[Shark&Nike]

Yankees pitcher, Cuban family reunite

BY ELAINE DE VALLE, KEVIN BAXTER AND TERE FIGUERAS, tfigueras@herald.com

The wife and two daughters of Yankees pitcher José Ariel Contreras -- the former Cuban national team star who defected in 2002 -- arrived in South Florida aboard what authorities described as a smuggler's go-fast boat after the Cuban government made it clear it would be years before they would be allowed to leave.

Miriam Murillo Flores, 31, and the couple's two girls -- Nailan and Nailenis Contreras, 11 and 3, respectively -- came ashore in the Keys on Monday and were released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tuesday evening.

"It's a tremendous joy," said Contreras, who arrived at Miami International Airport, having jumped on a flight from Baltimore, where the Yankees were playing.

"It's a dream I never thought would come true," said Murillo, as she awaited her husband's arrival in Miami. Her sister, brother-in-law and five family friends, including two children, also made the trip.

After clearing the last bureaucratic hurdles, they were released to Contreras' agent -- who arranged transportation befitting the wife of a major league player: a black stretch limo, which pulled up outside the Catholic refugee center in Doral to pick up the newly arrived Cubans.

"Now, finally, they will be together," said agent Jaime L. Torres, who helped Contreras defect and has seen his client suffer through the prolonged separation from his family.

"Not a day goes by that he doesn't talk to her or the girls," he said.

Tuesday was no exception, but with one welcome difference: Minutes after slipping past the throng of reporters and well-wishers that gathered to greet the arriving Cubans, Torres handed his client's wife a cellphone.

Contreras, en route from Baltimore, was on the other end. The couple was reunited a few hours later at the Loews Hotel in Miami Beach.

Torres said his client had no idea his family was setting out for the United States until a reporter called with the news Tuesday afternoon.

LEFT SUNDAY NIGHT

Murillo declined to talk about the specifics of the trip, saying only that the group left the island Sunday night.

The group landed at Big Pine Key about 5:15 a.m. Monday after a three-hour chase by the U.S. Coast Guard. The boat, carrying a total of 21 Cubans and two suspected smugglers, eluded authorities long enough for the migrants to reach shore.

The group were quickly taken into custody. The smuggling suspects were arrested, but their alleged cargo was free to go. Under the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot immigration policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay.

When Torres found out Murillo and her daughters had arrived, he immediately called Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and asked permission for his client to leave the team for a reunion in South Florida.

"Obviously we approved that without reservation," Cashman said. "We're hoping they're OK. I know that without a doubt he's missed his family terribly."

Contreras' next scheduled start is Saturday at Yankee Stadium, but Cashman said the team has given the pitcher no timetable for his return.

"That's not even an issue here," he said. "Whatever is necessary is what we'll do."

The reunion closes a difficult chapter in Contreras' life. Since his defection, he has publicly suffered the separation from his wife and young daughters.

Although Contreras went 7-2 with a 3.30 ERA in his rookie year, he was up and down between the majors and minors as the Yankees tried to help him work out what they called mechanical flaws. Contreras insisted the problem wasn't in his arm -- it was in his head.

He was homesick.

Contreras missed his daughters. And he missed his wife, whom he married in 1988 when he was 16 and she 15.

"It's been difficult," Contreras said Tuesday night. "Imagine, two years apart from your wife, from your daughters."

The couple met when they were both studying to be veterinary technicians. For the first seven years of their marriage, they lived with his parents in the town of Sandino, named for a Nicaraguan revolutionary hero. Later, the government gave the couple an apartment in nearby Pinar del Río.

After he defected, Contreras racked up monthly phone bills that soared into five figures. When he's at home in his St. Petersburg condo, he has said, he spends nights on his balcony staring south -- toward Cuba.

"Everybody goes home to someone who offers support," Yankee manager Joe Torre said. "He hasn't had that. The fact that he's going to be able to see his wife and children I'm sure is going to be a big relief."

Contreras was the least likely of defectors. By Cuban standards, he lived well. He drove a blue Peugeot. The apartment was given to him as a reward for his baseball exploits.

A stalwart supporter of Fidel Castro, he was also one of the dictator's favorites. Castro nicknamed him "The Bronze Titan" -- a handle Contreras uses in his e-mail address today.

During the 2002 team trip to Mexico, Contreras was so trusted that he was given the responsibility of guarding the team's passports -- a privilege that came in handy. Contreras defected, making his escape along with a Cuban baseball official.

Castro was quick to denounce Contreras as a traitor who sold out his homeland for money.

Contreras first sought residency in Mexico before winning residency in Nicaragua. That allowed him to sell himself to the highest bidder as a free agent.

Contreras said he was always a Yankees fan -- major league baseball, though officially banned, is followed closely in Cuba -- and he wanted to pitch in hallowed Yankee Stadium.

What Contreras didn't say, but has always hinted, is that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner promised to use his political influence to get Contreras' wife and two daughters out of Cuba. The Yankees are one of the few teams that have an immigration lawyer in Washington.

HARASSED IN CUBA

Meanwhile, his wife reported increasing harassment back in Cuba, and was arrested several times on what her husband described as bogus charges.

Murillo and the girls had been granted a visa by Nicaragua, but she said the Cuban government twice denied them permission to leave.

Officials told her she would have to wait five years, she said, until "the world had forgotten about José Contreras."

"There was always a lot of obstacles to come here legally," she said Tuesday, just before reuniting with her husband. "I never thought I'd make it."

Copyright © 2004 Knight Ridder. All Rights Reserved.