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Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes (born September 17, 1937 in Ponce, Puerto Rico) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and right-handed batter who played with the San Francisco Giants (1958–66), St. more...

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Louis Cardinals (1966–68), Atlanta Braves (1969–72), Oakland Athletics (1972), Boston Red Sox (1973) and Kansas City Royals (1974).

Cepeda was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His father, slugger Pedro Cepeda, was a baseball legend in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Some called Cepeda the Babe Ruth of Latin America. Pedro's nicknames were Perucho and The Bull, so Orlando became known as Peruchin and Baby Bull. He was also nicknamed Cha-cha.

Biography

Baseball career

In his first season in 1958, Cepeda batted .312 with 25 home runs and 96 RBI, led the National League in doubles (38), and was named Rookie of the Year. In 1967, he was named the National League MVP by hitting .325 and having a league-leading 111 RBIs. He was the second NL player (joining fellow Giant Carl Hubbell in 1936) to win the MVP unanimously (receiving all first-place votes). Also, he is the only player in baseball history to win Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards unanimously. He was the first Latin player to win the home run and RBI titles.

Cepeda was a seven-time All-Star (1959–64, 1967). He was the first Puerto Rican to be selected for an All Star Game (1959). Also he is the only Puerto Rican to be selected in two position for the All Star Game in two positions — as a first basemen and left fielder.

The "Baby Bull" is one of six players with more home runs in their first seven seasons than Hank Aaron: Eddie Mathews (253), Frank Robinson (241), Ernie Banks (228), Ted Williams (222), Orlando Cepeda (222), Mark McGuire (220) and Hank Aaron (219).

Also, he is one of eleven players who batted .300+ with 30+ homers in four consecutive seasons. The others are Babe Ruth, Hack Wilson, Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein, Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Mickey Mantle, Ted Kluszewski, and Albert Pujols.

He retired in 1975 with a career .297 BA with 379 homers and 1365 RBI in 17 seasons. Cepeda was the first designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox and the second DH in all of MLB. He was the first to win the Designated Hitter of the Year Award (1973).

His lifetime numbers are .325 batting average (fifth place), 89 home runs, 340 runs batted in and .544 slugging (second place and only Puerto Rican with .500+).

Cepeda is one of the most complete batters born in Puerto Rico. He batted for average, had power, and was a great RBI man. In his first ten years of organized baseball, he reach .300+ nine times, and in the year he missed, he batted .297. In 1956, while playing with the St. Cloud Rox, a Class "C" minor league club in the Northern League (baseball), he won the triple crown.

Read more at Wikipedia.org