This is crazy, ya know

When the clock strikes midnight on next Monday, the month of September will begin as we tired laborers take a much needed day off from our jobs and celebrate Labor Day. For me, it will be my girlfriend's birthday and the end of the baseball season at the corner of South Third and Union Avenue in Memphis as the Redbirds close their 11th season. But away from that, for the first time in ages, the Yankees will not be playing any meaningful games in September while the team formerly known as the Devil Rays play for a shot at the first division title to ever be won by a team from the state of Florida. No offense, but two Wild Card winners don't count, Marlin fans. For most of this season, the Rays have been without a shadow of the doubt the feelgood team story of the 2008 MLB season, after playing for so many years as the laughingstock of baseball, languishing in the cellar in the American League East behind New York and Boston. That is until this season. Prior to the season, a clip of a Spring Training fight with the Yankees that got a lot of attention on ESPN and Fox Sports made it clear that this season in Tampa Bay was not going to be like any other. And what was nothing more than a fluke to some baseball fans, has turned into something that no one outside of Boston or New York would have imagined. A young and feisty team filled with youngsters like Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, and Rocco Baldelli as well as veterans like Cliff Floyd and Troy Percival are five weeks away from doing something that before 2008 was impossible in the land of hot chicks and palm trees. Clinch the AL East. They've gone from no-names to rockstars around Tampa Bay and made it cool to wear stuff with the Rays' logo. Come October, while the Yankees are at home, the rockstars from Tampa Bay will be playing for a shot at the Fall Classic. How bout' dem apples? I mean, Rays.