Rigoberto Herrera requested asylum around 10 a.m. Tuesday, some 10 hours after the Cubans beat the Orioles 12-6.
Through an interpreter, the lieutenant on duty ``understood he was requesting asylum and immediately notified INS officials,'' said police spokesman Robert Weinhold. Herrera is now in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., a foe of Fidel Castro's regime, said the man's full name is Rigoberto Herrera Betancourt.
Six other Cubans who missed the flight home Tuesday did so accidentally and will be allowed to return home without U.S. intervention, the Justice Department said.
Menendez said two other Cubans may also have asked for asylum, but the Justice Department officials, asking not to be identified, said they were not aware of any such request.
The official Cuban government list of the delegation that traveled to Baltimore included Rigoberto Betancourt. The government news agency said he was a 54-year-old retired pitcher.
He played Cuban baseball between 1965 and 1975 and was known for an excellent curve ball. Three times he was part of the national team: during the Central American-Caribbean games in Puerto Rico in 1966, in the Pan American games in Winnipeg in 1967, and during a tour of Mexico.
Most recently he worked as a pitching trainer in a Havana province. He was known as ``El Pequeno Gigante del Box,'' or the Little Big Man in the Box.
Cuban officials denied any members of the delegation defected, but said six Cubans overslept and missed the plane.
``We have no defectors,'' the spokesman for the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, Luis Fernandez, told The Associated Press.
He said the six were planning to catch another flight home either Tuesday or today.
In Washington, a senior administration official said the government was making arrangements to talk to the six -- despite the Justice Department conclusion -- to learn whether they want to return voluntarily.
The INS would not comment on possible defections or say if the agency had been contacted by the six.
More than 300 Cubans were part of the delegation that attended Monday night's game. Besides players, the delegation included journalists, retired ballplayers, ordinary citizens, members of youth groups and outstanding students.
During a long speech welcoming the players in Havana, Castro criticized defections in general, but said nothing about anyone staying behind.
The game was a rematch after the Orioles defeated the Cubans in Havana 3-2 on March 28, when the Orioles became the first major league team in 40 years to play in Cuba.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press