This isn't a definitive list...yet.
I sat down to finish, at least, what would be Ted's All-Time North Coast Baseball Team -- then, realized, it's naive to believe that the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s didn't contribute a single all-timer I have affection for as a player and, I suppose, as a person.
Here's the list...a lineup...with some additional notes because, hey, it's my team and I should include guys I saw a lot or heard great things about from people I trust...you can't really cancel your subscription, right? You can offer comments, argue and all that, though.
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1b...Mark Lucich...no change from the team I picked in the 1990s for the newspaper. He was a classy, gifted, hard-working guy who seemed heroic to me in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Odds are nobody could talk me out of Lucich as my favorite all-time. But, I realized I played on more different teams with former Eureka High first baseman Tad Sundquist than I did, probably, with any other player. We even went to Cutten Elementary School together. I was on Tad's team in the Eureka Midget League (Belcher's Giants), then for two years at Winship Junior High School. (Back when junior high sports were a really big deal in Eureka.) Then, I played with Sundquist at Eureka High and, briefly, at CR. Tad hit with power and fielded the position well. He ran better than most first baseman. It seemed cool, commendable, to me that he got drafted a few times and never signed a pro contract. I don't know why he didn't sign, but I thought it was intriguing that he didn't just go along with the rest. He was just...a ball of fury, a total stud. Since it's my team, I'd put Tad Sundquist on it.
2b...Bob Bonomini...He was a star for the Crabs, started at second base, for a fair portion of my youth. I didn't even know he went to Fresno State, he could just rake and
Nobody can or will challenge Bons for this spot. I just need a middle infielder to pinch-run after he lines a single through the hole to start the 7th inning.
SS...Garth Iorg...at the time I played against them, I thought Roger Hawkins and Mike Dolf were far better players than Garth Iorg at Arcata High. And, really, everybody agreed with me about Mike Dolf...I happened to think Hawkins was better than either of them. But, heck, Iorg made it to the big leagues and that's rare for North Coast players.
I can't emphasize enough, to modern parents or players, that Garth Iorg worked hard, perservered and learned the game...and worked his way to the big league. Lots of guys who faced the same challenges he did came home with stories about how he got screwed by the organization, etc.
3B...Scott Eskra..It's my list
I don't guess that many people are reading this because Eskra's a no-brainer based on sheer ability, but maybe came up lacking in other areas. Perhaps, I should've tested the size of the readership by putting some choir buy who drank Pepsi at third base?
LF: Dane Iorg, Arcata...
I still tend to think that Dane was always considered better than his brother Lee, but that it was hip to say, "Ahh...Lee was the best player, he just wanted to do other things." Actually, Lee was the fastest of the Iorg brothers and could really play centerfield...but Dane Iorg ... maybe my favorite Humboldt Crabs player ever...and...
CF: Paul Ziegler, Fortuna...he was faster
Greg Lorenzetti, another Fortuna alum, starred at Stanford, for the Crabs and in the minor leagues. He'll be on the finished team...I think Lorenzetti and Ziegler were both Fortuna football quarterbacks and basketball players. Ziegler was point guard on a team with a tough forward named Bob Wilson -- that got into an oncourt brawl in 1975 or 1976 with a good Arcata team. Fans were on the court. It was great fun for a teen sports writer!
RF: ... Buster Pidgeon had all the tools and he starred at Eureka High and for that great 1968 Eureka American Legion team. I'm sure Harold "Buster" Pidgeon wasn't a rightfielder...but, I'm sure he gave it a shot in his time in the Phillies organization. He could run. Gary Lucich, another Eureka High guy, is actually my favorite rightfielder. I was saddened when he died way too soon. His brother Mark was the superior baseball player, but Gary used to beat everybody else off the field -- from right field -- between innings. I didn't hustle, but I thought his hustle was the greatest.
This could be a spot for one of the old-time, all-timers.
C: ...again...still thinking...John Jaso is a nice pick, and would give the Humboldt Dukes a representative (as if 3 months on the Dukes supercedes his high school. N. Humboldt Giants and college careers). But, you know Carl Del Grande was a power-hitting catcher in the 1940s. He had a nice minor league career with two organizations after he left Eureka...then, he owned and operated "The Shanty" for decades -- and, he knew my dad back when my dad was tearing up 2 Street on a pretty routine basis. Greg Kane remains difficult to overlook...because I saw him hit his home runs. And...didn't Eureka's David Stone do some catching at some point in his career? Maybe in the minor leagues?
SP: I'd start with Eureka legend Billy Olson, the lefty
St. Bernard's Greg Shanahan was the righty contemporary of Olson's. Like Olson, he starred for the Crabs and, it's noteworthy that Shanahan starred at Humboldt State College -- when the baseball field was where the Science building has been for years now. Shanahan's probably the only choice for a No. 2 starter...you go lefty-righty...different styles of pitcher.
There are going to be pitchers on this list who didn't make the Times-Standard list because very little separates guys who excel locally and then go on to bounce around the minors for a few years. Having a brief pro career doesn't mean as much to me as being a stud on the North Coast from start to finish.
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