SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Star Cuban infielder Yulieski Gourriel and his younger brother slipped away from their hotel in the Dominican Republic early Monday in an apparent effort to launch careers in Major League Baseball.
The departure of Yulieski and his brother Lourdes was confirmed with remarkable swiftness by Granma, the Communist Party newspaper in Cuba that serves as an outlet for official government statements.
The paper said on its website Monday morning that the Gourriel brothers had "abandoned" their hotel in "an open attitude of surrender to the merchants of professional baseball for profit."