Hall of Fame first baseman Orlando Cepeda died Friday at age 86, the San Francisco Giants announced.
Cepeda was an 11-time All-Star who played 17 seasons for six MLB teams, including the Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves.
The Puerto Rico native won the 1958 NL Rookie of the Year award with the Giants and the NL MVP with the Cardinals in 1967, when he hit a career-high .325 with 25 home runs and 111 RBIs.
Cepeda had a career .297 batting average with 379 home runs and 1,365 RBIs.
Cepeda was a sure-fire Hall of Famer until his arrest in 1975 — a year after his retirement following a 17-season career — on charges of marijuana possession, for which he served nine months in prison.
He was eventually elected to the Hall of Fame in 1999 by the Veterans Committee, 20 years after he became first eligible.
“I can’t complain,” Cepeda once told the Los Angeles Times in a 1985 interview. “I’ve lived the good times. I’ve lived the bad times. Not many people taste that.”
Information from ESPN Stats & Information was used in this report.
