Winter ball now shading.

Winter baseball used to be a great time of the year when Dominican MLB stars played for their local teams and proudly dressed in either:

• Blue (Tigres del Licey). By the way, my team. Legendary guys like Alonzo Perry and young stars like Anderson Hernandez and Ronnie Paulino are just a few.

• Red (Leones del Escogido). Our enemies, antithesis, etc, etc,  for more than 99 years and counting. Sosa, Big Pappy and so on. But nowadays they reeeeeeally suck. 

• Yellow (Aguilas Cibaenas). Ruled the 90's and part of the early 00's. They just can't stand loosing. Not that anybody enjoys loosing but you have to see this guys loosing a game specially when they're home team; just get that hell out of ballpark quick, preferably by the 6th inning

• Green (Estrellas Orientales). Our Dominican version of the Cubs

• Orange (Toros del Este). I don't care much about them

• Red and whatever they feel like and the league allows them to wear (Gigantes del Cibao). The new kids on the block. The best team during this past season but started whining and complaining about umpires during the finals and you know how that story always ends

But now is not as simple as "when it was a game" because of all the restrictions by MLB Teams that don't allow their big guns to participate in winter ball cause THEY COULD GET HURT... and I'll add: taking a shower, driving, eating mangu, filling a W2 form, and you name it.

And because I need to show off a card and not because I like this next one, here's my Leones del Escogido Sammy "mustache" Sosa