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Contreras has chance to put Cubans in a better light

By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

TAMPA, Fla. -- A week and a half ago, a struggling 31-year-old rookie pitcher left the Yankees' training camp in Tampa and drove across the causeway to watch his idol pitch. When he climbed into that car, Jose Contreras had a spring-training ERA of 16.88. So no wonder he was looking for inspiration. And no one was more suited to provide it than a man who once had walked in Contreras' spikes -- Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez. "He's a great pitcher," Contreras says of his Cuban countryman, El Duqu ...

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