El Duque

Years later, Livan Hernandez’s journey to the majors still amazes me.

He was earning six dollars a month as an official Cuban athlete in 1995 and decided to quit and defected to the United States.

Fast forward two years later, Hernandez joined the Marlins as a rookie pitcher and ended up starting and winning two games in the World Series to capture the Most Valuable Player award.

Before the final game of the series, his mother Miriam Carreras flew in from Cuba after three weeks of negotiations with the Cuban government that included a written plea signed by all the Marlins players.

Hernandez still remembers that night and that specific moment when he was reunited with his mother:

“That was one of my best moments in my life. The people that did that surprised me good. I talked to my mommy that morning on the phone and in the afternoon I see her in Miami, we hugged and cried and my mommy bring me the luck and I win the World Series. Those two good things happened that day.”

Still one of my favorite baseball stories of all-time.

Posted on 16 May, 2012

6 notes

  1. abaseballlife reblogged this from stevenlebron and added:
    Happy Birthday Livan Hernandez!
  2. c0de-name-duchess reblogged this from stevenlebron and added:
    Right in the heart … overwhelmed by emotions :’)
  3. sourozenci reblogged this from stevenlebron
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