I should have known better than to write my hometown baseball team off. I guess some people never learn.

I watched them come from nowhere to clinch a playoff berth on the final day of the 2004 and 2005 seasons. I saw them do the same thing in 2006, only to be eliminated on the final day.

I loved those teams because of their resilience and professionalism and desire. I loved how they'll cure you of your cynicism.

I counted them out in all three of those years and ended up apologizing. This season might just be the most remarkable comeback of all.

On Aug. 26, the Astros trailed the Milwaukee Brewers by 11 games in the race for the National League wild-card berth. They'd been playing terrific baseball for weeks, but it was getting them nowhere in the standings.

When you would ask them about this, they had a simple answer. All they could do is take care of their own business. And that's what they've done.

Something remarkable has happened since then. The Astros are 14-1; the Brewers are 6-9.

The Astros have knocked eight games off Milwaukee's lead in a span of 15 games. They entered the weekend three down with 15 games to play.

That's still a significant deficit, and every game remains critical. They could be in first place this time next week. Or they could be eliminated.

I love this team because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Carlos Lee goes down, and Ty Wigginton has the best month of his life. Wigginton goes down, and Michael Bourn steps up.

Alberto Arias is picked up off the waiver wire and throws five shutout innings in his first major league start.

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Mark Saccomanno homers on the first pitch he sees in the big leagues. He was a $5,000-bonus baby, a 23rd-round draft pick who won the admiration of instructors, managers and teammates as he made his way through the minor-league system. Some of them might have celebrated that home run more than Saccomanno did.

LaTroy Hawkins is shown the door by the Yankees but becomes a valuable addition to the bullpen in Houston.

Little things add up. Randy Wolf? That move made no sense. Drayton McLane took on an additional $3.5 million in payroll for a team that seemed to be going nowhere.

The Astros are 8-1 in games started by Wolf, and they would not be in contention without him.

Brian Moehler? He came to spring training with a make-good minor league contract and didn't enter the rotation until the 36th game of the season. He was always one of those players others looked up to because he worked so hard and got everything he could possibly get out of his ability.

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At the age of 36, Moehler's career has been reborn. He's 11-6 with a 3.99 ERA as a starter, and the Astros are 15-8 in his 23 starts. This run doesn't happen without him, either. No team in baseball has had a more effective rotation the past three weeks.

This run doesn't happen without Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt, Miguel Tejada, Jose Valverde, Darin Erstad, Doug Brocail, Hunter Pence, Geoff Blum, etc., either. All they've done is put the Astros in position to make their seventh postseason appearance in the past 12 years.

Their success begins with team owner Drayton McLane. He never stopped believing in 2004 and 2005 because he has this seemingly outdated concept that attitude is almost as important as talent. He believes leadership begins with giving players a pat on the back and letting them know the people in charge believe in them.

Few teams in baseball have been as successful as the Astros since McLane bought the club in 1993. Take a bow, Drayton. You, too, Tal Smith and Ed Wade. And you, Cecil Cooper.

There was a point this season when almost every significant move Wade, the general manager, made looked like a bad one. No more.

He blew up a bad baseball team and constructed a really good one, a team that's playing its best when the games count the most.