Many Cuban baseball players have defected in the last decade and tried their luck in the major leagues. Only 19 out of 100 have had some success.

BY KEVIN BAXTER

NEW YORK - Pitcher René Arocha was the first baseball player to defect from Cuba when he simply walked away from the national team in a Miami International Airport terminal in 1991.

More than 100 have followed since then and, like New York Yankees pitcher José Contreras, they all left family, friends and country behind to pursue their baseball dreams in the United States.

• Pitcher Eddie Oropesa, who defected during the 1993 World University Games in upstate New York, left a pregnant wife behind. His son, Eddie Jr., was 2 ½ before he met his father for the first time.

• Larry Rodríguez, who defected in Venezuela in 1995, signed a $1.5 million bonus with the Arizona Diamondbacks but never pitched a game in the majors before injuring his arm. That money didn't buy him happiness. Rodríguez's grandfather, who had raised him, lay dying in Cuba and Rodríguez was unable to return to say goodbye.

''It's really bad when you have the money, you have the time, you have everything you need to go and visit with him . . . but you can't,'' Rodríguez said back then. ``How am I supposed to feel? I can't forget the sadness to have left my family.''

• Osmani Estrada, an infielder who never advanced past the minor leagues, couldn't even call home after he defected in Mexico in 1992. His father, a Cuban military officer and hero of the Angolan war, refused to take the calls. Estrada now works in construction in suburban Los Angeles.

Still, despite the pain of separation and the long odds of making it here -- just 19 of the nearly 100 Cubans who have followed Arocha's lead have made the major leagues -- players continue to come. In the past six months alone six of Cuba's top players have escaped the island.

But of those, only aging infielder Yobal Dueñas, once a top talent but now in decline, has signed a professional contract. Dueñas made his pro debut Friday, going hitless in two at-bats and drawing a walk for the Gulf Coast League Yankees.

• Pitcher Maels Rodríguez, who defected with Dueñas last December, failed to impress big-league scouts in two ''showcases'' in El Salvador and his agent has not returned calls regarding Rodríguez's status since April.

• Kendry Morales, a 22-year-old slugger, arrived in Miami earlier this month. He is considered Cuba's best young player in a generation and perhaps the best to get out of Cuba since the revolution. However, more than one agent is staking a claim to Morales so it may be weeks, if not months, before he tries out before scouts.

However, three others -- catcher Bárbaro Cañizares, first baseman Mitchel Abreu and pitcher Yosandy Ibáñez -- will audition early next month in Torreón, Mexico, according to their South Florida agent Bill Rego.