Milwaukee.Brewers.MLB.com

By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com

Brewers catcher Chris Coste has nearly a decade of minor league experience. (Scott Paulus/AP)

Meet Chris Coste, pronounced "like the soap," he jokes. He is a 31-year-old catcher in Brewers camp on a minor league contract, wearing No. 73 and still clawing his way toward the big leagues.

Coste's professional baseball career began nearly a decade ago in the Independent leagues when he signed for $700 per month in the North Central League. He moved on to the Prairie League and later the Northern League, where he caught, worked in the club's merchandising department and hosted a daily afternoon sports talk show in addition to his at-home duties as husband and dad.

He moved on to the Cleveland and Boston organizations and, after signing with Milwaukee last November, also played third base and first base in winter ball.

He has his own website, www.chriscoste.com, and in April, Coste will release his second book about life at the bottom of the minor leagues.

"I didn't want this second one to be about me; I wanted it to be all the behind-the-scenes stuff, funny stories, crazy injuries that people don't always get to hear about," Coste said.

"No matter what happens here, I always want to have something to do with baseball."

Coste was born in Moorhead, Minn., and raised in Fargo, N.D., where he dreamed of playing baseball. The Northern League's Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks provided the perfect opportunity, and from 1996-1999 Coste was one of the Independent leagues' better hitters with a .323 average.

The Northern League bills itself as Double-A quality, and the accommodations are decidedly minor league. Roadside motels, long bus trips and pregame spreads in which peanut butter and jelly are the main ingredients are commonplace in the league. Its players are an eclectic mix of hopefuls looking for their big-league break and veterans holding on to past glory.

It makes for quite a story.

"At some point in 1996 one of the guys said, 'Chris, you're from this area, you're smart, you should write a book about this stuff,'" Coste remembered.

Coste's immediate response: "You're crazy."

But the idea festered, and near that end of the season Coste jotted down story ideas on a notepad. Suddenly he had the outline for a book.

"I just went and filled in the blanks, and before I knew it I had 350 pages,' Coste said.

The first book, Hey ... I'm Just the Catcher, chronicled Coste's ride through the minors. He paid about $6,000 from his own pocket to print 2,000 copies and sold it for $10 at sporting goods stores and minor league ballparks.

"I maybe made a little bit, but my goal was never to make money off this," he said. "The second one is going to be exactly the same way. If I break even, that's great."

The second book is titled Roller 'Coster', and it could be a welcome alternative to tell-alls from the likes of Pete Rose and Jose Canseco, whose brother, Ozzie, is featured prominently and hilariously in Coste's latest volume. He calls it "safe enough for a 10-year-old to read but funny enough for a 40-year-old to enjoy."

"I was very content there," Coste said of his time in Fargo. "I didn't make a ton of money, but I made enough to where I could do it forever. I figured that one day I would be manager there."

Following the 1999 season, the Indians called with an offer. Coste declined, thinking he would not get a fair shake against higher-paid, younger Indians prospects. Fargo's manager and pitching coach changed his mind.

The experience with Cleveland, Coste said, was good and bad. In 2000 he had the best spring of his life and felt he at least deserved a starting job in Double-A, but was placed on the disabled list with a phantom injury because the Indians could not find a roster spot for him.

He eventually got playing time and finished with a .324 average between Akron and Buffalo.

"I was 27 years old at the time and everybody else was 21, 22, so I understand how it works," Coste said. "There were many times when I said, 'This is ridiculous. I want to quit.'"

But he stuck with it. The Red Sox picked him up for the 2003 season and offered him a job catching at Triple-A Pawtucket. An ankle injury derailed his season in the team's second game, and the Brewers made the strongest offer last winter. Coste signed a minor league deal on Nov. 12.

"They seem like a team that gives guys opportunities," Coste said. "As good of years as I have had, I have never, ever been in a position where the ball is in my court. Every year I have great springs -- I hit well, I catch well and it doesn't matter."