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First Willie Mays and now Orlando Cepeda.
Just announced on the Giants broadcast against the Doyers.
1967 NL MVP with the Redbirds.
And on the night when Cepeda dies the Giants walkoff the Dodgers. 5-3 your final. Wisely a two run dong in the last of the 9th at Candlestick Park.
Aww man, Orlando “Cha Cha” Cepeda was my favorite Cardinal position player when I was a young boy and still cutting my teeth as a baseball and Cardinal fan. He was also Harry Caray’s favorite and the player that was behind the identity of the “El Birdos” teams of ’67 and ’68. I’ll never forget how sad I was when learning he’d been shipped off to the Braves for Torre prior to the ’69 season. I couldn’t believe it. He may have played as a Giant for a longer period of time, but he won a NL MVP and a world championship while wearing the birds on the bat in StL. and to me he’ll always be a St. Louis Cardinal HOF’er.
I checked Cepeda’s stats at baseball reference, and was surprised to see he only played for three seasons with the Cards. Growing up in the 60’s, and rooting for the ‘El Birdos’, as Harry Caray said, was 7th heaven.
I read a few stories about Cepeda’s life today, and they completely glossed over his Cardinal career. Dumb!!
Yeah Lou, when taking into consideration the two NL pennants, one WS championship, and the ’67 NL MVP award, my view is that the 3 seasons Cepeda spent as a Cardinal were definitely the highpoint of his HOF career. Not to mention that those ’67 and ’68 Redbird teams were without question known as, “The El Birdos” because of Orlando Cepeda. I’m not at all diminishing his time as a SF Giant, but the zenith of his career was as a Redbird.
I know Cepeda was traded for Torre after the 68 season, but I don’t know the reasons or circumstances, or have forgotten. Does anyone know the inside story about that?
I don’t recall any underlying story to the Cepeda/Torre trade. As I got a little older I formed the impression that the primary reasons for the trade were twofold in the sense that Cepeda had a lackluster ’68 season and was not only a couple of years older than Torre, but had also suffered a prior knee injury while with SF. At any rate, obviously Torre had some outstanding seasons as a Cardinal, but they just didn’t win anything while he was here.
One of my favorites as well as a youngster. I have mentioned this before, but we stayed in St Louis one night while on a family vacation in June 1966 not long after we got Cepeda. My dad and I took in a game against the Pirates – Steve Blass vs Nellie Briles – while my mom and sisters stayed at the motel and went swimming.
I was excited to see Cepeda as a Cardinal, but alas he did not play. He did not even pinch hit even though we lost a 2-1 pitcher’s duel. Tito Francona played first that night.
I was shocked as well when we dealt Cepeda. The Cardinals were kind of a mess heading into ‘69. The Union was getting stronger and Gussie Busch gave the entire team a talk in Spring Training about how they should be thankful for what they have and all this. It did not go over well. I think Cepeda had been having some issues with management, and management might have caught on to the fact that he would occasionally use marijuana as a way to deal with his knee pain. Torre was a big union guy and the Braves did not like that. So despite Gussie being anti-union the two teams swapped players.
What a personality Cepeda was! In the record album of highlights from the ‘67 season, there is a rousing interview with Cepeda that Harry Caray does after the pennant clincher.
I met Cepeda at the National Sports Collectors Convention that was held in St Louis in 1995. He had on his trademark Panama hat, and saw Bob Gibson signing autographs and went over to him and gave him a big bear hug.
Just a gregarious, fun guy who loved the game and loved people. His prime years were in San Francisco, with 1961 his best personal season. But ‘67 was special and he was the unanimous NL MVP. Should be in the Cardinals Hall. In fact Harry Caray should as well. That one I really don’t understand.
For a few seasons Shannon hosted a live radio show from his restaurant downtown after Friday and Saturday games on KMOX. The show would feature Mike and a guest or two. They were all entertaining, but I remember one that featured both Cepeda and Hal Lanier along with Shannon. It contained more laughs than a Dean Martin roast attended by Don Rickles. Cepeda was a veritable riot. Just a real funny and likable sort of a guy.
Those “Live at Shannon’s” shows were classics. That was actually Mike at his best. As a broadcaster he was made to be a color guy and talk show host like his “Live at Shannon’s” shows. As a lead announcer he was a bit stretched out of his comfort zone.
I wonder if KMOX still has tapes of those shows? I would pay to purchase some of them – like a compelation of “The Best of Live at Shannon’s”.
That’s a good question, Bikemike. I’m entirely sure a lot of people would gladly pay for something like that and it’d be well worth the money. I always looked forward to those shows and rarely missed one. Like you mentioned, they were all good and many of them were classic comic entertainment regardless of whether or not you were a baseball fan. I’ve had dinner in that restaurant several times when it was housed in that same building, so I was very familiar with the floor plan and layout. I once saw a photo of the set for that radio show. The tables where the guys were sitting next to the microphones and the set-up were in very close proximity to the bar…Haha!
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