Orlando Hernandez says he'll try to pitch today:

Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, who has enjoyed so many memorable Octobers, had his injured right calf in a bucket of ice on the eve of his latest postseason start.

"Hopefully I can pitch," he told Newsday last night. "My plan is to go out there. I think I can do it. Let's see."

The best part of the article is the description of the hospital waiting room:

Earlier, in a waiting room at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, Hernandez sat with Ramirez, waiting for the MRI. "It's not good," he said, holding his outstretched right leg. "It's tightening up."

"Mr. El Duque, Mr. El Duque, please write you name for us on this piece of paper," said a hospital worker who entered the room.

"Mr. Hernandez," El Duque corrected her. He signed his name. "That doesn't say El Duque," she said.

"El Duque is not his real name," someone told her.

"Excuse me, is he who I think he is?" asked an older man sitting in the waiting room, looking at Hernandez and holding a newspaper opened to the sports section.

"Yes," someone said.

The man stood, stepped toward Hernandez and shook the pitcher's hand. "Good luck to you," said the man.

El Duque was told that the woman in the hospital lobby was overheard saying she was leaving because an injured Yankee was being treated at the hospital. "I'll never be seen," she said in a huff.

Hernandez laughed. "A Yankee would have had his MRI already," he joked.

Good comedy.