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Jose's a pitcher of joy

By Albor Ruiz and Steven Dudley in Miami, and Corky Siemaszko in New York Daily News Writers. Thu Jun 24.

The big smile on Jose Contreras' face yesterday said it all.

"I didn't get any sleep last night and I am still in a daze," the grinning Yankee pitcher told the Daily News after he and his wife, Miriam, spent their first night together in 20 months at a Miami Beach hotel. "We are on another honeymoon."

The honeymooners are expected to fly out of south Florida today for New York.

Contreras said he's especially eager to show his daughters, Naylenis, 3, and Naylan, 11, the sights.

"I'm going to do with them as people did with me," the big right-hander said. "I'm going to show them all the beautiful things New York has to offer."

The happy family man basking in the warmth of a Miami morning was a far cry from the glum-faced pitcher who has struggled on the mound as loneliness gnawed at his heart.

Contreras' girls made a harrowing escape from Cuba on Monday and were reunited with him late Tuesday. Months of agonizing separation - that began when Contreras defected on Oct. 25, 2002 - melted away after just one night.

"I thought that my little one was not going to recognize me," Contreras, 32, said. "But when she saw me, she said, 'Papito,' and she hugged me. The older one is a mujercita, a little woman, now."

Contreras said he kept waking up in the hotel to reassure himself that his dream of reuniting his family had really come true.

"Many nights, after I had a bad baseball game, when I went back home, I cried alone because it was an empty house," he said. "I used to wake up in the middle of the night dreaming that my daugthers were with me. But when I opened my eyes, I was alone."

Later, in an ESPN interview, Contreras said he relished being a father again.

"Now that they are here, I'm going to protect them and enjoy my family," he said. "It's like they were born all over again. ... I'm a new father all over again."

While Contreras worked out in the hotel gym, his wife, daughters and agent, Jaime Torres, spent the morning fixing a clerical error on their immigration forms that listed the expiration date as Tuesday.

Contreras said he will start against the Mets on Saturday and will show fans some serious heat.

"With my family there, I think I will be in my best form," he said. "I feel very confident now."

So does Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, one of Contreras' closer friends on the team.

"This was very big for him," Rivera said. "I know it will make a difference in how he feels and I think that will help him as a pitcher. He never really talked about it but it was definitely affecting him."

Freedom for Miriam Murillo-Flores, the couple's two girls, her sister and brother-in-law, came after they were chased by the Coast Guard across the shark-infested Florida Strait in a crowded smugglers' boat that finally beached on Big Pine Key.

While some new details of their daring defection emerged yesterday, Contreras would not talk about how it came about or when the escape plan was hatched. But with a $32 million, four-year contract, Contreras certainly had the means to fund his family's escape.

Some of the other Cuban escapees told the Daily News that they rowed offshore in another vessel late Sunday to a point in the sea where a red "go-fast" boat - a high-powered speedboat favored by drug smugglers and U.S. Customs officials - was waiting.

They paid between $5,000 and $10,000 for their passage to America in a boat that can cruise at 50 mph. They expected to make landfall in about three hours.

But as the smugglers' boat raced north with the lights off to avoid detection, a Coast Guard patrol boat spotted them early Monday and ordered them to stop.

Instead, the smugglers hit the gas and two faster Coast Guard vessels capable of operating in shallower water joined the chase.

Cornered in the Florida Keys, the smugglers ran aground on Big Pine Key at 5:15 a.m. and their passengers clambered ashore, where they were captured by customs officers.

Under U.S. law, Cubans who land on American soil are entitled to asylum. But it's a federal crime to pay someone to smuggle Cubans to the United States.

"Smuggling is a business down here, no one's going to work on credit," said Luis Diaz, a spokesman for the Coast Guard. "But it's a difficult crime to prove. No one's going to say, 'I financed it.'"

The two smugglers, both U.S. residents, were released yesterday. They face five years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted. But they have not been charged with a crime and did not appear in morning court, as is routine in suspected cases of people-smuggling.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Miami did not return a call for an explanation.

With Leslie Casimir in New Yorkand Sam Borden in Baltimore

Full story at New York Daily News

Happier Contreras figures to be more focused

By Gary Graves, USA TODAY. Thu Jun 24.

Because Jose Contreras was typically quiet, New York Yankees (news) teammates couldn't tell if he was generally bothered by a shaky start to the season or further vexed at being separated from his wife and two daughters in Cuba.

None would have been shocked to discover the latter was a factor. Contreras himself was resigned this spring not to see his family until 2007 at the earliest, and several Yankees conceded that that kind of personal turmoil would eventually affect his livelihood.

Now that the right-hander is reunited with his family - who safely defected with 18 others to South Florida early Monday - an individual and collective weight was lifted within New York's clubhouse. And with a happier Contreras, the Yankees expect a more focused pitcher to follow.

"Everybody's happy for him," shortstop Derek Jeter said. "This goes beyond baseball. We're talking about people's lives, his family. Everybody here is very excited for him."

For Contreras, who is 4-3 with a 6.18 ERA and scheduled to pitch Saturday against the New York Mets at Yankee Stadium, this season has been a struggle on all fronts.

For the second consecutive year he was sent to the minor leagues to improve his mechanics, which some speculated was an offshoot of his personal turmoil.

Yet he remained stoic, upbeat and was often the first one in the clubhouse, better than some teammates conceded they might have handled a similar situation.

Yankees third base coach Luis Sojo, from Venezuela, said it's hard enough for many Latin American players to adjust being away from their families when they first come to play professionally in the USA. Many couldn't begin to identify with Contreras' plight.

"We know it was hard for him, not being with his wife and kids," Sojo said. "It's hard at first because you can't speak the language, but you still have to take care of business. With many Latin players because you can fly back home if your child is sick, but Jose couldn't do that.

"It's tough. Nobody wanted to be in his shoes because that's very hard."

Sojo said he expects Contreras to have "a big smile" when he returns Friday, and Yankees manager Joe Torre figures Contreras will be a different pitcher, if only because his life has been different than most players.

"I think everybody in our clubhouse felt for him," Torre said. "It had to be a very traumatic experience, and to see his children after a year and a half, he's changed a lot. I couldn't be happier for him. Hopefully it gives him some peace of mind."

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