On this day exactly 23 years ago, Ozzie Smith hit one of the most dramatic homers in Cardinals history to win a pennant, and the great Jack Buck said: "Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!" They did, and maybe some people thought they would be going crazy over the Redbirds again right now.

On this day exactly 100 years ago, the Cubs won their last world championship. Maybe you expected them to be in pursuit of their next one right now, because they made it look so easy throughout the regular season.

On this day exactly 32 years ago, Chris Chambliss hit a walk-off homer and the Yankees won the first of three consecutive American League pennants. Maybe you thought they would be challenging for another one right now.

These are all important parts of Major League Baseball history worth recalling now, because it's just about celebration time and something very special is developing in a remarkably tense and much-watched postseason that probably no one had in mind. Folks are indeed going crazy, and amazed by what they are seeing.

In what may have been the last occurrence of more than one Major League game on the same day in 2008, the unbelievable Rays shocked the defending champion Red Sox and a Fenway Park crowd with a 9-1 rout that gave them a 2-1 lead in the AL Championship Series. Then the Phillies survived a magnificent thriller as 40-year-old Matt Stairs hit a two-run pinch-homer off Dodgers power pitcher Jonathan Broxton to give his team a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series.

It has been an improbable postseason ever since the White Sox beat the Twins in a one-game tiebreaker to set a field of eight that confounded all of the preseason prognosticators. We knew it would be different, but what we didn't know was how fun, how fabulous, how full of stars and personalities new and old, how replete it would be with spectacular plays like Andre Ethier's diving catch or Chase Utley's unassisted double-play dive to end an inning on Monday.

Great moments sometimes get lost in the final score, but who will ever forget the way Kevin Youkilis -- playing third base and in this case more like shortstop because of the shift for Carlos Pena -- scooped a ball, faked a throw to first baseman Mark Kotsay and tossed the ball to shortstop Alex Cora at second base to retire B.J. Upton? It was one of the best defensive plays you'll ever see in a postseason, and there have been glorious ones.

This has been entertaining, stupefying, and just plain watched. The Pennant Traces area on MLB.com has plenty of documentation about who's watching whom, and why we're all watching someone. In addition to dramatically high traffic numbers on the Site, just consider these facts reported in the Red Sox postgame notes:

Entering Monday's twin bill, the 2008 League Championship Series on FOX and TBS had averaged a 4.3 HH rating, marking an eight percent increase (4.3 vs. 4.0) compared to coverage through the same point last year (4.0 HH rating). The growth in household rating has been accompanied by even more significant increases among viewers and key demographics. The increase for Adults 18-34 has been a 27-percent jump, and for men in that age group it has been a 30-percent increase.

In addition, many fans are breathing in every moment on their iPhone with the enormously popular MLB At-Bat app (see TV commercial) and on their BlackBerry devices with the Playoff Alerts and the live MLB.com Gameday Audio. Many are watching around the world with the MLB.TV International subscription. Consumption habits are greater this series than ever, with TV ratings only part (the biggest part) of the total immersion available for the modern fan.

You have to be totally immersed, have to go crazy, no matter whether your team is involved or gone fishing, because there is so much drama to follow and there are so many questions yet to be answered. They are questions such as:

• Is this just another Red Sox ALCS? In 2004, no one overcame harder odds than Boston, coming back from a 3-0 series deficit to eliminate the Yankees on the way to the first Red Sox world championship in 86 years. Last fall, the Indians took a 3-1 series lead and could have clinched at home in five. But Josh Beckett outpitched CC Sabathia, and the Red Sox finished the year on a seven-game winning streak.

• Will this be the greatest baseball story ever told in terms of one year to the next? The Rays lost 66 games last year, and this year they won 96. They have a 2-1 series lead over the champs. Other teams improved by more than 30 wins from one year to the other, but we're talking about the Tampa Bay Rays. You cannot possibly watch a single inning of this miracle story and not take their past into consideration, and just marvel at how refreshingly fun and talented they are now. They are two wins away from having home-field advantage in a World Series, and they were the best home team in baseball this season. It is starting to get very real.

• Has anyone ever made it look easier in a postseason than Manny Ramirez? This is starting to be like what Babe Ruth must have felt when he hit the supposed "called shot" at Wrigley Field during the 1932 World Series. The Bambino had to feel like he could do anything in those days. When you watch Ramirez now, you know -- there isn't even a modicum of doubt -- that he's getting on-base and jacking up his MLB-wide value in the process. Was that really Charlie Manuel ordering Ramirez to be intentionally walked in the first inning despite the Phillies taking a quick two-run lead?

• Could that Ramirez reunion in Boston still happen? Or are we watching the opposite scenario unfold? The course being charted right now is Phillies vs. Rays, which would feature two teams that hold neighboring Spring Training camps on the Gulf Coast. Brad Lidge is still perfect, Shane Victorino is everywhere, and the average Phillies fan is not old enough to remember what it feels like to win a World Series, but he or she is starting to feel a long-awaited opportunity coming on.

On this day exactly five years ago, the unthinkable happened to the Cubs in Game 6 of the NLCS. A 3-0 lead in that game slipped away because of a chain of events that most everyone recalls, and the Marlins won that night and the next to make it a successful comeback from a 3-1 series deficit. Such a comeback has only happened to two of the 11 teams that have trailed by 3-1 in an NLCS, but that one is still fresh and something for Dodgers fans to hold on to at this point.

On this day exactly 16 years ago, Canada won its first pennant thanks to the Blue Jays, and the Braves won the pennant when Sid Bream slid home safely on Francisco Cabrera's legendary pinch-hit. The Marlins won their first pennant on this date in 1997, and Adam Kennedy got the Angels into their first World Series on this date in 2002.

Just two years ago today, Magglio Ordonez hit a three-run walk-off shot to put the Tigers back into their first Fall Classic in more than two decades. It was pennant-winning time then. No pennants will be won on this day, because the NLCS has a day off and it's Andy Sonnanstine vs. Tim Wakefield as Game 4 of the wild ALCS begins at 8:07 p.m. ET inside "America's Most Beloved Ballpark."

It will be a full moon, too. Just sayin'.

Go crazy, folks. Go crazy.