ND Major Leaguers enjoy being teammates

(WDAY Sports) - The odds of becoming a big league ballplayer are about 1,300 to 1. Jamestown's Darin Erstad and Fargo’s Chris Coste beat those long odds, but now they've become something even rarer, major league teammates from North Dakota. WDAY 6’s Trevor Peterson has the story from Houston.

Darin Erstad and Chris Coste grew up as legion baseball rivals. They never would've guessed that one day they'd share the same major league uniform.

“We hit together at Concordia in the spring of 1996, darin trying to make the Angels, me trying to make the RedHawks.”

Erstad was the first overall choice in the '95 draft. He's now in his 14th major league season. Coste's story has been well chronicled, 10 years in the minors before finally making the show in 2006. In July, Coste was released from Philadelphia and claimed by Houston, where he joined Erstad as an Astro.

“It's come full circle from the days of hitting together at Concordia to now on the same team. It means a lot to me. It's special.”

“It's probably more special for me because all those years I was in the minors, he was in the majors and I wished I could trade places with him. Now, not only am I in the majors, but on the same team as him, it's pretty cool. We talk about being ND teammates almost on a daily basis.”

Just over a dozen North Dakotans have ever made it to the major leagues. Only 4 have won a World Series. Coste and Erstad are both in that group.

“Even (Travis) Hafner had a 3-1 lead (in the ALCS game 7) a few years back. So he had a shot, too.”

Besides the World Series rings, Coste and Erstad's careers couldn't be any more different. So it's ironic that now, as teammates, they're in basically in the same situation with a big league future very much in doubt beyond this season. Both are backups in their mid-30's hitting far-below their career averages.

“I do joke around, but it is the truth, I am on bonus time. So whatever I get to do, I’ll do it.

“I think I still have some left in the tank, a few more years hopefully, whether another team believes that, we'll see.”

No matter what happens this off-season, the 3 months spent as big league teammates is something neither Coste nor Erstad will ever forget.

Erstad and Coste aren't the first pair of major league teammates from North Dakota. Roger Maris played with Ken Hunt back in 1960, but they are the first to record back to back hits and strikeouts.