MIAMI -- New York Yankees pitcher Orlando Hernandez testified Thursday that a Massachusetts man seeking a finder's fee over his decision to be represented with agent Joe Cubas had nothing to do with the arrangement.

	Hernandez

El Duque acknowledged Tom Cronin suggested Cubas could be his agent if he defected and said the three met when in July 1995 when the Cuban national team played in Millington, Tenn.

When Hernandez and seven others took a boat from Cuba to the Bahamas in December 1997 and faced being sent home, Hernandez said he decided "we would go with the first person who would get us out of the detention center." He said his friend, catcher Alberto Hernandez, another member of the group, wanted Cubas.

But a Miami developer visiting the Bahamas at the time contacted Cubas, who flew the group to Costa Rica and negotiated a $6.6 million, four-year contract. Cubas received a five percent commission, $330,000.

Cronin is a real estate agent from Orleans, Mass., who befriended players on 11 trips to Cuba during the making of a documentary on Cuban baseball in 1995.

During the Millington trip, Cubas and Cronin signed a handwritten agreement in which Cronin agreed to recommend and refer players to Cubas in exchange for one-third of any commissions he received for major league contracts with four Cuban players, including Hernandez.

Cubas refused to pay, saying: "In clear and simple English, Mr. Cronin did not perform and did not deliver the goods. Not only did he not perform, he violated the agreement."

Cubas charges Cronin worked for his cousin, Juan Hernandez Nodar, to recruit players. Orlando Hernandez testified he knew while still in Cuba that Cronin and Hernandez Nodar knew each other, but he didn't know their relationship.

Hernandez wiped tears from his eyes with a handkerchief when he described testifying at Hernandez Nodar's 1997 trial in Cuba. Hernandez Nodar was sentenced to 15 years for trying to help players defect, and Orlando Hernandez was suspended from Cuban baseball for life following his testimony.

Asked later why he got emotional, Hernandez said, "I get sad when I have to mention that unjustly I was suspended for life."

In a lighter moment, Cubas' lawyer, Jeff Shapiro, mistakenly asked about Cubas, whom Hernandez considers anti-communist, being in Cuba rather than the Bahamas.

"In Cuba? They would have hung him," Hernandez joked.

El Duque wore his 1999 World Series ring to court and spoke through a Spanish translator. One of the two men on the jury smiled and craned his neck to see Hernandez walking into the courtroom.

Cronin is seeking $110,000 plus punitive damages from Cubas on a breach of contract claim.

Hernandez, 31, has compiled a 41-26 regular season-record and an 8-1 postseason record, helping the Yankees win World Series titles in all three of his major league seasons.