Orlando Cepeda - San Francisco, CA
Posted by: saopaulo1
N 37° 46.778 W 122° 23.364
10S E 553769 N 4181540
Statue of Orlando Cepeda in front of AT&T Park.
Waymark Code: WM5THC
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 02/11/2009
Views: 11
"Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes (born September 17, 1937) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman.
Cepeda was born to a poor family, his father, Pedro Cepeda, was a baseball player in Puerto Rico which influenced his interest in the sport from a young age. His first conatct with professional came about when he was a batboy for the Santurce Crabbers of Puerto Rico. Pedro Zorilla, the team's owner convinced his family to let him attend a New York Giants tryout. He would play in several Minor League Baseball teams before gathering interest from the Giants, who had just moved to San Francisco.
During a career that lasted sixteen years, he played with the San Francisco Giants (1958–66), St. Louis Cardinals (1966–68), Atlanta Braves (1969–72), Oakland Athletics (1972), Boston Red Sox (1973) and Kansas City Royals (1974). Cepeda would be selected to play in seven Major League Baseball All-Star Games during his career, becoming the first player from Puerto Rico to start one. In 1978, Cepeda was sentenced to five years in prison on drug possession charges, of which he would serve ten months in prison and the rest on probation. In 1987, Cepeda would be contracted by the San Francisco Giants to work as a scout and "goodwill ambassador". In 1999, Cepeda was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee." (
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