[Seahawker 562]

A World Series championship will mark a thrilling end to a decade of frustration for the Tampa Bay Rays, or a quarter century's worth for the city of Philadelphia.
One of these long disrespected teams will come away as the World Series winner, and the quest for that ring gets underway Wednesday night with Phillies ace Cole Hamels facing fellow 24-year-old left-hander Scott Kazmir at Tropicana Field.

While Hamels' dominant performance keyed Philadelphia wrapping up the NL championship series, it was Kazmir who helped give Tampa Bay the home-field advantage for this matchup.
He was the winning pitcher in the All-Star game, working a scoreless 15th inning before Phillies closer Brad Lidge gave up the winning run to the AL in the bottom half. It's the only loss suffered all year by Lidge, who has converted all 46 of his save opportunities -- five in the postseason.

The victory meant the AL would get the extra home game in this series and that means a city which before this year had never seen a playoff game, or even a winning record during the Rays' first 10 years of existence, will be the focus of all baseball fans as the Fall Classic begins.
"Nobody expects us to win. Everybody expected us to lose 90 games this year," said 23-year-old David Price, who got his first professional save in Game 7 of the ALCS against Boston. "We lost seven in a row going into the All-Star break. People thought that was it. The Rays are going to slowly die out. But that's not the case."
Tampa Bay never finished with more than 70 wins and was a major league-worst 66-96 in 2007 before all of its young talent, directed by manager Joe Maddon, came together this season to win the AL East with a 97-65 record.
Both teams feature powerful lineups with plenty of speed mixed in, as well as young starting pitching -- the only starter in this series not in his 20s is 45-year-old Jamie Moyer of Philadelphia.
The youngest position players in this series have become the Rays' biggest stars.

Who will win the series?