The Outrageous Star Power of El Duque
The mystery man was tall and lean and he was smiling, perpetually smiling. His life had dramatically changed when he left Cuba in a fishing boat, and it was about to change again. Every day featured more changes, more smiles and more glimpses of the pitcher known as El Duque.
That was the scene on a sunny spring training day when Orlando Hernández first pitched in front of the Yankees. After fleeing Cuba on the day after Christmas in 1997, he took a dangerous and circuitous route to signing a four-year, $6.6 million contract with the Yankees. Now Hernández was finally on a mound in Tampa in late March of 1998, surrounded by curious Yankees coaches and executives who were eager to see him pitch.
He tossed a baseball softly and confidently, the ball snapping off his fingertips and popping into the catcher’s mitt. There was an ease and a swagger about Hernández, a recognition that all eyes were on him and a realization that he adored the attention. After more than a year of not playing baseball, he was finally pitching again.
On that day in Tampa, the real El Duque antics started when he pitched from a windup and unveiled a funky motion that was different from any that the attendees had ever seen. His eyes looked menacing as he held his glove in front of his face, but it was his limber and acrobatic leg kick that made him so distinctive. He lifted his left leg and it climbed higher and higher, his knee almost brushing his chin, and then he peered to the side before reconnecting with the target and powering forward to fire a pitch. It was athletic. It was balletic. It was gorgeous.
Source: The New York Times
