Wednesday, November 27, 2013

no. 237 - cesar cedeno


Who is the man: Cesar Cedeno made his major league debut in June of 1970 and went on to hit .310 in 355 at-bats, finishing fourth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting (he received one vote).

Can ya dig it: Cedeno cards were always cool in the 1970s. Love the old Astros logo patch. That's how I remember the Astros logo.

Right on: Rookie card! He's no older than 19 in this photo.

You see this cat Cedeno is a bad mother: Anyone compared to Willie Mays early in their career is a bad mother. Thank you, Leo Durocher.

Shut your mouth: Durocher, expanding on his Cedeno-Mays comparison in a UPI article in 1973: "What I've said is there will never be a better player than Willie Mays. In my opinion anyway. At this stage of his career though, Cesar Cedeno is as good as Willie was when he was 22. He's a fantastic ballplayer. Positively fantastic. He could turn out to be as great as Willie. Like I say, though, I don't think there'll ever be a better ballplayer than Mays."

No one understands him but his woman: There are a lot of directions I could go here, as Cedeno had well-known, even tragic, experiences with women. But let's go with this Cedeno quote:

"I never get any endorsements or commercials. I've never understood why. I have an accent, but so does Ricardo Montalban."


(A word about the back): Just to give younger collectors an idea of the build-up for this guy, here are snippets from the first few Cedeno card backs:

1971: "Cesar has the potential to be a super-star."
1972: "Hailed as NL's next super-star ..."
1973: "One of the major league's most exciting players ..."
1975: "Perhaps baseball's next super-star ..."

2 comments:

  1. And where did he end up?

    .285 lifetime BA
    < 200 HR
    < 1000 RBI
    550 stolen bases, but never led the league (he DID lead the NL in being caught stealing twice)

    Isn't the hype machine great? (Roger Repoz was going to be the next Mickey Mantle too.)

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  2. Durocher had some other interesting things to say about Cedeno in his book, "Nice Guys Finish Last."

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