LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- When you've had yourself a magical October moment, life is never quite the same. And here's the latest, greatest living proof:

Last Oct. 12, in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Kolten Wong had his very own life-changing moment in October. Perhaps you remember it. He sure does.

What he did that night was something Albert Pujols never did, something Stan Musial never did, something Mark McGwire never did -- hit a game-winning, game-ending postseason home run for the St. Louis Cardinals. The videos show us it eventually came back to earth. But in Kolten Wong's mind, it never will.

"Just the memories I'm going to take from that are unbelievable," the Cardinals' second baseman said Wednesday, still riding the kind of wave very few people on earth ever get to ride. "To this day, it's still kind of surreal that I did that."

When you're 24 years old and you've been watching October baseball games all your life, those walk-off homers are something other people do. Not you.

Big Papi ... Derek Jeter ... David Freese. They do stuff like this. But not 5-foot-9 rookie second basemen. Not people like Kolten Wong.

So late that night, very late, long after he'd floated around the bases and remembered to touch home plate with the winning run, he found himself standing next to his fiancee, Alissa Knoll, a smile frozen on his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked the man in the trance beside her.

"I don't believe I just did that," he said.

And five months later, he still doesn't totally believe he did that. But he's learned something in these last five months. He's learned that moments like that leave an indelible impact. And not just on the guy who swung the bat.

He went home to Hilo, Hawaii, after the season. And he noticed something about his dad, Kaha Wong, his lifelong hitting coach and a onetime minor league super-utility man who played at Southern Cal with Randy Johnson and McGwire.

Turned out Kaha Wong just couldn't stop watching that walk-off home run flying through the Missouri night, via the miracle of YouTube. And who could blame him?

"At night, when he'd come home from work, he'd be sitting down watching TV," Kaha Wong's son recalled. "And then I'd see him with an iPad in his hand. Like he'd turn the volume off and I'd see him watching it. He loved it. And as a son, that's what you want. You want your dad to be proud of you. And for him to finally get that, that was pretty cool."

But it wasn't only him. It seemed at times, said Kolten Wong, as though the entire population of Hilo had hit that home run.

"Everywhere I went," he said, "everyone was coming up to me, telling me good job, asking for pictures. Little kids were coming up to me with my jersey on their back. It's pretty cool just to be from a small town and see how everyone gets behind you when you're on the big stage."

But moments like that aren't life-changing merely because they make you famous. They're life-changing because you never again go to the plate wondering if you have those talents inside of you.

"I think you look at two players -- between him and Michael Wacha the year before," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. "Both guys kind of got thrown into everybody's living room overnight [thanks to October success] and all of a sudden became what everybody pictures as a fixture in the organization. And I know in their minds they still have a lot to prove. I just think it helps to put to rest that process of proving that they belong here."

Of course, Wacha's rise to stardom, a year after he'd taken a postseason no-hitter into the eighth inning in the 10th big league start of his life, was rudely interrupted last season by a rare injury to the scapula bone in his pitching shoulder. But he has looked both healthy and dazzling this spring.

And now Wong, in his big spring The Year After, has learned not to sweat the small stuff, like his 1-for-12 start at the plate in the slightly overrated Grapefruit League batting race.

"I'm excited," he said. "Excited to be out here. Excited to get going. Knowing that I can play at this level. I'm not worried if I can handle things. I'm not worried if I'm overmatched. I know I can play at this level. And I know I'm a big league baseball player. So definitely, my confidence level has changed for this season. And I'm definitely excited to play and have fun this year, and not worry about who I'm facing or the big name that's coming in."

But Wong's confidence, and the Cardinals' confidence in him, are more than just a product of one swing in October. This is, after all, a guy who hit 11 home runs after July 1 last season -- as many as Miguel Cabrera. And he was one of only four players in the whole sport who reached double figures in both homers and steals after July 1. Maybe you've heard of the others: Jacoby Ellsbury, Ian Desmond and Carlos Gomez.

Also, despite a gruesome .225/.276/.268 start that got him sent to the minor leagues in late April, Wong finished the season as one of just two second basemen in baseball with double figures in home runs and at least 20 steals. Brian Dozier was the other. And Wong was only the second Cardinals second baseman to do that since (ready for this name?) Frankie Frisch in 1928. The other was Delino DeShields in 1997.

Then came October, when Wong didn't just launch that long ball. His first seven hits of the postseason were all extra-base hits -- three homers and four doubles. And that tied a postseason record set 27 years earlier by Greg Gagne.

So Kolten Wong made an impression with three months of eye-popping work, not one freeze-frame moment. And his team expects that to resonate over the season to come.

"I think he just proved to himself, as much as everybody else, that he's got the potential to do some pretty special things," Matheny said. "He's got the good components of the speed, the power, the athleticism and just the excitement he brings as a player. And to be able to do that in October, when the heat's turned up and with all the outside distractions, that's got to be very encouraging."

Just one year ago, by his own admission, Kolten Wong tiptoed nervously through spring training, trying to prove he was a major league player. Not anymore. He's left his mark, on postseason history and on his own self-assurance. And he knows exactly how much that's changed everything about him.

Asked Wednesday whether his magical October had allowed him to do anything this spring that he couldn't do last spring, he flashed that ever-present smile one more time.

"Yes," he said. "Enjoy it."