The thriller man was tall and lean and he was smiling, perpetually smiling. His life had dramatically modified when he left Cuba in a fishing boat, and it was about to vary once more. Every single day featured extra modifications, extra smiles and extra glimpses of the pitcher generally known as El Duque.
That was the scene on a sunny spring coaching day when Orlando Hernández first pitched in entrance of the Yankees. After fleeing Cuba on the day after Christmas in 1997, he took a harmful and circuitous path to signing a four-year, $6.6 million contract with the Yankees. Now Hernández was lastly on a mound in Tampa in late March of 1998, surrounded by curious Yankees coaches and executives who have been desperate 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 each one eyes have been on him and a realization that he adored the eye. After greater than a 12 months of not enjoying baseball, he was lastly pitching once more.
On that day in Tampa, the true El Duque antics began when he pitched from a windup and unveiled a cool movement that was completely different from any that the attendees had ever seen. His eyes regarded menacing as he held his glove in entrance of his face, nevertheless it was his limber and acrobatic leg kick that made him so distinctive. He lifted his left leg and it climbed increased and better, his knee virtually brushing his chin, after which he peered to the aspect earlier than reconnecting with the goal and powering ahead to fireside a pitch. It was athletic. It was balletic. It was beautiful.
“He confirmed up for this bullpen session in Tampa and he simply had this presence about him like he was Michael Jordan,” stated Normal Supervisor Brian Cashman. “There was one thing projecting from him, a presence that you possibly can really feel. It was greatness. He wasn’t cocky, however there was one thing about him.”
Hernández didn’t have a single main league inning on his résumé, however Cashman noticed an analogous ultracompetitive nature between the pitcher and Jordan.
“I really feel like whenever you’re round profitable individuals, they emit an aura about them,” Cashman stated. “And, earlier than El Duque knew what he might do round right here, he was emitting that aura. He had a presence.”
Cashman wasn’t alone in immediately noticing Hernández’s presence, his confidence and his skills. He was so excited to pitch once more, so excited to be a Yankee and, truthfully, was in all probability excited to point out off. He had been the king of the mound in Cuba, a baseball-obsessed nation the place he had a gaudy 129-47 file for Havana’s Industriales, who’re Cuba’s model of the Yankees.
As I watched El Duque, on and off the sector, I finally realized there was nobody like him. He was daring and proud and centered and charming. Whereas engaged on my e-book “The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Biggest Baseball Workforce Ever,” there have been fixed reminders that Hernández was essentially the most fascinating participant on that historic group. I devoted a chapter to him and known as it “Worldwide Man of Thriller” as a result of he made an already nice group much more imposing, as a result of he was a really savvy and gutsy pitcher and since he was a pleasure to look at.
“Couldn’t cease watching him,” stated David Cone, one other Yankees pitcher identified for his creativity. “Wished to see what he did subsequent.”
How might El Duque pitch so successfully with a leg kick that will make a Rockette proud? What number of arm angles did he use? What number of pitches did he throw? The questions hovered over Hernández, and he answered all of them emphatically whereas going 12-4 with a 3.13 earned run common. Then he gained the Yankees’ most essential sport of the season in Recreation 4 of the American League Championship Collection.
He was proof against stress.
“I don’t assume anyone has written the appropriate film script for this man,” stated catcher Jorge Posada. “There’s no approach to actually inform his story and what he needed to undergo to get right here and pitch for the Yankees. That’s only a film ready to occur. It was unbelievable.”
Overlaying Hernández in 1998 was extremely entertaining, a pleasant present each time he stared at a batter. He was simply completely different. Even the way in which he ready for video games was completely different. Earlier than he picked up a baseball, he would do wind sprints, leg kicks and calisthenics within the outfield, making different pitchers appear to be weekend warriors.
Most pitchers don’t communicate to reporters earlier than begins, however Hernández was chatty. Earlier than his fifth begin, he casually advised reporters that Fidel Castro, the Cuban chief and a person he reviled, would very doubtless watch him pitch in opposition to the Mets, and he added, “He is aware of all the pieces.” After speaking and speaking, Hernández proceeded to throw 141 pitches throughout eight innings. And he needed to maintain pitching.
“In Cuba, you don’t have a reduction pitcher each trip,” Hernández stated. “In Cuba, it’s win or die.”
The teammate with the perfect perspective on Hernández was Posada, who was as headstrong because the pitcher he caught. Of Hernández’s 23 begins within the common season and postseason in 1998, Posada caught 21 of them. All these years later, he looked for the optimum approach to describe El Duque.
“He was simply perfection,” Posada stated. “He was so — properly, perfection is a phrase, however I’m unsure it’s the phrase I’m on the lookout for. He wasn’t nervous. He went by way of hell and now he’s dwelling his childhood dream. He was simply saying: ‘I’m right here. That is the perfect time of my life and I’m not going to take something with no consideration.’ Yeah, I assume perfection is the phrase I needed to make use of.”
Within the emotional and feisty Posada, the Yankees had the best catcher to deal with Hernández. Posada revered Hernández and felt a direct kinship with him as a result of Posada’s father had additionally defected from Cuba in 1968.
“I advised him all about my dad and, after all, it introduced us nearer,” Posada stated.
Hernández known as Posada “a brother for me then and a brother for me in the present day,” they usually have been a part of a really tight-knit Yankees’ group. After a tumultuous 1-4 begin during which Supervisor Joe Torre and Cashman questioned about their job safety, the Yankees cruised by way of an idyllic season. Stress? What stress? The Yankees stored profitable, so there was little stress. Till Recreation 4 of the A.L.C.S. Till they trailed the Indians two video games to 1 in a best-of-seven sequence.
“It was actually the primary time all 12 months that we have been apprehensive,” stated outfielder Paul O’Neill.
Enter El Duque, an unflappable pitcher who handled the pressure-packed sport the identical as another begin. On the morning of Recreation 4, Torre was consuming breakfast within the resort restaurant when he observed a well-known determine cleansing plates and silverware from tables to assist the overtaxed workers. That helper was Hernández, who was as carefree as a pitcher might be.
“He wasn’t afraid of a factor,” stated Derek Jeter. “And, if you consider it, he was the right man for that sport.”
Since Hernández had not pitched in 15 days, it was essential for him to navigate by way of the primary inning and discover the texture for his pitches. However a single and a stroll put two runners on base for Jim Thome, who had blasted two homers in Recreation 3. And Thome virtually went deep once more as he drove Hernández’s changeup to proper area, however O’Neill caught it in entrance of the fence for the third out. The Yankees exhaled. Then the sport grew to become the El Duque Present as he pitched seven scoreless innings in a 4-0 win.
It’s not hyperbole to say that Hernández rescued the Yankees. Had the Yankees faltered, they might have been one loss away from elimination, and the stress would have been unbearable. The incessant query would have been: Might the group that gained 114 common season video games flop? With all that the Yankees had completed, that will have been a disaster they’d not confronted all season. As an alternative, El Duque guided the Yankees.
“I had stress,” Hernández stated. “However I had no worry.”
El Duque gave the Yankees a lot multiple win that tied the sequence. Within the relieved clubhouse, it was evident that Hernández had additionally given the Yankees their swagger again. For 48 tense hours, the Yankees have been an uncomfortable bunch who questioned if their exceptional journey was about to finish. It didn’t. It didn’t due to El Duque, essentially the most compelling character in my e-book and essentially the most fascinating participant on the best group ever.
Jack Curry’s new e-book, “The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Biggest Baseball Workforce Ever,” was launched on Could 2.
