<p>Brayan Pena slipped away from Cuba by pretending he needed to go to the bathroom.</p><p>Yunel Escobar took a far more treacherous route to the U.S., hopping aboard a small boat and floating for two days with no food or water.</p><p>They are lifelong friends, two guys who grew up together in Havana sharing bats, gloves and cleats, brothers in everything but name. Now, after fleeing their homeland five years apart, both in search of freedom and a chance to play in the big leagues, they are together again with the Atlanta Braves.</p><p>"We always dreamed of playing with the Braves," Pena said Wednesday. "We liked the way they dressed, all in white. We had a friend in Mexico, and one day he sent us a picture of himself in a Braves jersey and hat. We loved that picture. Ever since that day, we loved the Braves."</p><p>The 25-year-old Pena is expected to make the Braves as a backup catcher. The 24-year-old Escobar is one of the Braves' top prospects at spring training and the subject of glowing reports from manager Bobby Cox, even though the infielder is likely to spend another year in the minors.</p><p>Of course, none of this would have been possible for either player if they didn't get out of Cuba. Pena was the first to go.</p><p>In 1999, while playing in Venezuela for the Cuban junior national team, Pena saw his opportunity. He was only 17 years old and knew he would be leaving his family and friends behind, but that didn't dissuade him.</p><p>"You don't think about it," he said. "If you think about it, then your feelings will take over."</p><p>One morning at the team hotel, Pena got up early and headed downstairs for breakfast. Naturally, he was trailed by a Cuban guard, who was well aware that many players have taken advantage of similar situations to flee the country.</p><p>"I told him I needed to use the restroom," Pena remembered. "He said, 'I've got to go with you.' I said, 'Come on, man, it's 7 o'clock in the morning. Give me a break.' He said, 'OK, Pena, you can go ahead.' Then he turned his back. He was talking to the front desk lady _ and I was gone."</p><p>An acquaintance in Cuba had arranged for Pena to hop in a car and get out of Caracas. He rode for several hours, praying it wasn't a double-cross that would end with him being dragged back to Cuba.</p><p>"When you're desperate like that," Pena said chillingly, "you'll do anything."</p><p>He couldn't tell those around him what he planned. Not his parents. Not his siblings. Not Escobar.</p><p>"I was surprised," Escobar said in Spanish, using Pena as his translator. "But I knew in the bottom of my heart that one day we would be together again."</p><p>For five years, they had no contact. Pena made it to the United States, signed with the Braves and managed to get his immediate family out of Cuba. But he couldn't even talk with Escobar on the phone because he knew government officials were monitoring the calls. He could only watch proudly from afar while Escobar emerged as one of the rising stars in their baseball-mad homeland.</p><p>Back in Cuba, though, Pena's defection made life more stifling for his old friend. The guards clamped down on Escobar, figuring it was only a matter of time before he tried to get out, too.</p><p>"They asked me about him," Escobar said. "They asked me if he was going to send someone to pick me up in a boat."</p><p>Finally, it was too much to bear. Escobar joined 35 people aboard a tiny vessel that drifted away from Cuba with no guarantees of ever making it to the U.S. All they thought about was being free.</p><p>"Everybody on the boat was scared," he said. "We were between death and life."</p><p>After two days at sea, the Cubans were picked up by the Coast Guard and brought to Miami. Escobar stopped by his old friend's house, but Pena had already left to play in the Dominican winter league. The catcher got a call from his mother telling him that Escobar was now in the U.S.</p><p>"I was very surprised," Pena said. "When I got back from the Dominican Republic, one of the first things I did was look for him. I was very happy and very emotional."</p><p>They hooked up at a Cuban restaurant in Miami, two buddies reliving old times and catching up on the five years they were apart. They picked right up where they left off _ especially when Escobar was drafted by the Braves.</p><p>"We've been playing baseball ever since we were 9 years old," Pena said. "When we started out, he was our No. 1 pitcher and I was his catcher. Then I was the pitcher and he was the catcher. We split the same gloves. One day, the glove lived at his house. Another day, the glove lived at my house. We had only one bat that we had to share. Sometimes my spikes were not in good shape, so I would borrow spikes from him. Thank God we wore the same size."</p><p>While Escobar still keeps up intently with news from his country, especially the ill health of longtime dictator Fidel Castro, Pena is more Americanized. He would love to go back home but has made a comfortable life in his adopted country.</p><p>"America is America, with all due respect," Pena said. "When you're free, man, you feel like you can do whatever you want. What can be better than that?"</p><p>My, how things have changed for two guys who once shared the same equipment and are now living out the same dream. On Wednesday, there was Pena sitting on the floor of the Braves' clubhouse, listening intently as fellow switch-hitter Chipper Jones talked shop. A few feet away, Escobar lurked on the fringe of a Spanish-speaking confab that included Andruw Jones.</p><p>Somehow, they always knew it would be this way.</p><p>"Here we are again," Escobar said. "It is probably destiny that we are here with the Braves."</p>
