orlando cepeda is in my hall of famer collection

when it came to my fandom as a young baseball enthusiast, orlando cepeda was just a guy who played for the a's in the early 1970's. now, i know enough to include him in my hall of famer collection. here's the card i added to bring him in to the fold:

that's a 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game autograph collection card. here's the back:

i began collecting a's cards back to 1965 in the early 1980's as i caught a case of billy ball and began following them as my american league team. i chose 1965 because that was catfish hunter's first year and i was also a fan of his, despite him having been a yankee who helped beat the dodgers in the 1977 and 1978 world series.

as a result, i picked up a 1973 topps cepeda card at some point and flipped it over. that card taught me four things - his nickname was "baby bull", he hit his first home run against the dodgers (in his first big league game), he had a pretty good run as a giant from 1958 through 1964, and he was on his last legs (he was 0 for 3 as an athletic in 1972). he wound up playing for the red sox in 1973, and he had a decent year, and maybe if i had seen his 1974 topps card i would have thought more about cepeda's career. as it was, i didn't.

even in 1982 when he showed up in my kmart mvp box set, i was unimpressed. however, many years later, cepeda was elected to the hall of fame by the veterans' committee, and i took another look. yes, he had a hall of fame worthy career. still, when i put together my initial list of players to feature in my hall of famer collection, i passed on cepeda in part because i was thinking of keeping the collection to 100 entrants. i put that limitation aside pretty quickly but only sought out a card for cepeda a few months ago.

obviously, i never saw cepeda play, but i did see him at a card show in the twin cities a few years ago. it was the same show at which i got a reggie jackson autograph (and was able to chat with him for a minute or so), and although i didn't get his autograph, cepeda made an impression on me. as i was leaving the show, he was seated at a table in a lobby area. i thought about approaching him to say hello (i would not have asked for an autograph since he was being paid to have signed earlier), but he was talking with someone, and was fully engaged in the conversation. it turns out that he was actually being interviewed, as he had spent time in the twin cities while in the giants' organization - both in st. cloud (c league) and minneapolis (triple-a) - and one of the local papers was catching up with him about his experiences.

it took a while, but i am happy to have the baby bull in my collection! you can see cepeda and the other players in my hall of famer collection here!