Pronounced ve-nə-ˈzwā-lə

Baseball is a big deal in Venezuela. As a matter of fact, besides Dominicans and Puertorricans, I think we dominate the Latino presence in the MLB. As a matter of fact, we’re the only Latin American country who has more of a baseball culture than a football (soccer) one! Is the whole oil thing? Anyway, come October, when the league begins, it’s a lot of fun to pick on the losers, since they are absolute fanatics. There are seven teams: Magallanes Sailors (based in Valencia, Carabobo), Caracas Lions, Aragua Tigers, Lara Cardinals, Anzoategui Caribes, Zulia Eagles and Margarita Braves. I’m a Magellan fan (could you guess?), although I confess, I don’t know much about baseball, I’m mostly in it to tease Caracas fans (both teams used to hail from Caracas, but when Magallanes moved west to Valencia they became even bigger rivals). I must confess, though, we’ve had a few horrid seasons, complete shit. The best one as of late was the 2006 one, where we came in second to the Tigers. After that it’s all been downhill; some blame the team’s most notorious fan as a jinx.