MSNBC. Reuters. June 6, 2000
SAN NICOLAS, Cuba, June 6 — In Cuba, news of illegal departures to the United States spreads like wildfire from mouth-to-mouth -- especially if the missing person is a well-known baseball player like Andy Morales.
''Yes, he's gone to the United States,'' confirmed a youngster in San Nicolas, provincial home to the parents of Morales, 28, who left his homeland by raft, was picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard and is now seeking asylum.
''It's a good thing. Over there, Andy will play more,'' chimed in a young student, sitting in the door of her blue- painted home in this quiet sugar town, 45 miles (70 km) southeast of Havana.
While San Nicolas' small population debates whether or not their local hero did right to abandon the Caribbean island to try his luck in the United States, his parents anxiously await news of his fate as the player sits on a boat.
''I am eager to talk to him,'' his father and former baseball tutor Adelso Morales said, plying a journalist with questions about whether she had seen his son on TV. ''If I knew he was going, I wouldn't let him. Both his mother and I are amazed.''
Morales is the latest in a line of morale-hitting defection attempts from Cuba's amateur-only baseball players, eager to seek their fortunes in the U.S. major leagues.
Here, they play for the equivalent of about $25 a month, although the best players enjoy a hero status and state- bestowed privileges like a car or good house. In the United States, however, they could earn millions if they are good enough for the big leagues.
Perhaps the most famous recent defector was pitcher Orlando ''El Duque'' Hernandez, who left Cuba on a small boat in December 1997. He later signed a $6.6 million contract with the New York Yankees and pitched in the 1999 World Series.
Morales' parents, and other close associates, said they found out about his departure via gossip on the street, and had no idea if he would be let into the United States or sent back to Cuba under rules for those picked up at sea.
''We heard about it Saturday night, they started talking about it in the town,'' his father said of the third baseman, who was well-known in Cuba but not one of the biggest stars.
Morales' biggest moment was notching a home run in a 12-6 victory by the Cuban national team over the Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition game in Baltimore in May 1999. But he was not a regular member of the national squad, and was unlikely to make it into the side travelling to Sydney for
the Olympics, experts say.
In the just-finished local baseball tournament, Morales had a solid but unspectacular season with the Havana Province team.
''People heard about his departure by radio,'' Morales' father added, presumably not referring to Cuban state radio, which has ignored the case, but to the anti-communist Radio Marti station broadcasting to the island from Miami.
Morales' second wife, who lived with him in recent times in the nearby town of San Jose, a bit closer to Havana, says she too knew nothing of his intentions. ''He left on Wednesday morning, as normal, with his bag, to go and play. He said he'd be back on Saturday,'' Daiyana Castillo, 20,
calmly recounted.
The pair have a four-month-old baby boy, and Castillo's father is now spearheading from the United States efforts to get asylum for Morales.
The players' relatives said he had plenty of chances to depart before had he wanted to. ''They offered him the opportunity to stay, but he said no,'' his wife said.
''If he had an idea of staying, he would have done it during a trip with the national team, that would be easier than chancing it by sea,'' his father added. ''Wherever Andy plays, he will be a star.''
The Cuban's departure comes at a sensitive time with the still unresolved custody dispute over 6-year-old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez. Cuba blames U.S. immigration policy for encouraging illegal departures like those of Morales and Elian, whose mother took him also on a boat, by
granting privileged treatment if they make it to U.S. shores.
Under 1994 and 1995 immigration accords, those Cubans intercepted at sea should be sent back to the island by the U.S. Coast Guard -- if they do not face political persecution.
That makes Morales' case a thorny one.
Cuba says no illegal immigrants are ill-treated on return, and U.S. diplomats have a monitoring system here to check on repatriated people. But Morales can hardly expect much of a welcome if he comes back.
Before he fled, Hernandez had been banned from playing here just on suspicion he was thinking of leaving.
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