The great Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins said he found pitching easy — it was life that was hard. He had his share of tsouris. That certainly applies in the case of Orlando Cepeda too (though he was a slugger, not a pitcher). As we noted yesterday, Orlando passed away last Friday at the age of 86. After Clemente, he was the second Puerto Rican inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Cepeda’s dad, Pedro, was a great ballplayer too. He played shortstop and was known as the Babe Ruth of PR. He might have made it to the major leagues had the color bar not been in effect. Orlando got off to a great start, winning Rookie of the Year honors in 1958 with the Giants in their first year in SF. His first minor league team was Kokomo in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League. (It’s not the same Kokomo from the Beach Boys song we heard a few days ago. This one’s in Indiana.)
Cepeda was the NL MVP with STL in 1967, the year they beat Boston in the World Series. But he had an even better year in 1961 with the Jints, slamming 46 homers and driving in 142 runs. He turned the tables in 1973 at the age of 35, when he played 142 games for Boston as their DH, hitting .289, with 20 HR and 86 RBI. He retired the following year after a short stint with KC. He was Boston’s first DH, since the position was only initiated for the 1973 season. He hit Boston’s first HR by a DH on April 8, 1973, against the Yankees, with Sparky Lyle pitching.
Things nose-dived for him in retirement. He spent ten months in federal prison for marijuana smuggling from Colombia. Upon his release, his name in PR was sullied. He went 15 years without being voted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame, but gained entry in 1999 via the Veterans Committee. He held various positions in baseball, but got in trouble again in 2007 when he was stopped for speeding and drugs were found in his car.
Happily, his final years were good. Here’s how his obit in the NYT ends:
For all the years he was shunned in Puerto Rico, Cepeda won redemption when he was elected to the Hall of Fame. The Puerto Rican government brought him back for a parade in his honor. It began at the San Juan airport, where he had been arrested 24 years earlier, and passed through Old San Juan along streets lined by crowds.
The Giants retired Cepeda’s No. 30 two weeks before his induction into the Hall of Fame. In September 2008, they honored him with a bronze statue outside their stadium. It stands alongside statues of Mays, McCovey, Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry.
After all his travails, Cepeda was extremely gratified.
“When things like this happen to you,” he told The San Francisco Chronicle at the unveiling of his statue, “that’s when I say to myself, ‘Orlando, you’re a very lucky person.’”
A major city in Florida was named after him. (No it wasn’t.)
Rest in peace, Cepeda.
Ogden Nash was in the puzzle yesterday and someone shared this poem of his I hadn’t heard before:
Two nudists of Dover
Being purple all over
Were munched by a cow
When mistaken for clover.
I also learned a new take on his famous llama verse:
The one-l lama, He’s a priest.
The two-l llama, He’s a beast.
And I will bet A silk pajama
There isn’t any Three-l lllama.
In certain editions, it is said that Nash added that “some people say a three-l lama is a large conflagration in Boston.” (Get it?)
Next: If called by a panther — don’t anther.
Last, his verse on ketchup:
Shake and shake
the ketchup bottle.
First none’ll come
And then a lot’ll.
Are you ready for it? Here are two videos that are related. The first is Taylor performing “Ready For It” on her ERAS Tour. The second is Simone Biles who used the beat from the song in her floor performance for the Olympic trials. It’s pretty hard-core Taylor. (Turn it up.) And Biles is just not from this planet.
Incredible, ladies — so good to see both of you! Please, take a load off — just push that crap off the couch. George! — bring up some cold Diet Sprites for the girls! And see if there’s any hummus and chips left — Phil may have gone through it before blacking out last night. Do you guys know you’re both “attached” to NFL players? Tay and Travis of course, and Simone’s hubby is Jonathan Owens, a safety for the Bears. They will face each other in a preseason game in KC in August. Are you ready for it?
I visited the Dull Men’s Club (UK) today and found this post (with photos) by Tim Sharman:
In 1978, a girlfriend I had at the time, gave me what I thought at the time, to be one of the dullest postcards ever (top photo). It shows Slough Road in Iver Heath, Bucks. Lately I’ve rediscovered the postcard and realised it’s actually a bit intriguing. For instance, what is that large boat doing in the car park of what was “The Prince of Wales” pub? Notice also the cars including a Morris Minor estate and a Vauxhall Viva. Notice also the neatly clipped hedge next to the shop and the advertising banner for the Slough Express.
I thought I’d check on Street View (my grateful thanks to Google) what the location looks like now( bottom photo). Sadly the photo taken on a dull day in June 2023 shows the pub is now an office, the shops have changed and the hedge and front garden next door have been swept away and replaced by concrete. It’s funny how something which originally seemed dull can over the years become quite interesting!
It has generated 46 comments so far, including, from me: It’s not really all that interesting. [I think that’s considered praise in the club.]
Several folks noted that one of the locations was an Indian restaurant for a while.
My autograph of Orlando Cepeda is an autographed baseball.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 