RBI each season.
The Giants moved from New York to San Francisco in 1958, and Cepeda became the team’s starting first baseman. On April 15, 1958, he hit a home run in his Major League Baseball debut against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Seals Stadium in San Francisco. The Giants already had a superstar centerfielder, Willie Mays, but Cepeda was embraced more than the Say Hey Kid because he was “one of theirs” who didn’t have an MLB record in New York City. The love affair was mutual; the 20-year-old Baby Bull fell in love with the City by the Bay, enjoying the city’s nightlife.
The right-handed-hitting Cepeda was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1958. For the season, he hit .312 with 25 HR, 96 RBI, and 38 doubles, which led the league. His performance was also good enough to earn him a 9th-place finish in the league’s MVP vote.
Cepeda made his first All-Star team in 1959 and was a perennial member from 1959 to 1964 (from 1959 to 62, two games were played each year, and he made the team both times each year). Cepeda’s sophomore campaign was equal to his rookie year; he hit .317 with 27 HR and 105 RBI. He hit .297 with 24 HR and 96 RBI and then had a monster campaign in 1961, hitting .311 with a league-leading 46 HR and 142 RBI, leading to a 2nd-place MVP finish behind Frank Robinson.
Although it didn’t impact him at all at the plate, the 1959-61 seasons were somewhat turbulent for Cepeda because of the arrival (in 1959) of another slugging first baseman, Willie McCovey. The left-handed-hitting McCovey, like Cepeda, a future Hall of Famer, played first base almost exclusively against right-handed pitching, forcing Cepeda to spend more than half of his starts in left field. In 1961, Cepeda hurt his right knee in a home-plate collision with the Dodgers’ Johnny Roseboro. It didn’t keep him off the field, but he never had another day without pain.
Orlando Cepeda did not like playing left field, and given that he was the bigger hitting star early in their careers, manager Al Dark moved the Baby Bull back to first base full-time for the 1962 campaign, with McCovey awkwardly playing in left. Cepeda continued his excellence at the plate, hitting .306 with 35 HR and 114 RBI.
The ’62 Giants won 101 games in the regular season, tied for the most in the N.L. with the Dodgers, forcing a three-game playoff to determine the pennant winner. The Giants won two out of three games to claim their first World Series berth since moving to San Francisco. The Giants lost the World Series to the New York Yankees in 7 games, with Cepeda hitting just .158.
The perennial All-Star Cepeda continued to hit (.316 BA, 34 HR, 97 RBI in 1963, and .304 BA, 31 HR, 97 RBI in 1964), but his already strained relationship with Dark soured further. Cepeda believed that Dark did not like blacks or, especially, Latinos. Dark and Cepeda had numerous run-ins, with the manager believing Cepeda didn’t hustle while Cepeda claimed he was playing with a bad knee.
In early 1965, Cepeda could barely put weight on that right knee. He spent most of the season on the disabled list, playing only 33 games (starting just 6) and hitting .176 as mostly a pinch-hitter. He had surgery on the knee after the season. With McCovey now firmly entrenched at first base, the Baby Bull played in just 19 games in 1966 before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in early May for pitcher Ray Sadecki.
St. Louis Cardinals (1966-68)
In St. Louis, Orlando Cepeda did not have to compete with another future Hall of Fame first baseman. Replacing Tito Francona (father of Terry), Cepeda was the full-time starter for the Redbirds at first and never played another game in the outfield for the rest of his career. Still only 28, Cepeda rebounded to hit .301 with 20 HR and 73 RBI in 142 games between San Francisco and St. Louis.
Off the field, manager Red Schoendienst (a future Hall of Famer as a player) embraced the Baby Bull, and Cepeda’s taste for jazz and Latin music earned him a second nickname, Cha Cha.
In 1967, after missing the Mid-Summer Classic in 1965 & ’66, Cepeda was an All-Star again (for the final time) and wound up as the unanimous N.L. MVP. As the top star on the pennant-winning Cardinals, Cepeda hit .325 with 25 HR and a league-leading 111 RBI. Although Cepeda hit just .103, the Redbirds prevailed in the World Series in 7 games against the Boston Red Sox.
Cepeda, now 30 years old, entered the 1968 campaign as a career .309 hitter but had the worst season of his career, hitting just .248 with 16 HR and 73 RBI, despite playing 157 games. Fortunately for St. Louis, future Hall of Famer Bob Gibson had a career year (with a microscopic 1.12 ERA) to lead the Redbirds to another N.L. pennant. The Baby Bull hit .250 in the Fall Classic with two home runs and 6 RBI, but the Cards fell to the Detroit Tigers in 7 games.
Cepeda was traded on March 17, 1969, to the Atlanta Braves for Joe Torre.
Atlanta Braves (1969-72)
Orlando Cepeda was disappointed by the trade to Atlanta. Still, he embraced it, playing with Felipe Alou (a favorite teammate in San Francisco) and the future Home Run King and Hall of Famer Henry Aaron. The Baby Bull, now 31, struggled in his first season with the Braves, hitting .257 with 22 HR and 88 RBI. However, led by Aaron and another future Hall of Famer (starting pitcher Phil Niekro), the Braves won 93 games to capture the N.L. West (this was the first year of divisional play).
