But through all the hard times, the crushing trade away from his beloved Giants, the knee injuries that ended his career too early, the crumbling of his first marriage and becoming an outcast in his native Puerto Rico after his incarceration, Cepeda never buckled.

He remained standing tall. He admitted to his faults and moved on. He credits his devotion to Buddhism. He discovered the faith in the early 1980s, a very difficult time in his life when baseball shunned him and people he believed were friends shed him like a clothes at the beach.

For Cepeda, Buddhism is not a faith he wears just in public. He’s just as devoted to the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism as he ever was of learning out to pound baseballs into oblivion.

Every morning Cepeda chants Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo for 90 minutes before going about his day. He does it again in the evening.

Cepeda is the most inviting of baseball heroes, never turning down an autograph, always greeting old friends and strangers alike with a handshake and a look in the eye.

Yes, future generation will have to uncover Cepeda’s old baseball cards to see what his classic right-handed upper cut looked like, but Cepeda the man in full will forever be depicted just as he was as a man – standing tall without the hint of a waiver.

Coach did a funny
When outlining 49ers team rules for the season, San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan announced that he didn’t want his charges flashing thongs in public.

“The whole team was looking at me like I was nuts,” Nolan said. “I was talking about flip-flops!”

Not so sleepless in Kansas City.

If you think A’s supporters have shown their displeasure with the club’s white-flag policy this summer by staying away from the Coliseum in droves, you should hear the frustration in the voices of Oakland’s radio team. The trio of Ken Korach, Vince Cotroneo and Ray Fosse spent the first few innings of Friday’s double header, necessitated by a rain out of the previous game, grumbling that they would have to sit through two meaningless games. Nothing wrong with being honest, but it sounded like they were being inconvenienced. Nobody kidnapped them. Don’t want to be there guys? There are dozens who would give their left pinkies just to broadcast one big league game.

A source close to the team said more than one angry Oakland fan called to complain about the shoddy gamecast.

The real frustrated party must have been the folks at KFRC-FM (106.9) who actually pay the club to broadcast the games. They lost a whole day of oldies programming for this unprofessional display. The station’s contract with the club runs through next season. Look for the station to cut ties ASAP, if the attitude doesn’t get better over the last month of the season, because the 2009 on-field product looks to be a redux of the current club.

Player haters

Do you think for a second that if more than just two of the 30 major-league mangers general managers had actually played in the big leagues that Barry Bonds would be sitting on the sidelines this season? The current lot of GMs has become a gang of conservative pencil pushers, afraid to break the mold. Any one who had played at baseball’s highest level would realize that a player the likes of Bonds – the greatest offensive force in the history of baseball – will probably never be seen again. For the likes of the contending Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and even Dodgers to not pursue him this summer is a joke. It’s a disservice to their clubhouses, fans and baseball in general.

A loss is a loss, but…

The outcome of Sunday’s 49ers loss was all reminiscent of last season’s train wreck of a season, but if there was silver lining to come out of San Francisco’s 10-point loss to Arizona, it’s that it appears the team has finally began the post-Alex Smith era. While journeyman quarterbacks J.T. O’Sullivan will never be a threat to Joe Montana’s golden legacy, the undrafted signal caller is head and shoulders above 2005 No. 1 pick Smith.

Looking good

The odds of the 15 players who have made their major league debuts with the San Francisco Giants becoming big league mainstays is not very good. But the minor league blitz has uncovered few potential gems, namely infielder Manny Burriss and relievers Alex Hinshaw and Sergio Romo.

But the best of them all appears to be the young slugger Pablo Sandoval. The 22-year-old Venezuelan had already achieved a life long dream of playing in Yankee Stadium this summer, when he competed for the World team in MLB’s Futures Game during the All-Star break. He hit the ground running when he was promoted to the Giants last month. Sandoval led all big league rookies in batting average during August, batting a sizzling .393.

The multi-positional Sandoval – he plays catcher, first and third base – has what scouts call the “good face.” He has bounds of natural hitting ability and an unrestrained joy.
In Sunday’s 11-5 beat down of the Pirates, Sandoval drove in five runs with a 2-for-3 game to raise his average to .364.
“From day one, he had played well,” said Giants skipper Bruce Bochy. “And you can see the confidence in this kid.”