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Outfielder in Puerto Rico for child custody case Tuesday, May 16, 2000 By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
ALTOONA -- Wil Cordero was excused from the Pirates' traveling party yesterday and today so he could return to Puerto Rico, where he apparently planned to seek a temporary injunction as part of his attempt to gain custody of his two children there.
Pirates General Manager Cam Bonifay, who met with Cordero's lawyers last week in Pittsburgh, said he expected Cordero to miss the game tonight and rejoin the team tomorrow in Cincinnati.
Cordero was excused under similar circumstances early in spring training so he could return to Mayaguez, his hometown.
"For the past three months, I have been working with Wil in a child-custody case," Bonifay said yesterday, before the Pirates played Class AA affiliate Altoona Curve in the Blair County Ballpark. "He wants to bring his children back to Pittsburgh to live with him. It was a situation where he felt like he could not wait until the end of the season."
According to Bonifay, the player was going to appear before a civil judge yesterday and again at a hearing today. Cordero brought along his mother to Puerto Rico in hopes that she would return to Pittsburgh with his daughter, Wilanny, 3, and son, Wilfredo Jr., 2.
"It might take an extra day," Bonifay said of the legal matter, "but we're not counting on that just yet."
Bonifay has been apprised since spring training of the ongoing matter. The lawyers traveled to Pittsburgh and outlined the case last Wednesday with Bonifay, down to videotape evidence.
Bonifay said Cordero and the lawyers were hoping that unspecified criminal charges would be brought against Cordero's wife, Ana, in Mayaguez. When none were forthcoming, they increased their legal efforts and decided to seek an injunction, with Cordero present. It's possible, Bonifay added, that the player may miss a game or more later this season as the case continues.
"I think the safety of those two children is paramount to Wil Cordero," Bonifay said.
Cordero's first-month slump, which saw his average dip to .182 before surging to its current .272, elicited boos from Three Rivers Stadium spectators and criticism from the media.
"There's a lot of things that the press doesn't know that you wish you could say something," Bonifay said, adding that the previously undivulged child-custody matter may well have contributed to Cordero's lackluster April play. "Other times, it's probably best not to say anything [publicly].
"But he's handled it about as well as you can."
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