Does anyone know how Orlando Hernandez got the name “El Duque?” This is something that has bothered me for years, but, being a Phillies fan, I haven’t been able to get to the bottom of it. My only guess is that it is a Spanish version of “The Duke,” the Yankee pitcher from the Major League movie. I’m not too confident in that, though.
http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,14,00.html
This article says his father who had many “wives” and children called his sons duques. He became the Duque of Havana.
**gonzomax ** has it right. “El Duke” came with the name from his time pitching in Cuba.
I don’t know where CA got that story, but it’s not what I knew in Cuba. Arnaldo Hernandez, the father of both Orlando and Livan Hernandez, was also a well known baseball player, and he was the original “El Duque”, but not for his womanizing but instead because he was always giving away stuff like he was a rich man.
Actually, it is a strange but true fact that in Orlando Hernandez’s native dialect, “El Duque” actually translates to “The Fifty-Year-Old Rookie.” He was given the nickname as an MLB rookie because… well, you know.