SAN FRANCISCO – Who says the Giants don't admit and atone for past mistakes?
Granted, it's 42 years later – San Francisco perpetrating the worst trade in Bay Area baseball history on its fans with the Orlando Cepeda-for-Ray Sadecki deal May 8, 1966 – but it sure is good to see the Giants honor the Baby Bull. Even more refreshing to see them stand by him in lean times.
Cepeda, who turns 71 Sept. 17, joins Giants immortals Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal by having his likeness captured in the form of a 9-foot statue. It will be unveiled at 3 p.m. today outside AT&T Park, on the corner of 2nd and King streets.
"It's a huge honor, it is," Cepeda said in a huge understatement. "It's very hard to explain. When I was a kid, I wanted to be like my dad, a baseball player. I'm still dreaming about it."
Last year, it was a nightmare.
Cepeda was arrested May 1, 2007, in Solano County on misdemeanor and felony drug charges when he was pulled over for speeding. Cepeda allegedly had a half-burnt marijuana joint, a bindle that contained cocaine and a syringe in his 2001 Lexus, according to reports.
After Cepeda pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor for marijuana and was fined $100, the felony charges were dropped. That this occurred almost 30 years after Cepeda was convicted of smuggling five pounds of marijuana and shamefully served 10 months of a five-year prison sentence could not have sat well with Giants officials.
Should Cepeda's apparent blazing ways be celebrated as a good example for the youth? Absolutely not. But is it a good way for a humbled Baby Bull and a magnanimous Giants organization to push an anti-drug message? Absolutely.
"For whatever reason," whispered Giants catcher Bengie Molina, "we all get in trouble and make mistakes; we're all human. I'm sure it's behind (him) now. He's a great friend."
Cepeda also was great friends with Roberto Clemente, whose widow is here to help mark the occasion.
"He'd be happy," Vera Clemente said softly of her late husband. "They were always in Puerto Rico playing together since they were young. He'd be very proud this is happening."
In this, the Giants' 50th year since moving from New York, it only seemed natural that Cepeda be immortalized. Three of the other five San Francisco Giants Hall of Famers already have their statues around AT&T Park.
So who's next, the other San Francisco Hall of Famer, Gaylord Perry? A statue of Perry, with his predilection for spitballs, would have to go underwater in McCovey Cove, next to a submerged jar of Vaseline.
"Barry Bonds," Cepeda answered, and really, if you want to talk tarnished-but-beloved Giants, there you go.
"He deserves it; he did so much for this city, this ballclub."
As did Cepeda, an original San Francisco Giant.
From homering in his first major league game in the first big league game on the West Coast to being dealt eight years later to St. Louis, where, to the Giants' chagrin, he won an MVP award, to his bringing Cha-Cha Bowl cuisine to the park, to being elected to the Hall of Fame in 1999, Cepeda has represented the Giants in good times and bad.
"In 1966," he said, "I didn't want to go, but you know how it is." All too well, Baby Bull. All too well.
Call The Bee's Paul Gutierrez, (916) 326-5556.
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