At the beginning of the season, Carlos Beltran was in Kansas City, and the focus in Houston was on the pair of aces shipped in from New York, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens.

By the July 31^st trading deadline, Pettitte was out of action with an elbow injury, Beltran was an Astro, and fans in Houston were giddy. Their heroes had another B to go with Biggio, Bagwell and Berkman.

By August 14, the Astros were wilting in the Texas heat, four games under .500, and general manager Gerry Hunsicker was like a packrat in a pawn shop, trying to decide which items he could trade in and salvage some value. Beltran was at the top of the list, but Hunsicker wisely held off.

From that point on, the Astros, with new skipper Phil Garner, posted 36 victories in their last 46 games to capture the National League wild card. Beltran was not only still an Astro, he was a factor.

FREE VIDEO Beltin' Beltran Astros manager Phil Garner and players Lance Berkman and Carlos Beltran discuss Beltran's latest heroics.

On Monday, Beltran will trot out to center field for Game 5 of the National League Championship Series to thunderous applause and slavish praise. Whereas once he could have been toast in Houston, now he’s THE toast of Houston.

Franchises that experience this kind of whirlwind and tumult ordinarily need to be treated for vertigo, but the Houston faithful will gladly suffer the consequences of Beltran’s resurgence and the Astros’ rejuvenation. The Astros are tied 2-2 in the series, and suddenly the focus is not what Hunsicker can get in return for Beltran, but rather how the GM and the club can scrape up the ransom agent Scott Boras will demand for his client to remain where he is.

Imagine Barry Bonds playing to prove himself in a salary drive and that will approximate the impact Beltran has had lately on major league baseball. On Sunday, he provided the go-ahead run in a 6-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals when he pulled out his pitching wedge and chipped an ankle-high slider from reliever Julian Tavarez over the right-field wall. That marked his fifth straight postseason home run, a record. It was also his eighth of the playoffs.

“I’m just happy I got a chance to contribute,” he said.

FREE VIDEO Disappointment Cardinals manager Tony La Russa comments on the Game 4 loss.

Contribute is what Astros fans may be asked to do when the season ends. Pass around the hat. Go door to door. Create a grass-roots fundraising movement, complete with web site and toll-free number. There is no doubt that Beltran is worth a high asking price. There’s also no doubt that Boras will ask for one of the highest asking prices in history.

Right now, though, Houston needs to enjoy the moment. Beltran is theirs for now, and if he keeps this up, the Astros could follow him to a shocking upset of the Cardinals and a place in the World Series.

Not bad for a team that had never won a playoff series before.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The Cardinals were the mightiest team in baseball, and were expected to clobber the Astros until they saw stars, heard cuckoo birds and toppled over. Instead, this NLCS — the one Major League Baseball disrespected by allowing Game 1 of the Yankees-Red Sox to air on Fox and scheduling Cards-Astros opposite it on a lesser cable channel —  has turned into the rousing, competitive, dramatic affair, while the ALCS melted into a tepid pool of apathy.

Carlos Beltran is not the only reason, but he’s certainly the most prominent.

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He’s on a team with Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman and Jeff Kent, not to mention Clemens and Pettitte. There is only one team in baseball that could keep all that talent together, and it’s owned by George Steinbrenner. Some decisions will have to be made by Astros brass after the season, and they may be based more on hard numbers and harsh fiscal reality than pure baseball wisdom.

Teams are no longer handing out contracts that pay $15 million to $20 million annually. Miguel Tejada got $72 million over six seasons from the Baltimore Orioles. Vladimir Guerrero received $70 million over five seasons from the Anaheim Angels. I think we all know the preposterous sum Alex Rodriguez got from the Texas Rangers ($250 million), much of which was then absorbed by the Yankees.

All of those players are not only productive sluggers, but excellent at their positions. They’re worth what they’re getting. But Boras could make the case that Beltran is more valuable than any of them — if the Astros somehow pull off the miracle and oust the Cards, and Beltran continues to lead the way.

This Astros team was deader than a blind prairie dog in traffic. Garner came in, relieved Jimy Williams and the Astros eventually caught fire and rediscovered their purpose. But the catalyst for the team’s incredible run, which took them past the Cubs and Giants in the wild card race, was Beltran. He smacked 23 homers and drove in 55 runs in 90 games since being acquired from Kansas City on June 24, even though his average was .258 as an Astro.

When the Astros qualified for the postseason, it triggered something in Beltran. Perhaps it was simply the desire to make a statement to be used later at the bargaining table. Maybe the adrenaline that comes with making your first playoff appearance kicked in.

Regardless, he drove in nine runs in the division series against the Braves and is continuing his hot streak against the Cards. He is using this opportunity to establish his value.

Fans of the Astros don’t know if what they’re looking at is the future of the club, or if it’s a mirage that will fade in the offseason. But after what they’ve been through in 2004, they’re used to expecting the unexpected.