Jeff Bagwell is hitting .269 with 24 HRs and 76 RBIs. Chuck Solomon/SI

The former MVP feels old and beaten down. But at this very moment, as we're standing here in the visitor's clubhouse at PNC Park on this glorious, cloudless afternoon in Pittsburgh, Jeff Bagwell actually looks happy. Considering his and his team's lousy summer, this is a bit of a miracle.

"Three weeks ago I would have been telling you this was the worst and most miserable season I've ever been associated with," says the Astros' longtime first baseman. Bagwell pauses, then flashes a Texas-wide grin. "Things have changed," he says.

Oh how things have changed for the Astros. Not since John Travolta's turn in Pulp Fiction has there been a more stunning resurrection. Last Friday afternoon all the TV sets in the Astros' clubhouse at PNC Park were tuned into an afternoon game at Wrigley Field between the Cubs and Marlins, with Houston players slouching on couches, attentively watching the game. (What, no World Series of Poker?) "How many games we down by?" third baseman Morgan Ensberg asked from the back of the room.

On that day the Astros were actually up -- not down -- in the wild, wild National League wild-card race. In your morning paper today, five teams were within two games of the wild-card lead, and there wasn't a clear favorite among them.

All five had serious questions facing them (teams listed in order of likelihood of playing in October):

1) Marlins: When will Armando Benitez implode?

2) Cubs: Will Mark Prior return to form by October?

3) Giants: What's wrong with Jason Schmidt?

4) Padres: Is their 23-year-old ace, Jake Peavy, going to wilt down the stretch?

5) Astros: What more does Bagwell have left in him?

The most unlikely of the five teams in the wild-card sweepstakes is the Astros. Thanks to a franchise-best 12-game win streak from Aug. 27 to Sept. 8, the once-moribund Astros made up an astonishing seven games while leaping over six teams in the wild-card standings.

Things looked so gloomy in August that GM Gerry Hunsicker told me in Pittsburgh that he had contacted a handful of opposing front offices to gauge their interest in his players -- a feeling-out before a possible fire sale with the Aug. 31 trade deadline looming. Within a few days, however, the Astros strung together a modest win streak -- and Hunsicker backed off.

Bagwell has keyed the resurrection, hitting a blistering .438 with five homers and 15 RBI during the streak. "I stunk for five months," he says, "I figured I could manage to get hot for a couple [of] weeks."

Bagwell on this season: "Mentally and physically, this has been the most difficult, most exhausting, most frustrating season I've ever had. Being an Astro my whole career, I felt the same way about this team that a lot of people did, that this was the year we'd get through the playoffs and into a World Series. And I felt that I was letting the team and the city down."

Bagwell on if there are days when he doubts if he can ever again make it through another 162-gameseason (he's got two years remaining on the $85 million contract extension he signed with the Astros in 2000): "Oh trust me, there are plenty of thoughts like that. You're not human if you don't get frustrated and wonder, 'Is it worth doing this?' But I still know I can do some things that are very positive. Am I going to be the same player I was in the '90s and 2000? Probably not. I don't know if I can ever be that player again."

Other thoughts from this Tuesday morning

• "Expect the unexpected," Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavs, keeps telling us on his new show, the atrocious Apprentice imitation, The Benefactor. Are we, then, supposed to expect that The Benefactor does not go down as one of the worst shows in history, next to The Littlest Groom and Coupling? As he considers which poor lug is the next to head home -- "You just lost your shot at a million dollars," is his signature parting shot -- Cuban closes his eyes, swallows hard, and sighs deeply, as if he's reflecting on the situation in the Middle East. Then he arbitrarily axes a contestant because she won't do a little air guitar for him during an "interview." This after throwing out a contestant because he muttered that he thought the show was "stupid." The climax of the show is two contestants playing Jenga -- yes, that dumb game for 8-year-olds. Wife Swap, anyone?

• Looks like Art Howe is as good as gone as the Mets skipper. Other managers who won't be around come next spring: Seattle's Bob Melvin, Philly's Larry Bowa, and Arizona's interim manager Al Pedrique. Colorado's Clint Hurdle and Baltimore's Lee Mazzilli will survive.

• How long will Listen Up, the new CBS show about PTI's Tony Kornheiser, last? The over/under here is three months. Make that two.

• Is Charles Rogers the NFL's answer to Jose Reyes?

• The Apprentice 2 prediction of the week: Nice knowing you, Crazy Stacie J. The Blog's early call on the winner: the bow-tie lovin' Raj.

• Quote of the day comes from an ESPN story by Andrea Kremer and Tom Farrey. Says Shawn King, a former Colts defensive end who quit football in 2000 after failing multiple drug tests, on the similarities between he and Ricky Williams: "We want to smoke marijuana and do what we want to do. I guess that outweighed the love for football that so many people have."

That's it for today, folks. Hope you have a good day, at least half as good as the one Shawn King is having ...

Albert Chen is a writer-reporter for Sports Illustrated and writes a Daily Blog every Tuesday on SI.com.