SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -Orlando Cepeda sat through several other statue unveilings honoring his comrades and thought to himself he’d probably get his own one day.
“Someday mine will be there,” he recalled with a grin of his thinking then. “I didn’t tell anybody. I said it to myself.”
Cepeda’s likeness has now been cast in bronze, joining his fellow Giants Hall of Famers to be honored with 9-foot statues in San Francisco: Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal.
Cepeda’s statue will be dedicated Saturday afternoon following a Latin fiesta in front of the Giants’ waterfront ballpark, before the team takes on the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Giants will honor Cepeda’s special day by wearing their “GIGANTES” jerseys for the game.
“It’s a great honor,” Cepeda said Friday, sitting next to Vera Clemente, the widow of his longtime friend and countryman Roberto Clemente.
“It never came to my mind that someday a statue was going to be unveiled in any ballpark, especially in San Francisco, the city I love so much. It’s a beautiful ballpark. Also, to be able to join Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal is a great feeling. I’m very fortunate. I’m very lucky to be born with the skill to play ball.”
Cepeda spent the first eight-plus seasons of his 17-year major league career with the Giants, starting in 1958 when the club moved West from New York. The Giants have been celebrating their 50th anniversary in San Francisco all season – and paying tribute to Cepeda is yet another way of doing so.
Cepeda, following Clemente before him, was among the pioneers in professional baseball from his native Puerto Rico. Nicknamed “Cha Cha” or “Baby Bull,” Cepeda was signed by the New York Giants in 1955 and went on to hit .297 lifetime with 379 home runs and 1,365 RBIs in 2,124 career big league games.
He earned NL Rookie of the Year honors in ’58, was named NL MVP in 1967 and got selected to 11 All-Star games but played in only nine of those.
His statue was erected Friday, but still covered. Cepeda was thrilled it would be a surprise come Saturday, though he had been talking to sculptor William Behrends about the design over the past couple of years. Behrends also crafted the statues of Mays, McCovey and Marichal and one of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn erected outside San Diego’s Petco Park last year.
“It’s very hard to explain,” Cepeda said of trying to describe what this gesture means to him. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be like my Dad, a baseball player. How many kids say that, a ball player?”
Cepeda, who turns 71 on Sept. 17, was touched that Vera Clemente made the trip to the Bay Area from Puerto Rico to take part in this weekend’s festivities. The families have been close for decades, often spending the holidays together.
“I’m sure he would be very proud,” she said of how her husband would feel toward Cepeda being recognized this way. “For me, it’s a pleasure and honor to be here in this beautiful city and with Orlando and his family as they are honoring him with this statue.”
Roberto Clemente and Cepeda are the only two Puerto Rican baseball players with their own statues at major league ballparks. Clemente’s stands outside Pittsburgh’s PNC Park with “The Great One” beneath it.
“That’s great,” said Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel, an 11-time Gold Glover from Venezuela who could be headed to the Hall of Fame himself one day.
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