Like most, Rick Nafe is amazed. That’s his description of his feelings.

Nafe runs Tropicana Park, home of the Amazing Rays - once the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but now only the Rays - perhaps the most fascinating stories in sports.

They trail only the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim -called by the New York Yankee manager Joe Girardi the best team in baseball - in wins with 67. The Rays are on a roll, have been pretty much all year, under professor Joe Maddon, an intellectual who’d rather talk about the David and Florence than Casey Stengel and Yankee Stadium.

These balanced Rays are on top of the American League East. There is no division tougher. They lead the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees satisfactorily. They have not flinched. They didn’t the other night at the Trop when a disciplined Carlos Pena took a ball for the walk that pushed in the extra-inning 5-4 victory over hard-hitting Detroit and completed a series sweep. Some think if these find-a-way-Rays continue to find ways to win and do indeed become a landmark sports story - a tribute to present ownership, and to the pioneers of big time baseball in Tampa Bay - this can be a defining moment and victory.

The secrets to the Rays success is balance, chemistry, talent, and of course the leadership of the Maddon, owner Steward Sternberg and team architect Andrew Freidman. The chemistry means they get along well. There are no real prima donnas. They are generally young, which so far has translated into hustle, mutual support, a good bench and locker-room, and an ability to rebound from adversity quickly. The Rays could have let it go last Monday in the extra-inning rally to win over Detroit, but turned two hit batsmen, a walk and a base hit into a win. That lit up the Trop a hours on a Sunday evening

The crowd has been another part of the Rays’ growth.

That pleases Nafe, who helps count the money. No, he did not figure Cleveland Monday night would be long line night. But, “let me tell you how happy we all are here for the support. And, our committee is being formed to look for a permanent site.”

No, there are no hints there. A permanent site not likely to be on the Downtown St. Pete waterfront but likely to be on the St. Pete side. The I-75 near the city dump and near Derby Lane dog track on Gandy Blvd. have always been solid candidates. Once Downtown Tampa near the Lightning Arena and I-75 at I-4 were in the mix, too. Not so much now.

The Rays’ charm includes their youth, their hustle, their scratch-it-out efforts, their lack of genuine, stand-alone heroes. Manager Maddon has emphasized that the Rays need each other. In that win over Detroit, the 5-4 win in extra innings, Carl Crawford singled in the tying run, but Evan Longoria struck out, a disappointment, the next Ray, Pena waited out the walk on a 3-2 pitch that plated the winning run. The winning vehicle; the patience of Pena.

One has got to like this Rays team Maddon has tutored. Got to like his work and the discipline of his players. Can’t mention more of them without mentioning them all. The reasons they are where they are include an appreciation of each other.

Surely, there is no certainty of success here yet, but they represent now sports at its best - a team. They are sports as sports such as baseball are meant to be, a team affair. And that’s not smoke.

“I’m not sure there’s a jerk on this team,’’ declared Nafe.