Baseball defectors seen on Cuban TV for first time

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans saw one of their greatest baseball players, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, on television Saturday night for the first time since he defected to the United States a decade ago.

In an unprecedented step, Cuba's state-run television broadcast a sports documentary that included interviews with baseball players who left to play in the U.S. major leagues and are considered traitors by Cuba's communist authorities.

The film on Cuba's most popular baseball team, Industriales of Havana, was made in 2003 but had been censored due to the interviews with former stars who defected.

"I'm an Industrialista. I am not a traitor to the Industriales," Hernandez said in the documentary "Fuera de Liga" (Outstanding) by Ian Padron.

"I've had the opportunity to play for the two best teams in the world: Industriales and the Yankees," said the pitcher, who earns $5 million a year playing for the New York Mets, though he was with the Yankees at the time of the interview.

First baseman Kendry Morales, now playing for the Los Angeles Angels, was interviewed before he defected on a speedboat to Miami in 2004.

Baseball is Cuba's national passion, but it has suffered a constant drain of its top talent with players leaving behind meager wages to find fame and fortune in U.S. baseball.

In 2002, Cuba lost its best pitcher, Jose Contreras, to the New York Yankees. He now plays for the Chicago White Sox.

As soon as baseball stars defect, their names vanish from Cuba's official media, though Cubans continue talking about them on street corners.

The prime time showing of the documentary surprised Cubans, some of whom saw it as a sign of greater tolerance and debate in Cuba since Cuban leader Fidel Castro fell ill and handed over the running of the country to his brother Raul in 2006.

In a speech on Dec. 28, Raul Castro said there was "an excess of prohibitions" in Cuba that did more harm than good.

Hernandez praised its broadcast. "I imagine the documentary will be a breath of fresh air on television for Cubans," he told Miami's Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald newspaper.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Eric Beech)