Argentina Hoping for Redemption in World Series

BUENOS AIRES — Looking to make a comeback following their loss to Spain in this year’s World Cup Final, Argentine Football Association President Claudio Tapia announced this morning that Argentina’s national team has already begun training for their next big challenge: Major League Baseball’s highly-coveted World Series Championship.

“This is far from the last that sports fans will hear from Argentina this year.” Tapia boldly informed reporters during a press conference outside Estadio Monumental. “It is unfortunate what happened in the World Cup Final, but our great team still intends to prove that we belong on the world stage. It is for that reason that the boys are hard at work this week, and will be for the rest of the summer, preparing to reclaim their status as Champions at this year’s World Series.”

The announcement came as a shock to not only fans of Argentina but many of the players as well, who later told the press that they had only heard about the decision late Sunday night.

“We all left New Jersey feeling disappointed. Partially because we had lost, but also because we were in New Jersey,” explained Argentine star forward Lionel Messi. “I was getting on a red-eye headed back to Buenos Aires when an email went out to everybody on the team. It was coach saying that we all needed to learn how to play baseball because we’re headed back to the States in the fall. We were confused at first, but we knew what it meant: Another chance at greatness.”

Hit perhaps the hardest by this news were other World Series hopefuls across the United States who, in just a few short months, may find themselves across the mound from some of the greatest athletes who have ever lived.

“Honestly, it’s really caught a lot of us off guard.” confessed Seattle Mariners Shortstop J.P. Crawford. “We’ve spent a lot of the season, especially as we get closer to October, sizing up the competition. We felt like we had a pretty good idea of what we might be up against but now, now we have no idea. On the one hand, most of these guys have never played baseball in their life. On the other hand, I don’t think [Lautaro] Martínez could be bad at a sport if he tried. These guys are like superhuman. So we got a lot to think about and a lot to work on for the next few months.

At press time, Lionel Messi has killed three umpires.