'Baby Bull' helped pave way for Latinos

Long before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made his mark with the Blue Jays, there was a right-handed-hitting first baseman named Orlando Cepeda who had a career for the ages during the middle of the 20th century.

Cepeda, who spent 17 years in the big leagues from 1958-1974 with the Giants, Cardinals, Braves, A's, Red Sox and Royals, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

To show how great he was, take his time with the Giants in the late 1950s and most of the ‘60s: Cepeda was a Giants fan favorite after the team moved to San Francisco, even as many of the Willie Mays fans followed him from New York, the team’s original home. Cepeda earned his place in the hearts of San Francisco fans from the start, winning National League Rookie of the Year honors in ’58.

An 11-time All-Star, Cepeda led the National League in home runs and the Major Leagues in RBIs in 1961. The following season, Cepeda helped to guide the Giants to the World Series, but they fell in seven games to the Yankees.

After being traded to the Cardinals during the middle of the 1966 season, Cepeda won the NL MVP Award the following year and became one of the leaders on the team, helping St. Louis to two pennants and one World Series title. Cepeda was the one who gave his teammates the nickname, “El Birdos.” According to Sports Illustrated’s William Leggett, after a victory that gave St. Louis a 3-1 lead in the 1967 World Series against the Red Sox, Cepeda yelled, "El Birdos!"

“Yay!” his teammates responded.

"Three games to one," Cepeda exclaimed. "You want to go back to Boston?"

"No!" his teammates replied.

The Braves were Cepeda’s next stop, and there he teamed up with Hank Aaron to help them earn a playoff berth in 1969. Cepeda was arguably the best hitter for Atlanta in the National League Championship Series that year, going 5-for-11 (.455) with a home run and three RBIs against a tough Mets pitching staff.

“It showed I was a winner,” Cepeda said via telephone.

By 1973, Cepeda, dealing with knee problems, signed with the Red Sox as their full-time designated hitter. Guess what happened? He was named DH of the Year. By the time his career ended after the '74 season, Cepeda had hit .297 with 379 home runs, 1,365 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .499.

Cepeda, 84, said he is proud of what he accomplished on the baseball diamond despite all the racism he faced dating back to when he was in the Minor Leagues.

“Everything happened so fast. Right now, I still don’t know how I did it,” Cepeda said. “You check all the great ballplayers -- Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, all those guys -- they [had great careers] because [they weren’t afraid].

"I used to go to Wisconsin, to Tennessee, to Virginia. [You were told,] 'You can’t go here,' because you are black or Puerto Rican. So I said, 'What is this?' … I didn’t have a telephone to call my mom, I don’t have [anything]. I wanted to go home. All those things happened, but, to me, I don’t know how I did it.”

When reminded that he played well, Cepeda said, “I did because I had skills. … I look back and I said, ‘Wow, I did this and I did that. I played in the era of Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks. The Golden Era.'”

The Bull

Do you ever wonder why Cepeda was called “Baby Bull?" That’s because his father, Pedro, was known as “The Bull” because of his aggressiveness on the baseball field.

Pedro was a well-known shortstop who played all over the Caribbean Islands from the late 1920s to the early ’50s, according to Edwin Fernandez Cruz of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

According to Orlando, Pedro had a chance to play with the New York Cubans, a Negro League team, but declined the offer because he didn’t want to deal with the racism he could possibly face in the United States.

“In those days, blacks and whites didn’t play together,” Orlando said. “I remember, my father said, ‘No.’ Then my mother asked, ‘Why not?’ [My father] said, ‘If somebody stops me from eating at certain places because I’m Puerto Rican, I’m going to fight. So I don’t want to get in trouble.’ I remember that very well.”

Orlando remembers when Negro League players played in the Puerto Rican Winter League in the early 1940s. His father would tell him that Leon Day was the best player he ever saw. In fact, Pedro would bring some of the Negro League players from the Santurce Crabbers to the house. The one player that stood out for Orlando was the legendary Josh Gibson. Orlando acknowledged that he never had a conversation with Gibson because, at the time, Cepeda didn’t know how to speak English and Gibson didn’t understand Spanish.

“One afternoon, my brother told me to take a shower. Gibson was coming over to the house,” Orlando remembered. “My father got hurt [that day] and the whole team came to my house. It was incredible.”

So it’s safe to say Orlando had baseball in his blood all his life.

“I knew my dad was one hell of a ballplayer,” Orlando said. “I’m so grateful to him and my mother. My father played a huge part in my career.”

The Baby Bull today

In September, Cepeda went to the Baseball Hall of Fame to watch Derek Jeter, Ted Simmons, Marvin Miller (posthumously) and Larry Walker get inducted. Cepeda, who suffered a head injury and cardiac arrest in 2008, is in good health. He made use of a wheelchair at the Hall inductions because he is dealing with some back issues and, he said, his balance is “so-so.”

“They have a hill in Cooperstown. I didn’t want to take any chances and fall,” he explained.

Cepeda is currently an ambassador for the Giants, and he expects to attend postseason games at Oracle Park this month. Cepeda is pleasantly surprised that the Giants are in the postseason. As he pointed out, a lot of baseball experts expected the team to finish in last place.

“They hired a manager [Gabe Kapler] that nobody knew. He is into the game. Every inning, he is there,” Cepeda said. “They have players … who play sound baseball. They have great pitching -- everything. I would not be surprised if they go all the way. To go all the way, you have to play sound baseball. Right now, they have some great players and some great pitchers. I’m so happy for them.”