The Braves were swept in three games by the New York Mets in the first National League Championship Series despite Cepeda’s efforts; he hit .455 with a home run off another future Cooperstown inductee, a young Nolan Ryan.
Cepeda had the final Hall of Fame-caliber season of his career in 1970; he hit .305 with 34 HR and 111 RBI. The Braves, however, only won 76 games and finished fifth in the N.L. West.
The Baby Bull was amid another strong campaign in 1971, hitting .286 with 14 HR and 42 RBI through his first 60 games. Unfortunately, late in June, while getting up to answer the telephone at home, his left knee (the “good” knee) collapsed. He only appeared in 11 more games that year, hitting .174 with no home runs in 23 plate appearances. He underwent surgery on that knee in September.
At the end of the 1973 season, Cepeda had a .299 career batting average, with 354 home runs and 1,252 RBI. Using modern metrics, the Baby Bull had a 136 OPS+ and a career WAR of 48.9. But his career as a full-time position player was functionally over.
Orlando Cepeda’s Final Years (1972-74)
Orlando Cepeda was only able to play in a limited capacity in 1972. He appeared in just 28 of the Braves’ first 63 games, starting 20. He hit .298 in those games, with four home runs and nine RBI. In late June, he was traded to the Oakland Athletics for Denny McLain, who was also at the end of his previously brilliant career. Cepeda had only three pinch-hitting appearances with the A’s before being forced to shut down for the rest of the season.
In early 1973, the American League decided to make a trial run of the designated hitter rule, which allowed a batter to replace the pitcher in the team’s lineup. The DH rule was a lifeline for Cepeda and another future Hall of Famer with ailing knees, the Minnesota Twins’ Tony Oliva. A few days after the A.L. implemented the rule, Cepeda signed with the Boston Red Sox. He had a bit of a last hurrah, playing 142 games as the team’s DH, hitting .289 with 20 HR and 86 RBI. Cepeda was one of four future Hall of Famers in the Sox starting lineup, with catcher Carlton Fisk, first baseman Carl Yastrzemski, and shortstop Luis Aparicio.
Cepeda was back with the Red Sox in spring training of 1974. However, shortly before the season, the 35-year-old Cepeda and the 39-year-old Aparicio were released because new manager Darrell Johnson wanted to make room for younger players.
Cepeda did not find another job until August when the Kansas City Royals signed him. He hit .215 in 117 plate appearances with one home run and 18 RBI. He was released on September 27th, ten days after his 37th birthday.
Having been released for the third time in three years, this time, Orlando Cepeda’s career was over. He finished his career with a .297 batting average, with 379 home runs and 1,365 RBI. Although those career power totals seem quaint today, at the time, his 379 taters were the 19th most in baseball history, behind 17 current or future Hall of Famers and Frank Howard, whose career also ended at the age of 37.
Orlando Cepeda’s 25-Year Wait for the Hall of Fame
In December 1975, just over a year after the end of his career, Orlando Cepeda was arrested in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for taking delivery of 170 pounds of marijuana. Although he claimed to be a recreational user and had not expected a delivery of that size, he was accused of smuggling the drug from Columbia. His legal case drained his bank accounts, causing him to miss child-support payments, which caused further legal trouble. He was tried and convicted in 1978, serving ten months in a minimum-security facility in Florida.
Cepeda was first eligible for the Hall of Fame in 1980. With the taint of the drug scandal still fresh, he received only 12.5% of the vote from the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) in an election that requires 75% support for a plaque in Cooperstown. That paltry vote total put him behind 17 other players, seven of whom never made it into the Hall. In a bit of irony, he finished just above his former manager, Al Dark, in the voting; Dark was on the ballot for the 15th and final time.
Other right-handed power hitters of greater pedigree hit the ballot in the next few years: Harmon Killebrew in 1981, with Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson joining the party in 1982. The 1984 ballot, however, was uncharacteristically weak; many players saw their vote share increase, with Cepeda rising from 15.8% to 30.8%.
For six consecutive years, Cepeda watched his former teammates get plaques in Cooperstown: Bob Gibson made it in 1981, Aaron in 1982, Juan Marichal in 1983, Luis Aparicio in 1984, Lou Brock in 1985, and Willie McCovey in 1986. Cepeda was on the ballot for the 7th time in ’86, getting 35.8% of the vote, his best tally yet but still less than half of what is needed for the Hall of Fame. Five years later, another Giants teammate (Gaylord Perry) got the Hall call, with Cepeda still under 50% (43.3%) in his 12th turn with the BBWAA.
In 1992, however, Cepeda made big gains, increasing his vote share to 57.2%. It may have helped that Tony Perez hit the ballot for the first time that year. Any writer looking at the Baby Bull and the Big Dog could see that the two right-handed hitting sluggers had the same number of career home runs but that Cepeda reached 379 in nearly 2,000 fewer plate appearances.
| Career | PA | HR | RBI | Hits | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cepeda | 8699 | 379 | 1365 | 2351 | .297 | .350 | .499 |
| Perez | 10861 | 379 | 1652 | 2732 | .279 | .341 | .463 |
With Cepeda also having the benefit of having won an MVP Award, Perez got fewer votes (50.0%).
