Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, fans around the world, mark this day on your calendars, Monday, June 30, 2008, the last day of the month of June and the Tampa Bay Rays are the best team in Major League Baseball. You heard correct…with their 49-32 record, and .605 win percentage, the Rays not only have the best record in the AL East, they have the best record in baseball. To be a winning team, you must dominate at home while maintaining .500 on the road. The Rays are 30-13 at Tropicana Field and 19-19 on the road, certainly a recipe for success. Honestly, would anybody ever believe that the Rays would one day be the best team in baseball? Maybe not, but it’s true, damn true. I guess being the worst team in baseball for the past decade and receiving great prospects eventually pays off.

The 2008 Rays seem poised to prove naysayers wrong; they want to make it known that they are legit, and quite honestly, I’m starting to believe. This bad-ass Rays baseball team has shown more heart and more cohones than any of their previous ballclubs, and it all started in Spring training with the New York Yankees. This team doesn’t take any s@!t from anyone.

So as the Rays head into a three game series with our Red Sox you have to sit and wonder what this drama-filled series is going to culminate into. Will it end with the Rays taking the series and increasing their .5 game lead ahead of the Sox? Or will the Sox prove that they are the better team and claim they are the best in baseball?

Whatever the case may be, look to see some fireworks over at the ‘Trop the next few days. Their is certainly no love-loss between the two clubs, unfortunately, Coco Crisp won’t see any action as he is in the middle of serving his suspension. One has to wonder how things would boil over if he were to play. Still, Jonathan Papelbon stirred this series up even more when he went on Comcast Sportsnet and talked about the brawl:

(h/t to Comcast Sportsnet New England for the video)

What is Papelbon going to do about it? We’ll have to wait and see….should be an interesting series. To further stir it up James Shields will be the starting pitcher for the Rays tonight. Matt Garza, who’s coming off a 1-hitter performance and dominant lefty Scott Kazmir will also take the hill against the Sox during the series.

This IS baseball!
I love it!