If you look at Roger Craig‘s Baseball Reference page, you will see all the usual transactions listed — signed, drafted, traded, released. Those are the expected parts of a ballplayer’s career. You will, however, not see this listing: “October 1969: Hijacked from Los Angeles to Cuba.” But it really happened. Craig and several other ballplayers were on an airplane that was meant to land in Miami. Instead, an armed passenger took over the plane and had it fly to Havana. Yes, there are worse things than pitching for the 1962 New York Mets, as Craig learned.
For those of you who don’t remember life before the 9-11 terrorist attacks, there was a time when airplane hijackings didn’t turn into national tragedies. They were just a thing that, every once in a while, happened. I remember late night talk show host making the odd hijacking joke every now and then on the Tonight Show. According to The Durham Sun, the hijacking of National Airlines Flight 42 on October 9 was the 46th airplane hijacking of the year. The thing that made this one noteworthy was the passengers, which included Craig — then the pitching coach of the San Diego Padres — Mel Queen of the Cincinnati Reds, Dave Marshall of the San Francisco Giants, Dick Corkins of the Padres and Dennis Paepke of the Kansas City Royals. The players were headed to Venezuela to take part in winter ball. The plane was supposed to land in Miami before its unexpected detour.
The plane, which carried 63 passengers and seven crew, was over Texas when a man began passing notes to some of the passengers in first class. He then pulled out a gun, grabbed flight attendant Ann Baker by the arm and said, “Havana, Cuba! Cockpit!” Gail Queen, Mel’s wife, got one of the notes that read, “Cuban refugee. Please keep quiet. We’ll land in my homeland in two hours, where are my wife and my son.”
Craig, who also received a note, let his fellow ballplayers know to “keep quiet, this is serious,” according to the Sun. As this all took place in first class, most of the other passengers did not know what was happening. The hijacker apparently didn’t speak much English and did not talk with the passengers. Craig told his mother-in-law, who was interviewed by the Sun, that they were given free drinks, and nobody was harmed. “We were treated nicely the whole time,” Craig told his mother-in-law.
When the plane landed at Jose Marti Airport in Havana, the hijacker left the plane, telling passengers, “Goodbye. Thank you. You are good people.” The remaining passengers were taken into the airport, kept in a waiting room and treated to drinks and cigars before re-boarding the plane and flying to Miami. National Airlines reported that the only passenger on the flight register who did not re-board the flight was identified as “F. Birera.”
There was no word if Craig had enough time in Cuba to teach Fidel Castro how to throw a splitter.
RIP Baseball 