"Has there ever been a more daunting height to scale in major-league baseball, a more impossible task in professional sports, than the Cubs winning a World Series for the first time since Geronimo was alive — or even getting to one for the first time since the sport integrated?

Of course not.

Well, except for maybe one case.

''I know how possible it is,'' Cubs newcomer Carlos Pena said, ''because what people thought was impossible in the American League East happened. Twice.''

If there ever was a bigger upset in baseball than the Cubs someday ending a centurylong drought, it has to be what the Tampa Bay Rays did just three years ago after a 10-year history filled with nothing but losing seasons and punch lines — nine of 10 years in last place, a $170 million payroll disadvantage in the division, and all of it against the home-field background of pin-drop decibel levels under a circus-tent ballpark.

With only the boldest forecasts in 2008 suggesting even a slight upward shift for the Rays, Pena and the rest of the team shocked the world — not to mention the Yankees and Red Sox — to win the AL East. Then they fought through the playoffs, including an epic ALCS against the Red Sox, to reach the World Series.

''It definitely opens our minds to the possibilities,'' Pena said. ''And looking at what we have going on here in Chicago, I can't help but in the back of my mind to kind of have a smirk on my face walking around, because I know how possible it is.''

Pena either is on to something or has no idea what he's dealing with.

If it's the former, then the Cubs also might be on to something as they draw on that giant-killing history — whether intentional or not — adding the lefty-slugging Pena as a free agent and acquiring Rays pitcher Matt Garza in an eight-player trade.

Unless you believe in the title-sucking power of a bar owner's goat, it's hard to imagine longer odds than the Rays getting to the World Series in '08 — and then beating the Yankees and Red Sox for the AL East crown again last year."