Relative of Marlins’ Hernandez Tries to Escape Cuba on Raft

Two star Cuban baseball players, including the half-brother of World Series most valuable player Livan Hernandez of the Florida Marlins, made their escape from Cuba and were being held Tuesday at a refugee camp in the Bahamas.

Pitcher Orlando Hernandez, 28, the older half-brother of the Marlin rookie pitcher, and catcher Alberto Hernandez, 26, who is not related to Livan and Orlando, were among eight Cubans picked up Sunday in a raft in the Bahamas, on a direct route from Cuba to Miami. They were halted by the U.S. Coast Guard, according to Bahamian immigration official Vernon Burrows.

The eight were detained Sunday on Anguilla Cay, in the Cay Sal Banks in the far eastern Bahamian islands, Burrows said Tuesday.

“He is here, but I can tell you this, he has made no request to the Bahamas government for political asylum,” Burrows said of Orlando Hernandez.

Both Orlando and Alberto have been banned from baseball on Cuba for more than a year, partly as a result of Livan’s defection while on a 1995 team trip to Mexico. Cuban officials accused them of aiding the defection of several athletes.

The Bahamas has an agreement with Cuba to return all refugees who turn up on its shores.

Burrows said refugees in the Bahamas are treated on a case-by-case basis and that no decision had been made.

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One in three major league players made $1 million or more last season, and a record 49 made $5 million or more, according to a study of all major league contracts by the Associated Press.

Of the 826 players on Aug. 31 rosters and disabled lists, a record 285 made $1 million or more, 12 more than the previous high in 1993, and 200 made $2 million or more.

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The Angels have signed former major league infielder Troy Neel to a minor-league contract and will invite him to spring training as a non-roster player. Neel, 32, played for Oakland from 1992-94, batting .280. He has spent the last three seasons in Japan. . . . The Houston Astros signed reliever Bryan Harvey to a minor-league contract.

Winter Sports

Austrian skiers finished first and second in the World Cup downhill at Bormio, Italy, and took six of the top eight spots for yet another team triumph.

Andreas Schifferer beat teammate Werner Franz by .18 seconds down the icy and treacherous Stelvio course, giving Austria its eighth victory in 12 men’s races this season.

Suzanne King edged Kerrin Petty by 14.8 seconds to win the women’s 15-kilometer freestyle ski race at Lake Placid, N.Y., and grab a spot on the U.S. team that will compete at Nagano, Japan, in February. In the men’s competition, Marc Gilbertson, 28, easily won the 30-kilometer freestyle event to earn a spot on the team.

Two quick starts gave driver Jim Herberich a slim edge in the first of four races to decide the U.S. bobsled team that will compete in Nagano.

With three-time Olympian Brian Shimer holding an automatic berth for the Games through his first- and second-place finishes in the season’s first two World Cup races, the two-man and four-man competitions will determine the other two drivers who will join him in Nagano.

Mike York scored one goal and assisted on two as Team USA beat Switzerland, 4-1, at the World Junior Hockey Championships at Helsinki.

Miscellany

A Phoenix investment banker has pleaded guilty to being part of a plot to fix games in 1994 with two former Arizona State basketball players, a published report says.

The Tribune in suburban Phoenix reported that Joseph Gagliano Jr., 29, pleaded guilty Dec. 19 to one count of conspiracy to commit sports bribery. The newspaper quoted deputy U.S. District Court clerk Shirl Dorfman as saying Gagliano was scheduled to be sentenced June 1.

Former welterweight boxing champion Meldrick Taylor has been accused of trying to swindle an insurance company by claiming his $85,000 Mercedes convertible was stolen in 1994.

Tiger Woods, whose record-setting victory in the Masters pushed golf from the sports pages to the front pages, was named male athlete of the year by the Associated Press.

The 19-and-under U.S. women’s water polo team defeated Canada, 10-5, in the championship game of the junior national tournament at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.