The Humboldt Crabs are please to announce the inaugural class of our new Hall of Fame.
Lou Bonomini
Lou Bonomini was born in Blue Lake and as a local Humboldt County native he stood out in both baseball and football at Eureka High School and graduated in 1935. Lou went on become the manager and co-founder of the Humboldt Crabs in 1944. He was a player and manager from 1945-1954 and played virtually every position on the team. In addition to starting the Humboldt Crabs he also produced the very first run for the team at the Crabs first inaugural game on July 17th, 1945.
Lou went on to manage the Humboldt Crabs for a total of 42 impressive seasons, leading the team to 1307 wins and only 435 losses. He produced 15 seasons with fewer than 10 losses and had a .750 winning percentage. In the 1960’s he began transitioning the Crabs from a local semi-pro team to a semi-pro team recruiting college ball players from all over.
Lou lead the Crabs to 15 straight championships and 17 overall in the California State Baseball Congress. He also won four straight “West of the Rockies” championships from 1982-1985. His number 29 was the first number retired by the Humboldt Crabs.
Bob Bonomini
Bob was the oldest son of Crabs founder and longtime manager Lou Bonomini. He graduated from St. Bernard’s High School and went on to play baseball for Fresno State University from 1960-1962. He was a two-time letterman and All-California Collegiate Athletic Association choice at second base. This all coincided with his Crabs career which he actually started right out of high school and played second base from 1958-1971.
After his time with the Humboldt Crabs, Bob was a very successful baseball and basketball coach at St. Bernard’s from 1963-1972 and then at Eureka High School from 1976-1997. He then became the Athletic Director at Eureka High School from 1997-2000. In 1990 he was selected to the St. Bernard’s Hall of Fame and in 1997 he was selected to the Fresno State Hall of Fame.
Adam Carr
Adam joined the Humboldt Crabs in 2002 after he graduated high school. He played four seasons with the Crabs from 2002-2005. As a hitter he excelled with a career batting average of .335 with 66 extra base hits, 114 RBI’s and a .909 slugging percentage. Adam was also a great pitcher and had a career ERA of just 1.7 in 16 appearances with the Crabs. He got 5 wins, 1 save and only 1 loss in his career.
In 2006 Adam was drafted by Toronto but he opted to play college ball instead. Shortly after he was drafted by the Washington Nationals out of Oklahoma State and from 2006-2011 he was used both as a pitcher and a hitter. He is currently playing for the Potomac Nationals in single A as a pitcher.
Steve Fish
Steve’s Crabs career as a pitcher spanned from 1994-1996. In 1994 he had a season record of 7-1 and then in 1995 he was unbeatable on the mound with an impressive record of 6-0 with a 0.63 ERA allowing only 3 earned runs all season. He has a scoreless streak that year that lasted 29.1 innings. In 1996 he went 8-2 bringing his total Crabs career to 21 wins and only 3 losses.
Steve went on to a 7 year pro career pitching in double A and then with Boise of the Northwest League in single A which he pitched to a 5-2 record in 1997. Steve currently lives in Perth, Australia.
Mike Harkey
Mike was the starting pitcher for infamous 1985 Crabs team. He went an impressive 10-0 with an ERA of 1.89. He won the first game for the Crabs in the National Baseball Congress Tournament in Wichita, Kansas.
Mike had an impressive college career pitching for Fullerton State University. He was selected in the first round with the 4th overall pick to the Chicago Cubs in the 1987 amateur draft. He went on to have an 11-year pro career, spending eight seasons in the majors. He made his MLB debut on September 5th, 1988. In his MLB career he played for the Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, Anaheim Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers. His final game came with the Dodgers on September 28th, 1997.
Throughout his MLB career Mike had 131 Appearances and was the starting pitcher in 104 of those games. He had a lifetime ERA OF 4.49 with 316 strikeouts and 36 wins.
