With Series upon us, one has to wonder if Rays can make it back

Today, the Orlando Tuskers of the fledgling United Football League will work out at Tropicana Field in preparation for Friday's game there against the Las Vegas Locomotives.

In other news, the World Series begins tonight at Yankee Stadium.

Has it really only been a year since the Rays shocked planet baseball and made the Series? It was like men on Mars.

Just think, it was against mostly the same Phillies who'll face the Yankees in Game 1, give or take a Cliff Lee, Raul Ibanez, oh, and Pat Burrell

Pat Burrell the Rays got - oh, did they got.

All I'm reading now is how the Yankees are back after a whole year's absence from the postseason, though it has been six years since they last made the Series. George Steinbrenner, ailing, but still Boss enough, will make his way up from Tampa.

In other news, a football team will practice today at the Trop.

I'm reading about all the star power in this Philadelphia-New York Series, how this one promises to be a classic, not a clunker. You know, like last year's, for instance.

It's late October.

The Yankees are playing.

The Rays are watching.

Will the pumpkin ever change back into a coach?

A day like this brings back memories of last October.

A year ago, the Rays were dream weavers.

But it's also a day like this, with the Yankees back on the trophy prowl, that makes you wonder if the Rays will ever have another season like 2008, if they'll ever get back to the top ... if being within a few games early this September before that monumental fold is as close as they'll get in the near or distant future.

It's easy to think that way when you consider the American League East, where the Yankees and Red Sox never sit still, while the Rays do what they can. Monday, that meant re-signing Gabe Kapler to a one-year deal, in case you wondered what all those car horns honking was about.

Can the 2008 Rays happen again?

Baseball's economics would seem to say "No."

But that the Rays ever said "Yes" in the first place means it's possible.

I remember writing about the Rays after the 2007 World Series, which was attended by the Colorado Rockies, making them the third 1990s expansion team to make the Series, leaving one ugly duckling on the outside looking in.

The Rays.

"One decade, maybe there'll be a magical month like this in Tampa Bay."

There was - 12 months later.

The Rays have the starting pitching rotation to make the playoffs again, and even the lineup, provided B.J. Upton, Dioner Navarro and Burrell rise from the dead. As for a closer and more bullpen help, what else is new?

Possible? Yes.

Probable? Well ...

It suddenly seems terribly daunting all over again when you look at the Yankees' two most noteworthy offseason acquisitions, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia (combined contracts: $341 million). Teixeira has slumped at the plate of late, but he led his team in homers and RBIs. Sabathia, New York's Game 1 starter, has been beastly good this postseason.

Last season, we the media really were standing on the rug in St. Pete, watching the Phillies and the Rays, the American League champions, take batting practice before Game 1. The Trop was filling up. You heard me - filling up.

It was delicious. It was special.

It seems like a dream, but it really happened.

Today's question: When, if ever, will it happen again?