Baseball: Proof of the Pluses

In eight seasons with the San Francisco Giants, Orlando Cepeda batted .308, belted 223 homers, drove in 752 runs—and took more abuse from his managers than any other player in baseball. Bill Rigney called him "a little boy, to whom winning a pennant isn't as important as it ought to be." Alvin Dark complained that Cepeda had "more minuses than pluses." Herman Franks said he was "lazy" and "a faker," publicly accused him of malingering when he was crippled by a knee injury that hampered him for two years and finally required surgery....