One year later, Cepeda rose to 59.6%, with Perez at 55.1%. Then, in 1994, Cepeda nearly made it to Cooperstown. In his final year on the BBWAA ballot, Cepeda got 73.5%, putting him just seven votes shy of the Hall of Fame. Perez was at 57.7%, finally making it to the Hall via the BBWAA in 2000.
Ultimately, Cepeda beat Perez to Coopertown by one year. The Veterans Committee elected him in 1999, putting him in a star-studded class that included Nolan Ryan, George Brett, and Robin Yount.
The Legacy of Orlando Cepeda
It’s not a slight or disrespectful to say that Orlando Cepeda was a second-tier Hall of Famer. The same can be said about any player who had to wait for the Veterans Committee call before appearing on stage in Cooperstown to get their plaque.
Cooperstown Cred is a site devoted to the comparative analysis of candidates for the Hall. In virtually every piece on this site, I delve into each profiled candidate’s relative strengths and weaknesses. Cepeda, of course, is a Hall of Famer, not a candidate.
His final season was in 1974; I started following baseball in 1975, so I can only analyze his career through his statistics and the words of others. The goal here is to share what makes Cepeda a Hall of Famer to me.
Thanks to his balky knees, Cepeda’s career petered out early. Most of his career value occurred by the end of his age 32 season (1970). At the time, he had a .299 career BA and had hit 340 home runs. Using modern metrics, he had a 136 OPS+ and a career WAR of 48.3. His final totals (379 HR, 133 OPS+, 50.1 WAR) don’t look awe-inspiring by today’s standards: among first basemen, non-Hall of Famers Carlos Delgado, Mark Teixeira, and Lance Berkman put up similar numbers and got bounced quickly by the BBWAA when it came time for the Hall of Fame vote.
However, players deserve to be judged against the standards of their generation. So, to put some context on Cepeda’s power output, as of 1970, only 15 players had ever swatted more than 340 home runs by the end of their age 32 seasons. Cepeda’s status as a Hall of Famer is not based on career longevity. It’s based on being a premier slugger during the offensively challenged era of the 1960s.
So, how does Cepeda’s performance compare to what his peers were doing? Here are some numbers:
- From 1958-70, his 340 HR were the 7th most in baseball, behind top-shelf Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Harmon Killebrew, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, and McCovey.
- Only Aaron, Robinson, Mays, Banks, and Killebrew had more than the Baby Bull’s 1,208 RBI during those same years.
- Cepeda’s batting average (.299) for those years was the 6th highest in MLB (minimum 5,000 plate appearances), behind fellow Puerto Rican Roberto Clemente, Aaron, Pete Rose, Mays, and Robinson.
- Again, from 1958-70, only Aaron, Clemente, Vada Pinson, and Mays had more than the Baby Bull’s 2,075 hits.
Given that he was in the top 7 for 13 years in the four most important categories that people followed in the 20th century, that’s the peak performance case for Orlando Cepeda for the Hall of Fame.
Final Thoughts
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Orlando Cepeda was arguably the biggest star in Major League Baseball to come from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Although Clemente had debuted three years earlier (in 1955) and even chaperoned Cepeda on a scouting trip to Florida, The Great One didn’t blossom into a star until 1960 when he made his first All-Star Game. Cepeda, meanwhile, made an immediate impact in San Francisco, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 1958 while making his first All-Star appearances in ’59.
Of course, Clemente became the bigger star because of his brilliance in right field (he won 12 Gold Gloves) and his four batting titles. The Great One also was a World Series MVP in 1971, while Cepeda was a proverbial bystander when he won his first and only World Series ring in 1967. Clemente tragically perished on December 31, 1972, when, on a humanitarian mission to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua, his plane took off from Puerto Rico and crashed shortly after that into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Hall of Fame bypassed the normal five-year post-career waiting period, and Clemente was posthumously inducted into Cooperstown the following summer.
Cepeda’s career ended just one year after Clemente’s induction into the Hall but, as we’ve seen, had to wait 25 years to get his plaque alongside The Great One’s, in part because of ill will he generated from his drug conviction.
In the years after his release from prison, Cepeda turned his life around and became a beloved member of the San Francisco Giants family. In 1999, the year he was inducted into Cooperstown, the Giants retired his uniform number 30. Then, in September 2008, the Giants unveiled a statue of Cepeda outside AT&T Park.
Sadly, both the Giants and the Hall of Fame community as a whole have lost several members of their proverbial families in the last several years. Among Cepeda’s teammates with the Giants, Cardinals, and Braves, Willie McCovey, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Phil Niekro, Hank Aaron, Gaylord Perry, and Willie Mays have all passed away since early 2019, with Mays passing just ten days prior to the Baby Bull.
RIP Orlando.
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rest in peace ,The Baby Bull