ABOVE: Reco Pastori, left, with fellow original Crab Wally Scott, center, and current Crabs manager Matt Nutter.
Editor's note: Original Crab and Humboldt County baseball and football legend Reco Pastori passed away this week. Reprinted with permission below is part of Neil Tarpey's April 9 story in the Times-Standard, with a link to the rest of the story.
Visitation will be at Sanders Funeral Home, 1835 E Street in Eureka on Sunday, April 10 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A Celebration of Life will follow at the Eureka Wharfinger Building, One Marina Way, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
by Neil Tarpey
The Times-Standard
His high school football team did not allow a single point all season.
His daring base running exploits on the diamond drew comparisons to Ty Cobb.
Reco Pastori, a legendary and popular Humboldt County athlete, passed away on Wednesday, April 6 at the age of 92.
"He was a very well-liked kid, very well respected,” said Jack Walsh in a phone interview. “And he was such a great athlete. He was just a natural.”
Walsh, 93, who worked for decades as a physician in Eureka, was one of Pastori's teammates on the “Wonder Team.” That's what they called the 1935 Eureka High School football squad coached by Jay Willard.
Pastori, considered a great all-around athlete, played left end on that EHS Hall of Fame team that shut out all eight of its opponents and outscored them by a combined 283-0.
The 6-0 victory over Grant Union of Sacramento in the Northern California championship game on November 28, 1935 was the pinnacle of a memorable season.
One account described the championship contest “as being one of the hardest fought, most interesting, and best played games in Albee Stadium. The crowd was the largest of the season, and probably the largest in the history of the school …”
In addition to Pastori's football talents, he was an avid hunter and golfer and enjoyed out-of-town sports trips.
But many North Coast sports fans will recall Pastori for his exploits for the Humboldt Crabs.