Dane Iorg
Dane was born in Blue Lake and graduated from Arcata High School. He played for the Humboldt Crabs in 1969 before going on to have a very impressive career in the Major Leagues. He was drafted in the first round 22nd overall by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1971 amateur draft.
Dane went on to have a 10 year career in MLB making his debut on April 9th, 1977 for the Phillies before he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He played for the Cardinals from 1977-1984 and then for the Royals from 1984-1986 before returning and finishing his career with the Cardinals. He won two World Series Championships — in 1982 with the Cardinals and 1985 with the Royals.
Reco Pastori
Reco was a childhood and lifelong friend of Crabs founder Lou Bonomini. He was born and raised in Humboldt County. He played for the infamous Eureka High School Football team in 1935 known as “Wonder Team”. The Wonder Team went undefeated and scored 283 points and didn’t allow a single point from any of the opposing teams they played. Reco served as a Merchant Marine during World War II.
Reco had a career batting average of .300 with the Crabs and was a prolific base stealer and base runner. Some of his nicknames included “Rabbity Reco, Mister Second Base and Bandit of the Basepaths”. Although Crabs statistics on him are hard to find it is widely believed that he is the all time leader in steals and base hits.
Greg Shanahan
Greg was born in Eureka and graduated from St. Bernard’s High School. He went on to play baseball for Humboldt State University where he won the 1970 Far Western Conference Championship.
As a Humboldt Crab, Greg was a pitcher who went on to have a career in the Major Leagues. He was drafted by the Dodgers in 1970 and had two stints with the team throughout his 8-year professional career. He led the Pacific Coast League in strikeouts for the 1973 season playing for the Albuquerque Dukes. He made his MLB debut on September 4th, 1973.
Ned Barsuglia
Ned was born in Arcata in 1920 and graduated from Arcata High School in 1938. He served in World War II with the U.S. Army in the European Theater. Ned was also a lifelong friend of Lou Bonimini.
Ned served as a Humboldt Crabs executive beginning in 1954 when he joined as a board member. From 1965-1995 Ned served as the general manager of the Humboldt Crabs. He had many duties including but not limited to sewing uniforms, lining up sponsors, finding jobs for the players, recruiting players and hiring the ballpark staff. In 1967 he became the head recruiter for the Crabs and started to recruit college players from outside of Humboldt County. He remained the chief scout until 2003. One of the greatest of his many contributions was supporting the creation of the Crab Grass Band in 1983.
Don Terbush
Don was the founding member and PA announcer from 1959-1995. He was born in Wisconsin in 1921 and played both basketball and football for Humboldt State. He served in World War II in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater. He earned his BA in English from Humboldt State University and in the late 1940’s Don was the Sports Information Director at HSU.
Don was first employed at the Humboldt Standard in 1948 as a crime and sports reporter. He wrote very popular weekly articles including his “Sideline Slants” which focused primarily on local sports. In 1956 he became the Sports Editor of the paper. He retired from the Times- Standard in 1982 but still continued to write a weekly fishing article until 1995.
Some of the legendary greats Don interviews where: Joe Louis, Mickey Mantle, Joe Frazier, Richard Nixon, John Wooden and Roger Maris. Today the press box in Arcata Ballpark is named in his honor.
1985 Humboldt Crabs Team
The 1985 Humboldt Crabs Team was practically unbeatable. They had an impressive overall record of 51-3 and went 46-1 in the regular season losing only their final game that year to Oscar’s of Oakland 9-2. They had an amazing 46 game winning streak. First baseman Steve Neel set the Crabs single season Home Run record with 18.
The team won the West of the Rockies Tournament which was played at the Arcata Ballpark that year. Nine players from the team where selected to the West of the Rockies all-tourney team. There where only 13 total selections. The team included four players that went on to the big leagues including pitcher Scott Chiamparion, pitcher Mike Harkey, Pitcher Steve Olin and Catcher Roger Zottneck.
