The Major League Baseball season is half over and, surprise, the Tampa Bay Rays are in first place in the American League East. In fact, they actually share the best record in MLB with the Chicago Cubs, another perennial loser--albeit one with a much longer and storied tradition of defeat than the heretofore hapless Rays. You will notice, too, the Rays dumped their "Devil" prefix before this season. Coincidence? Or, a real-life reversal reenactment of Damn Yankees, with the Devil Rays exorcising the devil instead of selling their souls to him?

As a Floridian (Jacksonville/Ponte Vedra) I sort of enjoy seeing the Devil Rays in 1st place.

They'll never replace my Twins since I was born and raised in Minneapolis, but now I MAY just have to buy a Rays jersey.

Another oddity is that the Rangers are still relevant. I'm not really paying attention yet (call me if they're still relevant in August), but to the extent I am, it's due largely to Josh Hamilton. He's leading the Majors in RBI, leading the AL in HR, and is batting .312. Add all that to his crazy story, and he's almost enough to get me interested in the Rangers again. Almost.

I'm a Yankee fan but if its not their year, I'd love to see the Rays have a playoff run. A Cubs/Rays World Series would be almost Back to the Future 2.