Blast From the Past: Orlando Cepeda 1958

The final 3 seasons on New York were forgettable for Giants fans as the team aged dramatically around Willie Mays who remained a great player.  With a new start in San Francisco, the Giants were ready to start a youth movement and had farm system to do it.  With an active Latin American presence and George Genovese scouting the African American community, the Giants had one of the more impressive runs of "homegrown" talent graduate from 1958 through the early '70's.  Unfortunately they squandered much of it, especially in the later years.

The 1958 rookie class included names like Jim Davenport(3B), Bob Schmidt(C), Willie Kirkland(OF), Leon Wagner(OF), and Felipe Alou(OF), but the biggest star of that group was Orlando Cepeda(1B).  Cepeda was from Puerto Rico, the son of a professional baseball player from the Puerto Rican league.  His mother was just 4'11", but he grew into a strapping 6'2", 210 lbs and oh my!  He could hit a baseball hard!  He made his MLB debut on Opening Day 1958 and doubled in 5 AB.  He remained the regular first baseman for the season as the Giants finished in third place in the NL behind the Braves and Pirates.  Cepeda batted fifth in the Giants lineup on most days and raked all season long.  I could be wrong, but I believe his batting line that season was the best by a Giants rookie in franchise history, at least in the San Francisco era.  Here it is in all it's glory:

.312/.342/.512, 38 2B, 4 3B, 25 HR, 15 SB, 88 R, 96 RBI, 643 PA.

The most surprising part of that line to me?  The 15 SB's.  I never realized that Cepeda was ever that mobile before I researched this post.  In fact, he had double digit SB's in each of his first 5 MLB seasons peaking at 23 in 1959.

The transition from New York to San Francisco was not a smooth one for either the players or the fans.  The team's stars, Willie Mays and Johnny Antonelli loved playing in New York and had trouble adjusting to life on the left coast.  San Francisco fans resented the comparison with the Big Apple and  didn't love the transplanted players.  Orlando Cepeda loved San Francisco and had never played in New York.  With an ebullient personality and his outstanding performance on the field, he quickly established himself as the local fan favorite even if that love did not necessarily extend to his managers.

The arrival of Willie McCovey the following season led to an ongoing dilemma of how to get both players on the field.  Despite that tension, Cepeda average 32 HR's/season over the next 6 years.  He Led the NL in HR's and RBI's with 46 and 142 respectively in 1964, but finished second in the MVP voting to Frank Robinson of the Reds.  As McCovey's career blossomed and both he and Cepeda became more tied to first base, the Giants and Cepeda became more and more frustrated with each other.  Cepeda missed most of the 1965 season with an injury.  The Giants finally traded him in 1966 to the Cardinals for Ray Sadecki, but that's a whole story in itself.  Cepeda's rookie season and subsequent 6 year run remains one of the greatest in Giants history.