Amazin'

The Rays went 18--8 in spring training, which for most teams would not be worth mentioning, but for this team was significant. In four of those games their batboy was a 21-year-old private investigator named Jason Glenn Heath, whose father, David, was a spring training batboy for the '69 Mets. David was shot and killed in a St. Petersburg alley in 2001, and Jason wanted to honor him by wearing a major league uniform, as his father had 39 years before. During his interview in February with Brandon (Tank) Richesin, a Rays assistant clubhouse manager, Jason said, "My dad was the batboy for the Miracle Mets, and I think I can bring the same luck to you."

At the All-Star break the Rays were 55--39. At the All-Star break in 1969 the Mets were 53--39. Neither team appeared likely to sustain its success. The Mets were in second, five games behind the Cubs. The Rays, having just lost seven in a row, were also in second, a half game behind Boston. When the Red Sox swung through Tampa Bay in early July, Boston slugger David Ortiz said, "I'm not saying that they will drop, but if you go by the numbers, that's normally what happens. The guys with more experience at the end of the year take over." When Miller was reminded of that statement, he responded, "Well, the Germans had a lot of experience fighting wars, and they still lost."

The day after the All-Star break Maddon gathered the Rays and for the first time acknowledged that their situation was somewhat unique. He wanted his team to realize everything that was at stake, so as not to let it slip away. "This is a very special thing that's going on here," Maddon said. "It doesn't happen on an annual basis. We need to treat it with respect—with a lot of respect."

That night the Rays trailed the Toronto Blue Jays 1--0 in the seventh inning when a utilityman named Ben Zobrist hit a game-winning two-run homer off Blue Jays righthander A.J. Burnett. The next afternoon Rays owner Stuart Sternberg was down on the field taking batting practice with MC Hammer, who was giving a postgame concert that night. In bizarro Tampa Bay everything was back to normal. Thus launched, the Rays started the second half with a major-league-best 29--12 run, overcoming injuries to leftfielder Carl Crawford, third baseman Evan Longoria and closer Troy Percival, three cornerstones of the team.

THE '69 METS believe their season turned in the second game of a doubleheader on July 30, when Houston's Johnny Edwards hit a double down the leftfield line and Jones jogged casually over to play it. Incensed at the lack of hustle, Hodges himself walked all the way out to the outfield to pull Jones from the game. Maddon did not go onto the field on Aug. 15 in Texas, but he did take an extraordinary step, removing B.J. Upton from his position in centerfield because he was angry that Upton had not run out a grounder in the top half of the inning.

Maddon does not get upset easily, but he also became irritated five days later, against the Los Angeles Angels, when outfielder Justin Ruggiano pulled up and played a fly ball on one hop. "I would prefer seeing you impale yourself," Maddon told Ruggiano. One week later, with the Rays leading Toronto 1--0 and two outs in the ninth inning, Blue Jays catcher Rod Barajas hit a deep drive to leftfield. Taking Maddon's words to heart, Ruggiano crashed into the fence to steal a sure double from Barajas and save the game. It was not Swoboda robbing Robinson in the World Series, but for Tampa Bay it was high drama.

"We did it with pitching and defense," Swoboda says. "That's how they're doing it too." In the 12-team National League the '69 Mets ranked second in ERA (2.99) but eighth in batting average (.242). Among the 14 American League clubs the Rays rank second in ERA (3.70) but 12th in batting average (.261). Without Crawford and Longoria, two of their most dangerous hitters are Carlos Pe�a, who batted .236 in the first half, and outfielder Rocco Baldelli, who had been through travails worse than a mere slump. The third-place finisher in the 2003 Rookie of the Year voting, Baldelli had once been compared with Joe DiMaggio by former Rays managing partner Vince Naimoli. But he recently had begun suffering from a condition that left him barely able to walk across the field without cramping up and complaining of exhaustion.

Fearing that he would never be able to play again, Baldelli crisscrossed the country last winter to see specialists, but nobody could diagnose him. By spring, tests finally revealed that he was suffering from mitochondrial disorder, a neuromuscular disease. Doctors prescribed 10 supplements to help him keep his energy up. On Aug. 10 Baldelli made his season debut, and on Aug. 22 he hit his first major league home run in 15 months. Two days later he smashed another. Last Saturday he hit a game-winning, ninth-inning double against the Orioles, the Rays' 13th walk-off victory of the season. Baldelli still cannot play every day, and he has to carry a plastic bag full of pills wherever he goes. In the morning, after taking the 10 supplements at once, he often feels sick to his stomach. But he is willing to put up with a little nausea for a bout of pennant fever. "Coming back here is the most satisfying thing I've ever done," says Baldelli. "I didn't want this to pass me by."

BY SEPTEMBER of 1969 the Mets were drawing more than 50,000 fans for almost every game at Shea Stadium. Bench players would ask starters, "You see how many people are out there? Aren't you nervous?" The Rays, alas, do not have that problem. On the last Wednesday in August they drew an appalling 12,678 at Tropicana Field, some 9,000 below their season average, making it hard for an unwitting eyewitness to tell if they were pursuing history or just playing out the string. Attendance is clearly a source of embarrassment, but when the Rays take the field and see a stadium that is more than two-thirds empty, it has a strangely calming effect. Players are able to convince themselves that games in September really are no different from games in May.

"Playing here alleviates some pressure, and in our situation that can be a very good thing," says the 35-year-old Floyd. "I'm going to tell the guys in September, Don't look at whoever is 3 1/2 back, 4 1/2 back, 5 1/2 back. Like right now, we really don't need to be sitting here worrying that the Red Sox are four games back."