Yankees Get Series Share of $320,000

Each member of the New York Yankees voted a full World Series share will get about $320,000, approximately $100,000 more than the previous record.

Following the doubling of World Series ticket prices, the players’ pool from postseason games increased to a record $39.3 million, the commissioner’s office said, up from $23.4 million last season.

Thirty-six percent of the money ($14.2 million) goes to players on the Yankees, who completed a four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night. Last year, Florida Marlins players got $8.4 million, which came to $188,468 a share.

The previous record for a World Series share was set in 1996, when a full share on the Yankees was worth $216,870.

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Yankees pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez was on the verge of a sweet reunion with members of his family Thursday night, 10 months after he defected from Cuba on a raft.

Hernandez’s mother, his ex-wife and her two daughters arrived at Miami International Airport on a charter flight Thursday night. They were expected to board the private jet of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner for the flight to New York and the reunion with Hernandez.

State Department officials and others indicated the family left the island with the Cuban government’s blessing for what is expected to be a brief stay. Hernandez hasn’t seen them since he left Cuba.

“I am very happy that I will be able to see my dad. I have missed him,” said Hernandez’s older daughter, 8-year-old Yahumara.

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The Cincinnati Reds hadn’t heard anything from baseball on the future of controlling owner Marge Schott, and Schott wasn’t talking.

Baseball officials are preparing to announce a decision that could end her 14-year reign as the Reds’ managing partner. She reportedly has agreed to sell her controlling shares, with the understanding that baseball will otherwise continue her 2 1/2-year suspension from day-to-day operation of the team.

Schott began the punishment in 1996 for making inflammatory remarks about minorities.

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The Toronto Blue Jays declined to exercise the $3.5-million 1999 option on catcher Benito Santiago, who sat out nearly the entire season after a January car accident.

Toronto did exercise its 1999 option worth $2.2 million on infielder Tony Fernandez, who led the club with a .321 average.