Feel-Good Baseball Story

[sovereignstar]

A day old, but anyways... it's just awesome to see that he finally made it. He's a great guy who has been fighting it out in the minors for years.

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=127639&section=Sports

Chris Coste walked into the Philadelphia Phillies locker room on Sunday, parked himself on a chair in front of his locker and stared at his new jersey.

No. 27.

With “Coste” sewn on the back of it.

Welcome to the big leagues.

“I was just trying to soak in every moment to remember,” he said.
Chris Coste

After years of toiling in the minors, the 33-year-old Fargo native got the call he’s been waiting for when the Phillies recalled him from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“There have been plenty of times I had that dream and it seemed so real only to wake up from my bed and be mad,” Coste said Sunday night.

This was not a dream.

Coste got the news via a 10:30 a.m. phone call from Scranton manager John Russell.

“He said he had to talk to me about a few things and I immediately thought it was bad things,” Coste said. “What could he possibly tell me? The big leagues were the furthest thing from my mind.”

The conversation, however, went something like this:

Russell: “Get your stuff, you’re going to Philadelphia.”

Coste: “What are you talking about?”

Russell: “You’re going to the big leagues, get your stuff packed.”

Coste: “You’re kidding me.”

It was no joke. A roster spot became available when veteran infielder Alex Gonzalez retired. Gonzalez was hitting just .111 in his first year with the Phillies.

Coste immediately drove 125 miles from Scranton to Philadelphia, arriving at Citizens Bank Park at 1:25 p.m. He missed the first pitch against the Boston Red Sox.

After getting dressed, he walked into a major league ballpark as a player for the first time.

“I made that walk down the hallway and then up steps,” he said. “It went from dark to light and then seeing the crowd and the scoreboard.”

There was a comfort factor for Coste because he spent the entire spring training with the Phillies players. He was the last player cut before opening day.

He spent most of the game hanging out in the dugout with the exception of occasionally warming up the Phillies’ pitcher between innings.

Coste is the 15th player from North Dakota to make the big leagues, according to baseball-almanac.com. He is the second who was born in Fargo joining Gary Serum, who pitched for the Minnesota Twins from 1977-79.

He is the fourth North Dakotan currently in the majors along with Jamestown’s Darin Erstad of the California Angels, Fargo’s Rick Helling of the Milwaukee Brewers and Sykeston’s Travis Hafner of the Cleveland Indians.

It’s not clear how long Coste will stay with the Phillies. He said it could a few days, a couple of weeks or the rest of the season. Outfielder Aaron Rowand is expected to return from the disabled list on Saturday.

Coste was hitting just .177 with two home runs and 14 RBIs in 39 games. He played mainly third base, although he also plays catcher, first base and left field.

He’ll probably be the Phillies’ backup catcher. Starter Mike Lieberthal is on the disabled list while backup Sal Fasano is expected to miss a few games after getting hit by a foul tip. The starter is rookie Carlos Ruiz.

Coste caught the Phillies’ attention in spring training when he hit .463 with three home runs and 11 RBIs.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546

[sovereignstar]

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=127657&section=Sports

Before she blew out the seven candles on her birthday cake a few days ago, Casey Coste closed her eyes and made a wish.

It came true on Sunday.

Her father, Chris Coste, got called up to the Philadelphia Phillies ending a quest that began in 1996 with the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks.

Marcia Coste, Chris’ wife, told him about the birthday wish on Sunday.

“When she told me that, I almost lost it,” Chris said.
Fargo native Chris Coste, shown hitting a double for the Philadelphia Phillies in their March 24 preseason game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been called up by the Phillies from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

It was an exciting day with the Coste family. Chris called Marcia immediately after he got off the phone with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Red Barons manager John Russell, who told Coste of the promotion.

“I was crying and bawling,” Marcia said. “I was talking hysterically, yelling into the phone. It was like so overwhelming.”

Marcia and Casey were scheduled to fly to Scranton on Friday after Casey’s last day of school this week. The travel plans will change, slightly.

The Phillies, who start a three-game series at the New York Mets tonight, host the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday at Citizens Bank Park.

At 33 years old, Coste is a rare older rookie along the lines of pitcher Jimmy Morris, whose story was chronicled in the motion picture “The Rookie.”

“He actually watched that the last couple of days in spring training,” Marcia said. “We thought it would happen then but it didn’t. You know how life is. Right now we’re thrilled.”

That includes Bob Coste, Chris’ grandfather. Retired, but working part time at the downtown Fargo YMCA, he now has a new answer to the same question – How’s Chris doing? – he’s received for years from Y members.

Chris Coste works out at the Y when he’s in Fargo.

“I never get tired of talking about him,” Bob said. “They care about him. He’s tried so hard and he’s made a lot of friends at the Y. It’s a Cinderella story.”

The story will be displayed at Concordia College. The school is in the process of hanging Coste’s college jersey next to Kris Kuehl, a Concordia graduate who made the 2000 U.S. Olympic team in the discus.

Coste wore No. 53 at Concordia. At one point, head coach Bucky Burgau thought he might have gotten rid of it when the athletic department sold them to former players.

After a thorough search, Burgau found it and gave it to sports information director Jim Cella.

“Bucky called me today and asked, ‘Still got that jersey?’ ” Cella said.

Cella said Coste is the second Concordia player to make a major league roster. Arlo Brunsberg had a brief stint with the Detroit Tigers in the late 1960s.

“Hopefully, he can spend time up there,” said RedHawks manager Doug Simunic, who coached Coste for four years. “It’s a good reward for a guy who has put in as much time as he has. I hope he does well when he gets his chance.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546

[stevew]

Feel good story for this guy.

