Brainstorming: My All-Time Baseball Team...Inc.

This isn't a definitive list...but, I spitballed a bit...and came up with this personal version of a skeleton all-time North Coast baseball team...no listing criteria, it's my team...the list is started to invited disagreements...

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.

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, despite lacking foot speed, played a sterling second base. I had to work with him as writer covering a coach...and my nephew and oldest son both played for him...but, Bonomini was always my childhood hero. I even used to mimic his batting stance when I played wiffle ball.

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.

3B...Scott Eskra..It's my list and, really, I thought Scott was the best hitter of his generation (the 1990s). He was a fine defensive third baseman and, I thought, ran the bases well. A tough kid I tried to get my own kids, and kids I coached, to pattern themselves after. He got to the University of Mississippi and starred. I hope the stories on the T/S Web site mentioning all the partying don't somehow result in Eskra being reduced in the minds of others to that of one of Eagles stars who partied and played and stuff. The others reached the point where they weren't good enough to play. One of his co-star infielders on the great Eagles teams got to College of the Redwoods and then coach Scott Dwyer told me, "He's not a college infielder. He can hit some, but he has no position." Eskra was different. He was special. I wish his story ended where Garth Iorg's story ended.


LF: Dane Iorg, Arcata...if you need an explanation, you shouldn't be reading this.

CF: Paul Ziegler, Fortuna...he was faster than the devil and as consistent a lefthanded top-of-the-order hitter I ever saw. He starred at Southern Cal. And, anyway, he wasn't always a big-shot in the world of finance in Humboldt County. He could really play.

RF: ... I don't want to fill this slot with just somebody who comes to mind...I'm still thinking it over...

C: ...again...still thinking...I thought Greg Kane, from Arcata, was great back in the '70s. But, and this is because I knew him, you couldn't go wrong with David Bills, who played at Eureka High and Chico State, in your lineup. He was born to catch and lead a team.

SP: I'd start with Eureka legend Billy Olson, the lefty, but...after him...it requires a great deal more thought...let's just say Olson would be my Game 1 starter...and my starter in any must-win game...