With the grand playoff push starting in roughly January this year it is easy to lose track of just how far we've come. I became a big fan of the Rays in 2002. Since then they have assimilated with my body and have now replaced my left ventricle. I bring this up because of how Gawdawful they were that year. It was a mess. I loved it because like a good recipe or a cool treehouse we were about to make something great completely from scratch. With this in mind, here is the (Devil) Rays records sorted by number of wins:
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As you can see, if the season ended today this would already be our third most wins in franchise history. I remember early August of last year. It almost seemed too easy to get to that point with so much time left in the season. After a decade of reaching that "plateau," but one time, all of a sudden we were sprinting towards some number that had eluded us for an embarrassingly long time. When we achieved #71 there was a minor celebration and then most of us realized that 70 was not such a lofty goal. That it should be our birthright from here on out as the Rays staked their claim to the AL East. That ended up being a small milestone during the best summer of my lifetime. Lets hope tomorrow goes by with similar result and even less fanfare. This team is going nowhere for the forseeable future so after the win lets toss back a drink, give a pat on the back, and continue the post-season march ever onward.