The Duke of Havana: Baseball, Cuba, and the Search for the American Dream - Paperback

by Steve Fainaru (Author), Ray Sanchez (Author)

The Duke of Havana is the inside story of Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, fallen hero of the Cuban revolution. Banned by the Castro government for plotting to defect and shunned by Cuban society, the finest pitcher in Cuba's history fearlessly turned his internal exile into a political crusade. He ultimately escaped his country in a twenty-four-foot boat and, nine months later, triumphed in the World Series with the New York Yankees. Present throughout his story are the immensely talented Cuban players whose lives reflect the slow death of Cuban socialism. Also present is the Castro-hating Miami-based sports agent Joe Cubas, whose audacious, secret plots have transformed him into a major political figure in the Cuban exile community's relentless war to topple Castro. These personal stories illuminate the rising political and social tensions in Cuba, the growing status of the Catholic Church in the country's affairs, major league baseball's astonishingly corrupt system for recruiting players, its systematic violation of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, and the historic role of baseball in U.S.-Cuba relations. Reported in the United States and Cuba by two award-winning journalists who became part of the story they were reporting, The Duke of Havana is a riveting story of sports, politics, and greed.

Front Jacket

In 1998, a mysterious right-handed pitcher emerged from the ashes of the Cold War and helped lead the New York Yankees to a World Championship. His origins and even his age were uncertain. His name was Orlando El Duque Hernandez. He was a fallen hero of Fidel Castro's socialist revolution.
The chronicle of El Duque's triumph is at once a window into the slow death of Cuban socialism and one of the most remarkable sports stories of all time. Once hailed as a paragon of Castro's revolution, the finest pitcher in modern Cuban history was banned from baseball for life for allegedly plotting to defect. Instead of accepting his punishment, he fearlessly fought back, defying the Communist party authorities, vowing to pitch again, and ultimately fleeing his country in the bowels of a thirty-foot fishing boat.
Here, for the first time and in astonishing detail, the secrets behind El Duque's persecution and escape are revealed. Moving from the crumbling streets of post Cold War Havana to the polarized world of exile Miami, from the deadly Florida Straits to the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium, it is a story of cloak-and-dagger adventure, audacious secret plots, the pull of big money, and the historic collision of ideologies.
Present throughout are the larger-than-life characters who converged at this bizarre intersection of baseball and politics: El Duque himself, Fidel Castro, the Miami sports agent Joe Cubas, the late John Cardinal O'Connor along with scouts, smugglers, and the Cuban ballplayers who gave up their lives as tools of socialism to test the free market and chase their major-league dreams.
Reported in the United States and Cuba by two award-winning journalists whobecame part of the story they were covering, The Duke of Havana is a riveting saga of sports, politics, liberation, and greed.

"From the Hardcover edition.

Author Biography

Steve Fainaru is an investigative sportswriter for The Wash-ington Post. He was a reporter for The Boston Globe for eleven years, covering major-league baseball, Wall Street, and Latin America. He lives in Washington, D.C.