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Dearly Beloved,

We are gathered here one last time to bury our final soul of the 2008 baseball season. Through this journey we laughed, loved, and cried. But now it is over. The voyage that is yet another season has closed and our hearts are once again without companionship.

Unlike life, in baseball the best die last. It is said that “Second place is the first loser.” But not in baseball. Life is lived by the measure of accomplishments. Those who accomplish more live longer.

Prior to 2008, the Tampa Bay professional baseball club had always been among the meek, dying long before anyone else, their championship hopes squandered before they began. Then came along the 2008 Rays.

They were the youth of a nation, the youth gone wild, a post-teenage wasteland. They were a team built from the failures of the past and of the mistakes of a prior regime. Built with a mix of traditional gumption and new-age wizardry, the 2008 Rays were created to compete. They were to lay the foundation of future glory.

But future glory arrived overnight. The 2008 Rays became a prodigy, learning far before their years. As the saying goes, they “toppled an empire, and destroyed a nation”, all while igniting the flame of passion in the local community. They were a phenomenon, instigating trends and sparking a movement. Their magnetism even drew in the stars, from teary-eyed rappers to eccentric hoops hosts.

Yet there is still room for improvement. The mission is not done and one season does not a winner make. Consistency is the trademark of greatness. The 2008 Rays laid the foundation and in turn planted a bulls-eye on the future. The 2008 Rays may have walked the glory road, but the future is no longer clear. They will become the hunted, wanted dead or alive.

So cheers to the 2008 Rays: the story of the 2008 baseball season. May they rest in peace.

And to the 2008 Phillies: the only team that survived the gauntlet of gruesomeness, the maze of maliciousness, and the arduous path that is the 2008 Baseball Season: Congratulations. May your reign live in the annals and may history look kindly upon your time.