Contreras’ Family Gets Out of Cuba

Jose Contreras reunited with his wife and two daughters Tuesday night, one day after his family defected from Cuba and nearly 21 months after the New York Yankee pitcher escaped the island nation.

Contreras traveled to Florida from Baltimore to meet his wife, Miriam, and daughters Naylan, 11, and Naylenis, 3.

“My dream was to pitch for the Yankees in a World Series. Now that my family is here, I’m complete,” Contreras said through interpreter Leo Astacio during a news conference outside a Miami Beach hotel.

“I thought I would never see him again,” Miriam Contreras said at the news conference, held next to a fountain outside a hotel lobby.

Contreras, a former star on Cuba’s national team, defected in October 2002.

Contreras’ family was among a group of 21 Cubans that left on a 31-foot boat Sunday evening, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Robert Montemayor said.

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