Unthinkably, the $43.4 million-dollar Tampa Bay Rays dethroned the mighty Boston Red Sox and their nation, winning an improbable 2008 American League Championship Series with nearly impeccable pitching and a cast of virtual unknowns.? Nearly all in their 20s, the Rays' players out-pitched, out-hit, and out-maneuvered the powerful?$133-million-dollar Red Sox who were thought to be a lock to win yet another World Series in their decade of dominance. From out of nowhere, the Rays showed up unannounced this year and spoiled all of those plans.? Like the Yankees, Mets, Detroit, and Whitesox, Boston takes a seat with the other top-five payrolled teams behind the Rays, whose payroll ranked 29th of baseball's 30 teams.*? Without a doubt, their previous ten seasons had been mired in misery.? The Rays (formerly Devil Rays) had never won more than 70 games in ten futile seasons of poor play, middling attendance, and dreadful team interest.? But all of that changed in 2008 when the Rays shot out of the gate and never looked back, going toe-to-toe with the Red Sox, winning the season series against them, and finishing in first place, two games ahead of their division rivals. All seemed lost when Boston won the first game of the LCS in Tampa Bay, but the extra-inning Ray win of game two turned the tide of the series.? When the Rays won the next two, putting Boston back 3-1, some might say that Boston had them just where they wanted them, having played 9-0 baseball in LCS elimination games to date. But on one night - October 19, 2008 - the Rays were a bit better than the Red Sox, sending the former team into the World Series against the Phillies by winning the tough game 3-1. Thanks to the American League's long time dominance in the All-Star game, this year being no exception, the Rays will have home field advantage in the fall classic, giving them a sure advantage and more than likely heavily favoring them against Philadelphia.? The Boston stage, plus the World Series, will familiarize most fans with these secret weapon Rays, most of whom have never been to a postseason in their short careers. Will the success of the Rays, among the league's most modestly paid of all players, change baseball's business model in light of the failure of the top three highest paying teams to even make the playoffs? ? Will the White Sox, Angels, and Cubs, at #5, 6, and 8 on the highest payroll list, who all failed to make it out of the first round divisional series, change the way that they do business?? Like most well-moneyed machines in American business, change is often slow.? But if the Rays take baseball's top crown, it will surely open up many eyes to their methodology in getting to this point after so many seasons of consecutive failures.? Until then, we are left with a nascent bunch of millennial players who have to this point shocked the world with their nearly flawless play. * Footnote: The 30th and last team in baseball's payroll list is the cross-state Florida Marlins, whose midseason surge nearly vaulted them too into baseball's postseason.