Orlando Cepeda

    Most fans think of Orlando Cepeda as a San Francisco Giant and Cepeda played most of his career with the Giants but I'll always think of the Hall of Famer as a St.Louis Cardinal and a long-time favorite of mine.

I think most of that is because of his 1967 Topps card but some also is due to the picture to the left, a 1968 (I think) Topps poster from a series that Topps inserted into each pack that year.

The 1958 Rookie of the Year, Cepeda was the San Francisco Giants' first breakout young star after the team's move to California. At the time, if not forever, it was Cepeda who was the most popular player on the team as San Francisco fans regarded Cepeda as "theirs" compared to Willie Mays "belonging" to the team's former home in New York City.

Cepeda would lead the National League in homers and RBI in 1961 but the Giants had a big problem in the first half of the sixties- they had two players that could play first base well and struggled in every attempt to fit both players at other positions to allow both big hitters into the lineup.

Both players were destined for the Hall of Fame-Cepeda and Willie McCovey.

Cepeda began having knee problems with the Giants and would barely play in 1965 before returning to the lineup early in the 1966 season. This showed that Cepeda was healthy enough to attract interest from the St.Louis Cardinals, who traded pitcher Ray Sadecki to the Giants straight up for Cepeda.

Cepeda hit .303 in over one hundred twenty games for the Cardinals in 1966, winning the Comeback Player of the Year award.

The stage was set for 1967, the best season in " The Baby Bull's" career.

Cepeda was unanimously named MVP after leading the Cardinals to the world championship, defeating Boston in seven games.

Cepeda hit .325 with 25 homers and a league-leading 111 RBI for the pennant winners and his numbers dipped as all batters did in 1968, "The Year of the Pitcher" but it still came as a surprise when the Cardinals traded Cepeda one for one for Joe Torre in 1969.

Both players had issues with their previous teams (Cepeda for reporting late for spring training without permission, Torre holding out for a new contract) but rarely are two terrific players swapped for each other without any other considerations.

Atlanta and St. Louis each have a case for who "won" the trade.

Cepeda gave the Braves two excellent seasons in 1969 and 1970 (.305, 34 homers, and 111 RBI in 1970) and helped them to the 1969 National League Western Division title before his ailing knees held him to only seventy-one games in 1971.

Torre played longer with the Cardinals (playing in St. Louis through 1974), and won the 1971 National League MVP but the Cardinals didn't win a division during Torre's tenure and his final three seasons in St.Louis saw a drop in performance, particularly in the power department, so I'd say the trade was pretty even.

Cepeda appeared ready for retirement after his continuing battle with his knees allowed him to play only thirty-one games in 1972, twenty-eight with Atlanta and three with Oakland but in 1973, the American League instituted the Designated Hitter and it was Cepeda who was named the top DH after he hit .289 with 20 homers and 89 RBI for the Boston Red Sox.

But Cepeda had reached the point of immobility, and it was difficult to play him despite his hitting abilities. As Bill Lee wrote in his book "The Wrong Stuff," if Cepeda singled, it would take three hits to score him because he couldn't move up two bases on a base hit.

Cepeda's career was over in 1974 after thirty-three games with the Kansas City Royals, finishing with a career batting average of .297 with three hundred and seventy-nine homers and over 1,300 RBI at the age of thirty-six.

An eleven-time All-Star, Cepeda should have been an easy selection for the Hall of Fame within a few times of appearing on the ballot. Still, a conviction for drug possession and ten months in prison hurt Cepeda's candidacy.

Cepeda would fall nine votes short of induction in 1994, his final year of ballot eligibility but was elected by the Veterans Committee in 1999.

Cepeda's number thirty was retired by the Giants in 1999 and was honored with a statue outside the Giants home stadium in 2008.