Suffice it to say, Orlando Hernández faced some heavy challenges in his life before coming to America to become a reliable MLB player and four-time World Series winner. Hernández defected Cuba in 1997 after becoming one of the most dominant pitchers in the country.
The details of his defection are hard to hear. He boarded a boat on Christmas Day in 1997. As the story has been told, he and others went from Cuba to Anguilla Cay on a 30-foot fishing boat after attending a wedding earlier in the day. A small transfer boat was supposed to take them the rest of the way, but it never showed, and he and the others had to survive on minimal food and with makeshift shelter for days before a helicopter spotted them. A boat finally showed, but took them to the Bahamas and were detained, not America where they intended to go. To make a long story short, Hernández was able to gain some press thanks in part to his brother's status as a pitcher in America and eventually got to America as a free man. The full story is wild, told well by Russ Speiller of SABR.
Thursday night, the Yankees broadcast on YES looked back on one of his most famous plays on its anniversary: When Hernández threw his entire glove to first base for an out because a ball got stuck in it.
YES play-by-play voice Michael Kay reminisced a bit on the pitcher, specifically telling a story about when he was on a baseball cruise with him. The seas were rough, and someone asked Hernández whether he was scared.
Michael Kay had an awesome story about Orlando Hernandez pic.twitter.com/GdTLaEZA03
— Josh Wilson (@J_WilsonSports) June 6, 2025
"[Hernández] goes, 'Do you know my story?'" Kay said of the response to the question.
Yeah, a choppy cruise is probably a cake walk compared to what Hernández had to go through to to get to America and start his successful MLB career. Quite the silly question in retrospect, but who can blame a nervous cruise passenger for trying to spark some conversation to distract from the rough waters?
And what an awesome answer from Hernández.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Michael Kay Shared Perfect Story About Cruise With Yankees Great Who Defected From Cuba.
