When the San Francisco Giants unveiled a nine-foot bronze statue of Orlando Cepeda at its stadium in September 2008, it showed him standing tall, a dignified bearing, his gaze on the future.
That is, perhaps, the best metaphor for the storied life of the National Baseball Hall of Fame honoree and 11-time All Star, affectionately known as “Baby Bull.” Cepeda, a longtime SGI-USA member, passed away on June 28, 2024, in Concord, California. He was 86.
Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes was born Sept. 17, 1937, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His father, Pedro Cepeda, was a professional ballplayer known as the “Babe Ruth” of Puerto Rico.
The younger Cepeda had played in the minor leagues for several years when the San Francisco Giants called him up to the majors in 1958, just as the franchise relocated from New York to San Francisco.
Cepeda was named National League Rookie of the Year his first season. He used his first year’s salary to buy his mother a new home.
Four years later, in 1962, he led the Giants to its first World Series after moving to the West Coast. In 1967, he was named the league’s MVP as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, leading the league with 111 RBIs for the World Championship team.
It was after his retirement that Cepeda hit a series of lows, which were widely chronicled in the press. During this time, a friend introduced him to Nichiren Buddhism, and he received the Gohonzon in April 1983. “Almost instantly I felt my life change,” Cepeda recalled in an October 2023 interview with the World Tribune. “Buddhism gave me everything.”[1]
Cepeda said when he started chanting, his two big goals were to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and to find a great partner, both of which he achieved. He not only transformed his life but focused on helping youth get back on track.
In December 2006, Cepeda traveled to Japan to present Ikeda Sensei with a San Francisco Giants jersey with the number 200 emblazoned on the back, signifying his mentor’s milestone academic honor.
In his October 2023 World Tribune interview, Cepeda said he remembered the day as if it were yesterday, recalling how Sensei put his hand on his heart and bowed.
“He is the most important person in my life right now,” Cepeda said. “He taught me about human revolution. I’ve gone through a lot, but I don’t feel down when I think about all that Sensei has gone through. I just keep going based on his guidance, and I have conviction that everything will be fine. He taught me the power of the Gohonzon, and he also taught me that illness is also my mission for kosen-rufu. I know that with this practice, I can make the impossible possible.”[2]
Although the Giants worked hard to have Cepeda inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997, he missed by seven votes that year. Peter Magowan, the Giants’ president, said in a September 2008 interview that one of his most lasting memories of Cepeda was the dignified way in which he handled that defeat.
“Rather than get angry or mad or sad, he was very peaceful with what happened,” Magowan said. “I think he felt that something good was going to come out of this unfortunate news.”[3]
Two years later, in 1999, Cepeda was elected to the Hall of Fame, just as his eligibility had almost run out. To celebrate a milestone long in the making, the San Francisco Giants retired his No. 30 jersey.
On Sept. 6, 2008, the day of his statue unveiling, Cepeda was joined onstage by baseball legends Willie McCovey, Willie Mays and Barry Bonds, as he publicly thanked Sensei for inspiring him to transform his life.
Later the same day, he threw the first pitch at the Giants’ home game. The team wore jerseys emblazoned with the word Gigantes, Spanish for Giants, in his honor.
On June 28, 2024, midway through its game, the San Francisco Giants read a statement on Cepeda’s passing from his wife, Elba, and held a moment of silence for the first baseman with his photo on the scoreboard at Oracle Park. Among the news articles that poured in afterward was a retrospective on Cepeda’s life by Bob Padecky, of The Press Democrat, who wrote that the baseball legend’s greatest feat was saving himself.
“It is OK to make mistakes; we all do. That’s human. That’s the easy part. What’s more difficult: What to do about it? Cepeda worked harder on himself as a person than he ever did as a player. The result truly was Hall of Fame.”[4]
—Prepared by the World Tribune staff
July 12, 2024, World Tribune, p. 10
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