HOW SOME PLAYERS GOT TO MAJORS STILL MYSTERY.

Byline: JOSH KLEINBAUM Staff Writer

The legend of Orlando Hernandez began on Christmas Day 1997 on a rickety raft off the coast of Cuba.

Hernandez -- now a star pitcher for the New York Mets -- was floating for freedom one wave at a time through the shark-infested waters surrounding the communist country.

Or maybe he was aboard a yacht owned by his agent, cruising for freedom in comforts most in his native Cuba would never know. Or he was aboard a fishing boat arranged by his agent -- comfortable, but not too comfortable -- making way for the Bahamas, and then major league riches.

Nearly a decade later, the legend of El Duque, as Hernandez is known, still remains somewhat of a mystery. The fishing boat story, reported by Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez in their 2001 book, ``The Duke of Havana,'' is considered the definitive account, but questions still linger.

As does the fascination with Cuban baseball and its players.

Legend has it that former major league shortstop Rey Ordonez scaled a fence in Buffalo, N.Y., where he was playing in an international tournament, to reach a waiting car that carried him to freedom.

Since July 4, 1991, when pitcher Rene Arocha defected just before the Pan American Games opened in Havana, 24 players have defected from Cuba and gone on to play in the majors.

Their ages and backgrounds are often a mystery. And with the help of agents who know how to navigate through both defection law and baseball rules, they often get major league riches before ever playing in a major league game.

Hernandez fled Cuba not for the United States but to the Bahamas and then Costa Rica, where defection is easier and he wouldn't be subject to Major League Baseball's draft. Instead, he could auction himself off to the highest bidder -- the Yankees signed him to a four-year, $6.6 million contract.

[e-mail]

[phone]