SAN FRANCISCO — When a friend called Orlando Cepeda to ask if he would be open to receiving this year’s “Mensch Award,” the former Giants slugger was ecstatic.
“Absolutely,” he said.
And then Cepeda had a follow-up question: “What’s a mensch?”
The answer came Saturday night at a ceremony for Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California. Cepeda’s longtime friend, Bob Sockolov, read the description to the audience while on stage at the Fairmont Hotel.
“Mensch — a person of integrity and honor,” Sockolov said. “A mensch is someone to honor and emulate.