The Bizarro Supermen

The turnaround has been stunning. The Rays were the worst defensive team in the league last year, as measured by defensive efficiency, a Bill James--created measure of how well teams turn batted balls into outs. This year the stats say they're the second-best defensive team in the league. The bullpen is fourth-best, cutting its ERA by nearly three runs (3.38). And with a hard-throwing rotation of Kazmir, 24; Garza, 24; Shields, 26; Edwin Jackson, 24; and Andy Sonnanstine, 25, and last year's No. 1 overall pick David Price, 22, on the way, the Rays "are winning in a way we believe is sustainable," Friedman says.

MAYBE THE Rays were overdue to win anyway. After all, they have drafted no lower than eighth for nine consecutive years—and they have the first pick overall again next month. But the revenue sharing system, a provision of the 2002 labor deal, and the boom in new revenue streams such as satellite television and radio and digital media, have allowed every team a better chance at securing its young players. Meanwhile, power, the most expensive commodity in the game, has been deemphasized with the crackdown on performance-enhancing drugs.

The Rays may be a new phenomenon, but parity is not. Since the labor deal went into place in 2003, 20 of the 30 teams have reached the playoffs. And even if Tampa Bay—which was 25--19 through Sunday after never having been more than three games over .500 in its existence—doesn't reach the postseason, it has hope for the first time. Just about everybody gets a turn on the carousel and a shot at the brass ring. Since 2002 every team in baseball has been in first place on May 15 with only four exceptions: Toronto, Pittsburgh, Colorado and Washington.

The Rays, who'd never been in first this late before this year, did their best to act as if they've been here before. Maddon, for instance, who has a sign saying GOT WINE? above his office doorway, stuck to his mellow postgame selections: a 2005 Napa Valley Merlot one night, a 2004 Napa/Sonoma Cabernet blend the next, after an extra-inning win against previously unscored-upon Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

"You're looking for a growth moment?" Maddon said. "There's one right in front of your face tonight."

On such nights anything seems possible in baseball. "Be who you are and say what you feel," reads the framed quote beneath the Cat in the Hat portrait behind Maddon's desk, "because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

The Rays all of a sudden matter. It is a baseball world imagined by Selig, if not Seuss himself.