Book Report: The Duke of Havana

We weren't free. We became aware that if we were going to realize our dreams we had to get out of Cuba. ~Juan Carlos Bruzon

MY FAVORITE BASEBALL POINTS

Written by two newspaper journalist who covered Cuba and the events of surrounding the defection of Orlando Hernandez. This book reads part drama, part spy novel, part underhanded agent negotiations as it grips the reader with intrigue until the end.

via www.randomhouse.ca

Cuba has a terrific baseball program for its youth. Sports ability is assessed early in a child's life from which they are assigned to baseball school and spend as much time playing baseball as learning their figures. After school they graduate to tournament teams and then the professional teams on the island. The best professionals are chosen to represent Cuba in international competition. Orlando Hernandez was not selected for the youth program. Like Micheal Jordan getting cut in High School, Hernandez pushed himself to be a great player and then had to try out when he was older. Orlando became one of the greatest Cuban pitchers of all time.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba became a nation of squalor which lost billions in economic support from its sugar exports. While its players were perhaps the greatest in the world, they had no way of cashing in on their talents. Hernandez earned $50 a month while pitching for Cuba. Enter agent Joe Cubas who began stalking players in an attempt to bring them to America. The agent discovered that players had to defect to a third country to establish themselves as free agents and cash in to the highest bidder.

Cubas and another agent named Juan Ignacio became so good at getting players to defect they became targets of Fidel Castro. Juan Ignacio was arrested in Cuba while staking out a high school game and the Cuban police discovered forged documents in his briefcase containing the names of several prominant players; including Orlando Hernandez. Orlando, nicknamed El Duque just like his father, had no intention of defecting. He loved Cuba and was married with two small daughters. When a player defected they were never allowed to come back to Cuba, and lost all contact with their families. Ignacio was sentenced to 15 years in a Cuban prison.

After Orlando's brother Livan had defected then pitched the Marlins to World Series victory, El Duque became the next Cuban player for the agents to target. When the documents were discovered El Duque was officially banned from Cuban baseball. Along with two other players shortstop German Mesa and catcher Alberto Hernandez. El Duque spent two years attempting to get back into baseball only to be denied at every step. Only after losing his wife, daughters, home, and livelihood did El Duque choose to defect.

El Duque was taken by boat to a deserted island in the Bahamas where he was supposed to picked up by an American. The boat never showed up, and El Duque spent several days on the island with only cans of spam. He was eventually rescued by the Coast Guard and then the story really gets interesting as he is exiled to the Bahamanian government, gets sent to Costa Rica and then holds a tryout where he is eventually signed by the New York Yankees for $6.6 million.