Sammy Sosa, Pedro Martinez, Albert Pujols and Vladimir Guerrero, these are names that roll of the tongue with little thought when naming great Baseball players of the last two decades. Yet, what do these four legends of the great American past time have in common? Well, they are all natives of the Caribbean paradise of the Dominican Republic.

Baseball is unquestionably America's game, however when the dust settles on the ballparks of Major League Baseball in late October, the covers are only just being pulled off the six ballparks of the Dominican Republic as it is time for the six combatants of the Dominican Winter Baseball League (Spanish: Liga Dominicana de Bsbol Invernal)to commence battle.

The league that is the stepping-stone for many to MLB super-stardom was founded in 1951, nevertheless Baseball dates back much further than 57 years in the Dominican Republic. In fact, Baseball was first introduced to the country in the 1870s when many Cubans fled their homeland, in order to escape the brutal Ten Years War. The introduction of which was merely to boost the morale of the sugar mill workers and as many were of British West Indian descent, they were already more than familiar with the somewhat similar game of Cricket.

From there the game progressed from a hobby to an organised sporting activity as the turn of the twentieth century saw the founding of several semi-professional teams, including Tigres del Licey, who are still going strong as one of the six participants of the Dominican Winter Baseball League.

U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic between the period of 1916 to 1924 allowed the sport to blossom as the U.S. military, fans of Baseball themselves, bought equipment for amateur clubs to use, as well as setting up their own clubs. Baseball continued to grow from strength to strength as a result, however in 1937 the league that had been created had to cease due to many of the club's owners going bankrupt.

This was a major setback as it wasn't until 1951 when the Major League affiliated Dominican Winter Baseball League was set up that Baseball managed to get a strong foothold again in the countries way of life. This league is still going strong to this day and is home to six teams from five cities of the island. They include, Leones del Escogido from then countries capital, Santo Domingo, Estrellas Orientales, whose base is in the south-eastern city of San Pedro de Macors, Gigantes del Cibao, located in the northern municipality

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