ST. LOUIS -- For 15 days, Rigoberto Diaz clutched his phone, anxious for the moment when he could hear his son's voice again.
He had been assured by an intermediary that his 21-year-old boy, Aledmys, had been safely routed to Mexico following his defection from the Cuban national baseball team. Aledmys had sneaked away while the team was playing a tournament in the Netherlands and was now hidden away in a home. Details beyond that were scarce.
As Rigoberto awaited that phone call, he replayed conversations that, in hindsight, may have telegraphed the life-changing decision, like the time Aledmys, as a 16-year-old, came to his father questioning the validity of his country's communist rule, or the time he was so upset at being passed over for a roster spot that he told his father he wanted to defect.