Orlando Cepeda was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The son of a baseball star, he had a childhood dominated by the game, including visits from famous ballplayers like Satchel Paige, his father’s friend.

He played a lot of baseball, but suffered the first of his many knee injuries playing basketball when he was only 15. In late 1953 the 16-year-old was asked to take part at a New York Giants tryout camp in Melbourne, Florida. Because he was under-age, and had never left the island, he was accompanied by the 20-year-old Roberto Clemente, on his way to spring training with the Pirates. Orlando impressed them all at the camp, and signed a pro contract.

After a month with Salem Rebels, Orlando was picked up by the Giants’ Kokomo, Indiana, club. The 17-year-old starred there, batting .393 with 21 home runs. The next year, he payed in St. Cloud, Wisconsin, and won the Northern League Triple Crown, with 26 home runs, 112 RBIs, and a .355 batting average. In 1957 he made it all the way to Minneapolis, the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate.

When Orlando arrived at spring training in 1958, the Giants had an opening at first base because Bill White was serving a two-year stint in the Army. The 20-year-old had a tremendous spring, crushing home runs. He went on to have a great year and was named "Rookie of the Year".

In 1959 he became the first Puerto Rican player to start an All-Star Game. Two years later in 1961, the season stands out as a singularly great year for Orlando. He led the league with 46 home runs and 142 RBIs while hitting .311. Baseball held two All-Star games each season from 1959 to 1962, and he was named to the team all eight times, starting in five of them.

Every year from 1958 through 1963, Orlando was among the league leaders in batting, home runs and RBIs. Through the first seven years of his career, he batted .309 and his 222 home runs were three more than Hank Aaron had through his first seven seasons. At the end of the 1964 season, Orlando was still just 27 years old.

More knee injuries forced him to miss most of the 1965 season, limiting him to pinch hitting duties, but when he returned in the spring of 1966, Willie McCovey was finally fully entrenched at first base. Orlando was therefore traded to the St. Louis Cardinals early in the season.

In 1967, he hit a career-high .325 and led the National League in RBIs with 111, as a result, he was named the N.L. M.V.P. His Cardinals went on to defeat the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox in the World Series.

After that MVP season, the 30-year-old followed it up with the worst full season of his career in 1968. He returned to spring training in 1969, hoping for a comeback year, but he found that he had been traded to the Atlanta Braves for Joe Torre.

His first year in Atlanta was a struggle, but Orlando started 1971 as good as ever. In June, however, as he was getting up to answer the telephone at his home, his left knee collapsed. He hobbled out to first base for a few weeks before finally shutting it down in late July. He underwent another knee surgery in September and went home to Puerto Rico to recover.

Orlando showed up in the spring ready to play, but was put in only twice in April, before he was traded to the Oakland A’s in June. He pinch-hit three times for Oakland, before shutting it down again because of his knees. After the season he was released and with two bad knees, his career looked to be finished.

But in January 1973, the American League adopted the designated-hitter and there was suddenly a place in the game for good hitters who could not play in the field. A week later the Red Sox signed Orlando as their first DH and he made his presence known immediately. On April 8th he hit a walk-off home run to beat the Yankees. By the end of the month, he had gone 13 for 26 over his last six games.

On May 2nd, he put the Red Sox on his back again, when he lined a grand-slam homer into the stands for a walk off victory in Texas.

Against Nolan Ryan in June, he belted a home run to break a 3 to 3 tie and eventually drove in the winning run.

At the end of the month, he lined a home run off the Pesky Pole that gave John Curtis, a 1-0 victory over the Orioles. 

His four doubles in a nine inning August game, equaled a major league record. 

Overall he played in 142 games, for the Sox and hit .289 with 20 home runs and 86 RBIs. He was the first recipient of the Designated Hitter of the Year award (later named the Edgar Martinez Award).

Just before the 1974 season, the Red Sox released their slow-footed DH, and had the speedy Tommy Harper replace Orlando as the DH.

Orlando went on to briefly play in Mexico before being signed by the Kansas City Royals. He was couldn’t do it anymore and was released. After 17 seasons in the big leagues, his career was over.

In 1975 Orlando was arrested and convicted in 1978 as a marijuana dealer. In his home country of Puerto Rico, where he had been made a hero, his arrest made him a pariah on the island. He lost all of his money on his legal case, which caused him more legal trouble. After he was found guilty, he served ten months in a minimum-security facility in Florida.

Upon his release, he continued to struggle. Still shunned at home, he had trouble finding and keeping work. After finally turning his life around, the Giants hired him as a scout. Orlando also acted as a humanitarian ambassador for the club over the next 25 years, showing up wherever and whenever they wanted him to, including inner-city schools throughout the country.

In 1999 Orlando became, the second Puerto Rican-born player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, 25 years after his last at-bat.

Orlando Cepeda, nicknamed the "Baby Bull", passed away peacefully at home on June 28th, listening to his favorite music and surrounded by his loved ones. He was 86 years old.