The catcher’s rise

Would you like a book in which the theme of the “Rocky” movies is fed into a baseball template?

That’s a good description of “The 33-Year-Old Rookie,” the true story of how Chris Coste made it to the Major Leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies after 11 years in the minors. In the Acknowledgments section, Coste even thanks the Phillie fans and the media for making him a kind of “modern-day Rocky.”

The parallels are almost spooky. In Coste, you have a hardworking but aging athlete who can’t seem to secure a shot at the big time. There are many people who don’t see his true talent, and a manager (or two) and a woman (his wife) who do believe in him. There’s even the setting of Philadelphia.

What makes Coste’s autobiography climb above being a boring movie parallel is that you really feel what Coste feels — you are just as amazed as he is that he hasn’t made it yet. You feel the pain of his bad breaks, especially the one at the end of spring training in 2006 in which he has basically made the team until the Phillies acquire another player and send Coste back down to the minors.

But later that year, at the age of 33, he does get called up, and you can’t help but root for him — and worry when he starts 0-for-13 at the plate and faces the possibility of being sent back down.

Yet, like any good storybook hero, he rights himself and finishes 2006 with a .328 batting average and seven home runs while doing a solid job as a catcher. The Postscript notes that he started 2007 back in the minors, but once again made it back to “The Show.” As of this writing in 2008, he is still a key member of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Coste’s story is real, well-told and absorbing. In short, it’s a perfect summer baseball book.