Joining Clemente in Cooperstown

Orlando Cepeda, one of baseball's most feared power hitters throughout the 1960s for San Francisco and St. Louis, is elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee 25 years ago today — five years after he falls only seven votes short of election in his 15th and final season on the writers' ballot.

Cepeda becomes the second Hall of Fame from Puerto Rico, joining his longtime friend Roberto Clemente.

Roberto Clemente, left, with Orlando Cepeda as 1955-56 winter ball teammates in Puerto Rico

Cepeda says he nearly joins Clemente on Clemente’s fateful flight from Puerto Rico to Nicaragua on New Year's Eve 1972, but backs out at the last minute.

The decision by Cepeda unknowingly saves his own life as Clemente perishes in the ensuing plane crash.

“He said, ‘You should go with me to Nicaragua,’ ” Cepeda later says in a PBS radio interview.

“I said, ‘Roberto, you have been on TV for five straight days raising money for Nicaragua – take it easy.’ And he said, ‘I have to do it. Nobody can do it for me.’ ”

Cepeda, then 35, spends two more seasons in the majors – first with Boston in 1973 as the Red Sox’s first designated hitter before finishing his career in 1974 in the same DH role with the Kansas City Royals.

Cepeda’s final totals include a .297 batting average with 379 home runs over 17 seasons, four of which are cut short by injuries.

Cepeda then waits another 25 years to reach the Hall of Fame, even though his Hall-worthy resume does not change from the day he retires until he finally is enshrined in Cooperstown.

“Baseball taught me to embrace failure,” Cepeda says. “Every strikeout or error only made me more determined to succeed.”