FILE PHOTO OF CUBAN PITCHER JOSE CONTRERAS IN ACTION AGAINST MEXICO AT PANAM GAMES IN CANADA,...

File photo of Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras in action against Mexico at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada on July 25, 1999. Cuba's communist government announced October 4, 2002 the desertion of Contreras, the top pitcher of the Cuban national team and potential Major League prospect. Contreras, 30, and Cuban baseball team coach Miguel Valdes disappeared this week while playing in the Series of the Americas in Northern Mexico and their whereabouts are not known. The 6-foot-4 right-hander is thought to be seeking to defect to the United States where he would join other outstanding Cuban baseball players, earning millions of dollars. The Cuban Baseball Federation called the men traitors and blamed Valdes, a veteran of three decades of coaching Cuban national sides, for encouraging the pitcher to defect. REUTERS/Gregg Newton/FILE GN