APRIL 19, 1999
By ANTHONY BREZNICAN
.c The Associated Press, April
16
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Beverly Hills sports agent said Friday he has helped a 17-year-old baseball player defect from Cuba in an attempt to snag a lucrative contract for the young star.
Bryan Pena, a catcher with the Cuban Junior League, defected Thursday while visiting Venezuela for a tournament, agent Gus Dominguez said.
``We were in contact with his parents, and they fully support this,'' Dominguez said.
Dominguez, who has previous Cuban defectors as clients, described Pena as ``the top prospect in Cuban baseball outside their national team.'' He would not say where Pena was taken or reveal specifics about the defection.
``I want to protect other (Cuban) players,'' he said. ``You never know if they would like to do the same thing.''
Dominguez said the player is seeking asylum in an undisclosed country because he would have been subject to the June amateur draft if he became a U.S. resident. Amateur players are considered free agents if they do not reside in the United States or Canada.
Cuba's amateur sports establishment has seen a wave of defections by athletes hoping to compete as professionals abroad. Cuban officials condemned the defections as a strategy by Cuba's enemies to undermine its communist system.
Professional sports are banned in Cuba. Top athletes are given favored treatment, but salaries run about $10 a month and living standards pale beside those of millionaire athletes abroad.
Cuba's national team is scheduled to play the Orioles in Baltimore next month.
AP-NY-04-16-99 2300EDT
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
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