Feel bad story that the Phils don't have anyone better in their minors, so that they have to resort to a 33 year old career minor leaguer. :(

[sovereignstar]

Feel good story for this guy.

Feel bad story that the Phils don't have anyone better in their minors, so that they have to resort to a 33 year old career minor leaguer. :(

He's a young 33. ;)

http://www.sethspeaks.net/costeAAAAllStar.jpg

[Anthony]

wait, i still don't feel good. actually i'm somewhat bloated after having my lunch.

[saldana]

rowand may be eligible to come off the DL, but there is no way he is ready to go, not with a busted nose and non displaced orbital fractures. this guy should get a decent stint to prove himself.

[stevew]

I'm not worried too much about Rowand, that Victorino guy is playing well. But Leiby being hurt, and now that Hamels scratched from today's start with soreness, Gavin Floyd sucking badly.....the team is just generally in trouble.

[Chief Rum]

California Angels?

[Ksyrup]

Toe Nash?

Oh wait....!

[Logan]

I'm not trying to be the asshole ruining a feel-good baseball story, but I thought it was really funny that he couldn't find his way into the 16-inning Mets-Phils game last night.

[MrBug708]

I thought this was abot Aaron Sele actually pitching effectively

[lungs]

Here's another one. The best part is that his name is pronounced "Winkels-ass". Bob Uecker was already having fun with that name in spring training.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=426949

Persistence pays off for Brewers reliever
32-year-old righty back in the majors
By TOM HAUDRICOURT
[email protected]
Posted: May 23, 2006

Cincinnati - Joe Winkelsas insists he wasn't surprised when his phone rang late Monday in Huntsville, Ala., with news that he was being called up by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Advertisement

"I could believe it," he said. "I've been waiting for this."

Seven years, to be exact. Winkelsas' only previous major-league appearance came with Atlanta on April 10, 1999, when he yielded four hits and two runs in one-third of an inning.

That's a long time to sit on a 54.55 earned run average.

Winkelsas' perseverance, which included drug rehab, three stints in independent baseball and a fortuitous if short-lived career in waste management, was rewarded when the Brewers summoned the 32-year-old righty from Class AA Huntsville. He replaced Justin Lehr, who was designated for assignment.

Winkelsas was signed by the Brewers in January after participating in a tryout camp at their spring training complex in Phoenix. How he ended up in that camp is a story by itself.

The end of the baseball road appeared at hand in April 2005, when the Chicago White Sox released Winkelsas from their Class AAA Charlotte club. He briefly hooked on with the Grays, a club in the independent Canadian-American League that played nothing but road games.

"It was brutal," said Winkelsas, who quit after one appearance. "The hotel was their home."

Figuring his pitching days were over, Winkelsas returned home to Buffalo, N.Y., and took a job with the city department of sanitation, collecting garbage. Later, he also became the pitching coach at Niagara University.

When Winkelsas threw batting practice for the college team, coach Chris Chernisky noticed his fastball improving. It soon dawned on Winkelsas that his sanitation job had improved his velocity.

"I started to gain some strength, lifting and dragging things through the snow," he said. "It was like physical therapy that I got paid for."

Chernisky soon put Winkelsas in touch with Brewers scout Tony Blengino, who invited him to the tryout camp. Competing with players a dozen years younger, Winkelsas impressed the Brewers' scouts enough that day to be one of only two players offered contracts.

"I was just thankful to be out there," he said. "Maybe that's why I threw well that day.

"They called me a couple of days later and invited me to spring training and said, 'Would you mind going to Double-A?' I said, 'Give me a jersey.' I had something to prove. Six days."

That was the length of Winkelsas' stay in the majors with the Braves in April 1999.

After his one outing, Winkelsas was sent back to Class AA, never to be recalled by the Braves. But he soon had to deal with bigger problems than getting another shot in the majors.

What Winkelsas thought was a controllable marijuana habit soon spiraled out of control, into unquestioned addiction. He had smoked pot for as long as he could remember but it began to rule his life, affecting his relationship with wife, Therese, and young son, Jackson.

Before he made it through the 2000 season at Class AAA Richmond, Winkelsas found himself in a drug rehabilitation clinic in Atlanta.

"It's the hardest thing I've ever been through, the pain that I experienced," said Winkelsas, who joined the Brewers before their game Tuesday against Cincinnati. "I put my life and my career on the line.

"I never got caught. I came forward with that information."

Winkelsas had overcome obstacles as a youngster, having come from a family background that included drugs in the home and the discovery at age 15 that he had been adopted.

"It takes a lot of faith," said Winkelsas, who was 1-1 with a 1.72 ERA and four saves with Huntsville.

Seven years after throwing one-third of an inning for Atlanta, Winkelsas duplicated that feat against the Reds, with much better results. He took over for starter Dana Eveland in the fifth inning with two out and two on, showed some nerves with a four-pitch walk but retired pinch hitter Scott Hatteberg.

Chalk one up for perseverance.

[st.cronin]

Joe Winkelsas is nowhere near the player Rusty Kuntz was.

[lungs]

Joe Winkelsas is nowhere near the player Rusty Kuntz was.

But Rusty Kuntz probably didn't make the jump from garbage man to big leaguer like Winkelsas did.

[stevew]

After an 0-12 start, Coste picked up his first 2 major league hits and his first RBI on Friday.

[stevew]

Coste has been playing well of late, and is now at .340 for the season after 100 AB. He's the phils backup catcher now, and may possibly be the starter or half of a platoon next year, depending on what happens to Lieberathal.