Pick a favorite story line — if you can — from among the many that make up the biggest one-year turnaround in the history of major sports, one that continues to defy belief:

• David Price — 16 months removed from Vanderbilt University, less than a full season into his professional career, with all of five big-league regular-season appearances under his belt — getting the final four outs in the Tampa Bay Rays’ ALCS-clinching victory.

With poise, command and stuff that signals the dawning of the game’s next dominating pitcher, Price coolly struck out J.D. Drew with the bases loaded to end the top of the eighth, and quickly made his way through the top of the ninth to set off a jubilant celebration.

• Who knocked in what turned out to be the winning run in a 3-1 Game 7 victory? Who else but Rocco Baldelli? No. 6 overall pick in the 2000 draft, the early face of a then-downtrodden franchise before a mysterious muscle disorder almost ended his career. Just seven months ago, still searching for an answer to managing his condition, he took a break from the game.

His regular season consisted of 80 at-bats, none before Aug. 10th. Yet, in the fifth inning against Red Sox ace Jon Lester, Baldelli pulled a single to left field for an RBI that would prove to be the difference against the team he rooted for as a kid in Rhode Island.

• How about a trio of injury comebacks that transformed the postseason roster: B.J. Upton, twice benched during a 10-day span in August for not running the bases hard, and finally healed from a shoulder injury that limited his power to only nine regular-season home runs. He easily could have been named the ALCS MVP, and already has hit seven homers in the postseason — a coming out of a five-tool talent.
• Carl Crawford, the team’s best player in this season and a few of the lean ones, didn’t have a big-league at-bat after Aug. 9th, when he injured a finger that required surgery. He played in two games on the final weekend of the regular season — with no plate appearances — yet hit .345 (10 for 29) with three runs scored and three steals in the ALCS.
• Evan Longoria, the likely AL Rookie of the Year and an emerging star in his own right, hitting six homers already in the postseason after being out from Aug. 7-Sept. 13 with a broken bone in his right wrist.

We could go on, but you get the point. Worst to first, from 66 wins to the World Series, winning the AL East over the Red Sox and Yankees along the way with a $40-million-plus payroll. Front office key acquisitions from Matt Garza to Jason Bartlett to Willy Aybar, and manager Joe Maddon making it all work in a magical season, with one more chapter to write.

Slideshow Fall classics NBCSports.com takes a photographic look at the 2008 MLB playoffs.

The 1991 Atlanta Braves had that same opportunity, but couldn’t beat the Metrodome noise or the Minnesota Twins in a Fall Classic matchup similar to this one. Otherwise, we’ve just never seen anything quite like this.

It’s all so much that it minimizes the other underdog story in this series. The Phillies’ lingering World Series moment is Joe Carter bounding around the bases after his series-winning blast 15 Octobers ago.

In a 126-year history that is as long as the National League’s, the Phillies have won exactly one World Series (28 years ago) in five tries. And no big-league team has lost more games — 10,000 and counting. They’re the Cubs without a silly goat story.

These Phillies have compelling to-root-for story lines as well. Manager Charlie Manuel lost his mother and Shane Victorino lost his grandmother since the postseason began. Everyman Matt Stairs delivered a game-winning home run in the NLCS.

Special feature Breaking down Phillies vs. Rays Position-by-position comparisons, pitching matchups, prediction, more

And there is a sense of purpose uniting a core of young-but-veteran stars who have been Phillies for awhile. This is their chance — finally — and they know it.

They quickly dispatched the pitching-short Milwaukee Brewers in the division series, then ran into a fortunate matchup situation against the Dodgers and their right-handed-dominant pitching staff. And now, it’s not the Red Sox in their way, not the Angels or the Yankees — the game’s other mega-spenders. It’s the ultimate upstart Rays.

Yes, this is the series nobody expected three weeks ago. And that’s what makes it as compelling as an Angels-Cubs matchup of favorites would have been, or even the Fox dream pairing of Red Sox-Dodgers.

You can compare the strengths and weaknesses from top to bottom: Both slug the long ball, yet can steal bases. Both have impact players on defense as well as offense. The Rays have the deeper rotation, the Phils the lights-out closer.

But the Rays have home-field advantage and won’t have to deal with a long layoff, as the Phillies do. And in a showdown of unexpected success stories, the Rays take it.

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