When the Yankees were in Miami this week, it was difficult for pitcher Jose Contreras not to dwell on missing his family. Johnette Howard had a nice piece on the pitcher’s lonliness in Newsday a few days ago:

When he stands on the beach here in South Florida and looks toward the horizon, Contreras says, he thinks how the family he left behind is out there somewhere, barely more than 100 miles away.

“Sometimes I just stand on the beach and look at the water,” Contreras says, “and Cuba feels so close, it’s unbelievable. Sometimes I have a dream that I’m back together with everyone. Then I wake up and I’m still in bed by myself.”

I can’t imagine what that must be like, but it sure helps to put the winning and losing of baseball games into some perspective.