Print
Jun 9, 2008 3:00 pm US/Eastern
Cuban Baseball Player Goes Public After Defecting
Teenager Dayan Viciedo Living With Family In US
Played For The Villa Clara Team
He Defected About A Month Ago
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A top Cuban baseball prospect has gone public after defecting from the island and settling in South Florida nearly a month ago.
Dayan Viciedo is 19-years old from the central province of Villa Clara. He spoke Monday in Hialeah along with his agent, Jaime Torres. Torres said Viciedo has been contacted by 14 different major league teams. Torres also said he plans to petition for Viciedo to become an unrestricted free agent.
Viciedo played third base with the Villa Clara team, one of the major league teams in Cuba. He is now training in Miami in hopes of joining other successful Cuban baseball players who have defected and signed with major league teams in the U.S.
He started playing baseball in the Cuban majors when he was 15 and was included on the roster for the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
"There's a lot of hard work ahead of him to accomplish what he needs to accomplish," Torres said.
Word of his defection spread quickly in Cuban baseball circles Sunday as the island's national team played an off-season exhibition with Puerto Rico. El Nuevo Herald was the first to report the defection.
"This was a very personal decision he made," Villa Clara coach Victor Mesa, who attended Sunday's game at Havana's Latin American Stadium, told The Associated Press. "It appears he had a change of heart and wanted to try his luck there."
Viciedo is the latest high-profile athlete to leave Cuba for the United States. In March, seven Cuban soccer players defected at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Tampa. Cuba called the act "dishonorable" and a "low blow." In May, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Yurisel Laborde left Cuba's women's national judo team during a competition in Miami.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Top 5 Most Popular Celebrity Slideshows
