Orlando Cepeda, Hall of Famer and Baseball ‘Baby Bull’, Dies at 86

With his powerful hitting and exuberant playing style, Mr. Cepeda became an instant star as a 20-year-old rookie with the Giants in 1958, the franchise’s first year on the West Coast.

He hit a home run in his first game and won National League Rookie of the Year honors, becoming a fan favorite in San Francisco even ahead of star Willie Mays.

Mr. Cepeda was nicknamed the Baby Bull, a nod to his father, Pedro, a Puerto Rican baseball star known as “El Toro.” His teammates called him “Cha Cha” for his love of lively Latin music and his outgoing manner.

“You have to remember that Orlando was the most popular player when the franchise moved from New York,” team owner and managing partner Peter Magowan told the New York Times in 1993. “Orlando played the game with flamboyance. He was an all-around player. He got our fans interested in the team.”

In the early 1960s, the Giants had one of the most formidable lineups in the NL, featuring Mays, Mr. Cepeda and a third Hall of Fame slugger, Willie McCovey. In each of his first seven seasons, the right-handed hitting Mr. Cepeda hit 24 home runs and drove in at least 96 runs. He finished his swing with a sweeping swing of the bat over his head.

He had one of his most productive seasons in 1961, when he led the NL with 46 home runs and 142 RBIs, ahead of Mays and other stars including Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson and Ernie Banks.

In 1962, Mr. Cepeda formed the core of the Giants team that finished the regular season with 101 wins and 61 losses—the same record as their archrival, the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the deciding game of a three-game playoff, Mr. Cepeda hit a sacrifice fly to tie the score, 4-4, in the ninth inning. The Giants went on to win 6-4 and capture the NL pennant, but lost the World Series to the New York Yankees.

Mr. Cepeda was on deck when McCovey lined out in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 as the Yankees held on to win the series in the deciding game.

During their years in San Francisco, Mr. Cepeda and McCovey alternated between left field and first base, which led to resentment among Mr. Cepeda, who felt he should have been the full-time first baseman. He also played in pain after injuring his right knee in a collision at home plate against the Dodgers in 1961.

His manager, Alvin Dark, never understood the seriousness of his injury, Mr. Cepeda said, and he suggested that Mr. Cepeda wasn’t playing hard enough. Dark also ordered the Giants’ Hispanic players to stop speaking Spanish and listening to music in the locker room. Mays, the team’s superstar, had to intervene to prevent a riot against the manager.

“He treated me like a child,” Mr. Cepeda said of Dark in a 1967 Sports Illustrated interview. “I’m a human being, whether I’m blue, black, white or green. We Latinos are different, but we’re still human beings. Dark didn’t respect our differences.”

Mr. Cepeda played in only 33 games in 1965 before undergoing surgery on his damaged knee. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1966, where he was installed at first base and was named the NL’s comeback player of the year. He emerged as a vocal leader on a team that included future Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Steve Carlton.

In 1967, Mr. Cepeda won the Most Valuable Player Award with a career batting average of .325, 25 home runs and a league-best 111 RBIs. He helped lead the Cardinals—”El Birdos,” as he called them—to the World Series, where they defeated the Boston Red Sox in seven games.

“It’s not just his stats,” teammate Mike Shannon said at the time. “It’s also what happens in the clubhouse. It is elusive. I can’t really explain it. Orlando is a prestige player and we have him, the other clubs don’t.”

Although Mr. Cepeda’s hitting declined in 1968, the Cardinals returned to the World Series, but lost in seven games to the Detroit Tigers. He was then traded to the Atlanta Braves, for whom he had a stellar 1970 season, hitting 34 home runs. He later played for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals.

He retired in 1974 with 379 home runs and a lifetime average of .297, including nine seasons at .300 or better. His achievements would typically have led to induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but in 1975, Mr. Cepeda was arrested at San Juan International Airport while attempting to retrieve two boxes allegedly containing 170 pounds of marijuana.

He was convicted of possession of marijuana with intent to sell and sentenced to federal prison. He was released in 1979 after serving 10 months.

His reputation was destroyed in Puerto Rico, where he was hailed as the island’s greatest baseball hero after the death of Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente in a plane crash on December 31, 1972.

“I made a big mistake,” Mr. Cepeda told the San Jose Mercury News in 1999. “When Roberto Clemente died, they said in Puerto Rico that at least Orlando Cepeda is still alive. So when I let everyone down, they got very angry. As a people we are very emotional. We are tough on people who screw up.”

Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes was born on September 17, 1937 in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and raised in San Juan. His father, Pedro “Perucho” Cepeda, was dubbed the “Babe Ruth of Puerto Rico” and played on Caribbean all-star teams that featured stars from baseball’s Negro Leagues such as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell.

The younger Mr. Cepeda excelled in baseball and basketball during his youth and signed with the Giants, then in New York, in 1955. His father died just before he was to play his first professional game for a minor league team in Salem, Virginia. Mr. Cepeda spent his $500 bonus on his father’s funeral and had to be persuaded to return to Virginia to continue his baseball career.

“I was only 17 and it was tough,” he told Sports Illustrated in 1991. “I lived in the black part of town and on Sunday mornings I would hear people singing gospel music in the church across the street. I would sit by the window in my room and listen and cry out of misery and loneliness.”

Nevertheless, he quickly moved through the minors and reached the major leagues in just three years.

After a drug conviction in the 1970s, Mr. Cepeda struggled for years to rebuild his life. He became a Buddhist and attended a game in San Francisco in 1989. He proved so popular with fans that the Giants hired him as a goodwill ambassador, a position he held until his death.

His marriages to Ana Hilda Pino and Nydia Fernandez ended in divorce. His third wife, the former Mirian Ortiz, died in 2017 after 26 years of marriage. He is survived by five children from his marriages and other relationships.

For years, Mr. Cepeda was denied election to the Hall of Fame, which he attributed to his drug conviction. (He was also fined $100 in 2008 for possession of a small amount of marijuana.)

In his 15th and final year on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1994, Mr. Cepeda needed 342 votes to reach the 75 percent threshold for election. He fell seven votes short.

He was finally granted induction by the Hall of Fame’s veterans committee in 1999. He was the second Puerto Rican to be elected, after Clemente. The Giants retired his No. 30 jersey and dedicated a statue of Mr. Cepeda at the entrance to the team’s stadium in 2008.

He also found redemption in San Juan, where a parade was held in his honor.

“The greatest victories come when you control your mind and your destiny,” Mr. Cepeda told Sports Illustrated in 1999. “My life has been a drama of inner change.”