Reviewing the group draw is standard practice for any national team manager.
Fortunately for Sarzonian national baseball team manager Geoff Yancey, he didn't have to juggle that task with making sure Fleetwood Park sanitation was up to code. He was able to focus his energies on the baseball aspects of his job, namely, his decision to continue to employ the services of Luke Brinkley as designated hitter for any Stars home matches at Fleetwood Park, or at any away ballpark where the hosts also employed the DH.
Keeping Brinkley's earth-shattering home run potential available for at minimum 70 percent of the schedule was of the utmost importance to Yancey. It meant a man who not only could take deep anyone at any time, but a man who also had the propensity for clutch bombs when his team needed them the most. Just ask the broken spirits of Delaclav relief pitchers who witnessed Brinkley essentially hit a walk-off homer against them in a decisive Game 5. He examined the teams in Group C with the Stars. Cassadaigua. Traditional rivals, a team that sent the Stars home from the knockout rounds in back to back Classics. South Americanastan. Hannasea. Aji No Moto. Soldera.
The Stars would open the 53rd edition of the World Baseball Classic with South Americanastan. The Bears would open the competition for Sarzonia at Fleetwood Park for a three-match set. They'd travel to Hannasea, where they would employ the DH, then host Aji No Moto. They'd follow that up with a trip to Soldera, where they would have to leave Brinkley on the bench for the first time as the Snakes announced they would not use the designated hitter at Prince Francis Stadium in Branwen. They'd close the first half by hosting Cassadaigua, which meant they would play away to the Fillies for the final series.
"We know those series against Cassadaigua are going to be intense," Yancey said. "It's just like facing Delaclava in the two final series of each half of the previous Classic." Yancey then gave a look and a headshake. He didn't want too many more reminders of the previous Classic. Not when his Stars stumbled badly out of the gate as the second ranked team in the multiverse and were in serious jeopardy of actually being eliminated from the group stage for the first time in a long time. Not when it took a furious comeback to finish as the team with the worst record among the 10 teams who won their groups. They'd face Milchama in the Round of 32 and felt fortunate to sweep the Warriors. Then they battled groupmates Delaclava again and won a hotly-contested series in four matches before running out of petrol against TJUN-ia.
Yes, that classic brought back bad memories. A nightmare series against an unranked Venmere side that didn't even see fit to identify the players who won two of the three matches they hosted against the Stars. Another nightmare series against that same team at Fleetwood Park that was, fortunately, only a literal nightmare (the Stars would actually sweep the series that really counted in the table). Losing two of three to every team in the group except for Ranoria in the first half before winning two out of three in each of their remaining series against the rest of the teams in their schedule. They ultimately finished 25-15 after the 7-8 beginning, but Yancey said he expected the team to be much more motivated with the third highest ranked team in the group paying the visit to Fleetwood Park.
"I think we may have started out taking Venmere for granted a little bit," Yancey said gruffly. "The Bears are a different animal," he added before realising what he said. "No pun intended."
