Not so fantastic
El Duque's voyage to freedom not quite as it appears
Posted: Thursday November 26, 1998 03:17 PM
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Hernandez faces an $800,000 lawsuit for breach of an oral agreement with the man who took him to freedom last December Al Bello/Allsport |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- The dramatic tale of New York Yankees
pitcher Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez, whose escape from Cuba has made him
an instant baseball folk hero, evidently was not as harrowing as has been
reported.
But that hasn't stopped Hernandez and his agent from peddling a book and
movie deal that will play up the tale to the hilt, according to a story in this week's Sports
Illustrated.
Hernandez and eight others, all but one of whom planned to defect, left
Cuba not on a leaky raft but on a seaworthy 20-foot boat last December 26,
heading for a rendezvous with another boat on Anguilla Cay, 35 miles north
of Cuba. According to the rapidly growing legend, the boat made its way
through rough, shark-infested waters, began taking on water almost
immediately and sank after it reached Anguilla Cay.
But SI, in interviews with three of the other passengers on the boat
and others who aided their escape, dispels many of the myths surrounding
the journey in its article entitled "Fantastic Voyage."
According to those on the boat with Hernandez, the boat never leaked, never
sank and made its trip on smooth waters without the sighting of a single
shark.
The boat left to return to Cuba, while the boat that was to meet them on
Anguilla Cay took on water before it got there and had to be rescued.
Hernandez and the others were stranded on the uninhabited island until the
U.S. Coast Guard rescued them four days later.
Juan Carlos Romero, part owner and navigator of the boat that took the
group to freedom, provided much of the information for new version of the
voyage. He has filed an $800,000 lawsuit against Hernandez in Costa Rica
for breach of an oral agreement. Romero insists that Hernandez promised to
help him get into the United States, support him and help him obtain a job.
Instead, Romero and his pregnant wife Geidi are living in an abandoned
warehouse in Costa Rica, while Hernandez is enjoying the spoils that come
with the four-year, $6.6 million contract he signed with the Yankees
earlier this year.
Neither Hernandez nor his agent, Joe Cubas, would respond to repeated calls
by the magazine for comment. Meanwhile, Vanguard Films continues work on a
movie in which it says Cuba Gooding Jr. will portray Hernandez. "I
want him to win, and I cheer for him to win," Geidi told SI. "I just
wish he had not left us behind while he got what we all got into that boat
for."
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