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'Scary, yes': Tigers' Castro tries to focus after perilous winter in Venezuela

Lakeland, Fla. – It’s easy to stand there and smugly wonder why anyone would willingly choose to play winter ball in a country ravaged by political unrest, in a country on the verge of social and economic collapse?

Why would you play ball in a country where citizens on both sides of the political fight are being killed or detained, in a country where two Major League players, Luis Valbuena and Jose Castillo were killed in a car crash, driven off the road by criminals this winter?

Looking at it from the outside, indeed, why in the world would anybody chose to play winter ball in Venezuela?