For half a season, he has been the most amazing and inspirational story in all of baseball. A 27-year-old who wasn't even a lock to make the A's could make the All-Star team. Opposing players and managers who could vote him in definitely know his name after what he did Sunday.

Eric Byrnes went 5 for 5 and hit for the cycle at Pacific Bell Park against the team he grew up rooting for in Portola Valley. This wasn't a Bay Bridge series finale, but Sunday afternoon at a Disney movie. Michael Lewis, whose book on A's General Manager Billy Beane has been the buzz of baseball, has his sequel, ``The Unnatural.''

Plotline: Herky-jerky, run-through-walls outfielder replaces by far the team's highest-paid player -- injured, unproductive Jermaine Dye, who makes $11 million of the $50 million payroll -- and hits safely in 44 of his past 47 games. That's approaching unbreakable-record territory, as in Joe DiMaggio's 56-game streak. Byrnes is burning.

But I cannot tell a lie. As slack-jawed as I am by what Byrnes has done, I don't believe he yet belongs in baseball's midseason showcase. This isn't supposed to be the One-Half Wonder Game, though that's sometimes the case. In my book, All-Stars must prove they're one of the best for at least a season and a half.

Can a guy who has spent several seasons doing the Sacramento Shuffle, back and forth to Triple-A, keep up this pace through September's pennant-race stretch? I'd like to think so, but the odds say no. Can Byrnes keep making adjustments to a dog-eat-dog league that will keep probing for his fatal flaw? Probably. Maybe. Who knows?

Can he rise to the playoff occasion in October? Pick right up where he left off next season? Only time tells in baseball.

Only 82 games to go.

Forgive me for not taking a warm, fuzzy seat on Byrnes' runaway All-Star bandwagon. That would be easier for you and me. You'd probably like me more if I took you to Disneyland over your morning coffee. But would you respect me?

Your June 30 buzz kill is my 162-game reality check. Baseball, more than any other sport, lends itself to heroic fantasy. The big-league schedule so inexorably exposes flashes in its six-month panorama that we want to believe in The Career Minor Leaguer Who Becomes a Star. Since he got his chance in late April, Byrnes has been the anti-Barry Bonds, the Peninsula product who kept playing winter ball and working on his weaknesses until he finally got his million-to-one shot.

``His heart is so big and his desire to succeed so great,'' said A's Manager Ken Macha, ``that when he finally got his opportunity, he was ready. He gets dirty all the time. He gives you 1 million percent. He's a guy you can be proud of when he stars. Making the All-Star team would be a payoff for all he's done.''

Yes, next year it would be.

With his flying wings of golden hair, Byrnes has cover-boy looks and a confident-but-humble charm that could make him as marketable as any player on this team this side of Barry Zito. He's as comfortable entertaining a pack of reporters as he appears unsure of himself trying to draw a bead on a flyball.

Asked if he has surprised himself, Byrnes did not hesitate: ``No. I'd be lying if I said I have. I always believed in my mind I could be this kind of player at this level.''

Robert Redford couldn't have said it better in ``The Natural.'' Byrnes, baby, Byrnes. Build on a startling start. Prove these numbers don't lie.

Byrnes went 13 for 26 in six games against his beloved Giants. He's batting .336 with 11 homers and 41 RBIs. What this 6-foot-2, 210-pounder lacks in effortless fluidity, he more than makes up for in speed and power. He's probably the A's fastest man, and he proved again Sunday with a home run that landed 10 rows above the 404 mark in left-center field that he's no Punch-and-Judy leadoff hitter.

He's a gifted, if not graceful, athlete.

``And he's out early every day working on his throwing,'' Macha said. ``Every day. I don't know where we'd be without him.''

Maybe eight or 10 games behind first-place Seattle instead of six with the Mariners arriving for a four-game series. Now let's see if Byrnes can do to Seattle what he has been doing to his former favorite team. Baseball's pressure grows by the night.

Now Byrnes won't be inspired by driving past Candlestick Park on the way up 101 to Pac Bell.

``Passing Candlestick, I thought how many games I saw there, sitting in the bleachers, doing all those stupid chants,'' he said. ``A couple of times during the weekend, it hit me what I was doing, and I looked off into the bay and got chills.''

You could hear Kevin Costner in ``Bull Durham'' making the same speech after finally making it to The Show. But first-half fairy tales shouldn't tell the All-Star tale.

I'd prefer not to see each team have a mandatory representative. I'd rather starters played six or seven innings, like the good old days. I wish baseball's All-Stars could earn their way into the game with an entire season's performance, as NFL Pro Bowl stars do.

For now, Byrnes makes my All-Disney team. I'm rooting for All-Star validation.