Series Hero’s Brother Reaches Refugee Camp

Two star Cuban baseball players, including the half-brother of World Series MVP Livan Hernandez of the Florida Marlins, made their escape from Cuba and were being held Tuesday at a refugee camp in the Bahamas.

Pitcher Orlando Hernandez, 28, the older half-brother of the Marlins rookie pitcher, and catcher Alberto Hernandez, 26, were among eight Cubans picked up Sunday in a raft in the Bahamas, on a direct route from Cuba to Miami. They were halted by the U.S. Coast Guard, according to Bahamian immigration official Vernon Burrows.

The eight were detained Sunday on Anguilla Cay, in the Cay Sal Banks in the far eastern Bahamian islands, Burrows said Tuesday night.

“He is here, but I can tell you this, he has made no request to the Bahamas government for political asylum,” Burrows said of Orlando Hernandez.

Orlando Hernandez and Alberto Hernandez, who are not related, have been banned from baseball on the communist island for over a year, partly as a result of Livan’s defection while on a 1995 team trip to Mexico. Cuban officials accused them of aiding the defection of several athletes.

Ninoska Perez, of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, said she spoke to the two men, who seemed in good shape. The group was working with Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., to ask Justice and State department officials to intercede on their behalf.

Pitcher Graeme Lloyd of the New York Yankees underwent two hernia operations.

The hernias, one on the left side, the other on the right, were detected in a physical examination after Lloyd signed a two-year contract Dec. 19.

The Houston Astros signed veteran relief pitcher Bryan Harvey to a minor league contract for 1998.