The One Guy Who Meets All-Time Baseball Criteria

I've written a lot here about great, great, great hitters I've seen on the North Coast. Some of them were mentioned here as potential additions to an all-time North Coast baseball team.

I've thought about it a lot in the last few days and, knowing there are people who'll scream bloody murder to read it here, I've decided that the 1990s-2000s player who best fits the criteria for being added to the all-time baseball team list...is former Eureka High/CR/New Mexico Highlands/Humboldt Crabs star Nick Giacone.

First, he was a great lefthanded hitter. Second, he was a good catcher in high school who became an even better first baseman. Third, I'm certain that he loved the game to the point that he didn't let anything stop him from playing it. You know? As I read the posts on the T/S Topix sites about the great parties on the road with various baseball teams...I'm struck that epic displays of talent sometimes include epic appetite for parties.

You can chase the parties until your head explodes...as long as you get your head together quickly enough to be in uniform (or in class) so that you don't let your baseball career get off track. So, please, don't go through the all-time team or this story gritting your teeth about how much this player or that player partied, OK? Some guys partied and fell off the baseball map. They, sadly, don't meet the criteria for the all-time...in my opinion, anyway.

Giacone played as long as he could and reached the highest level that he could. I watched him play and knew him enough to know that the game was important to him. He ran well for a catcher, then ran well for a first baseman. He had the sweetest left-hand swing I can remember...ranks up there with all-timer Mark Lucich.

Giacone played for the Crabs until he was, I guess, too old to play for the Crabs. That means he accomplished what guys like Reco Pastori, Ed Oliveira, etc. accomplished. Had he played in the 1950s or 1960s...Giacone would've played for the Crabs for 10 years. Age had nothing to do with it back in the day. Bob Bonomini played well at second base for the Crabs years after he'd graduated from Fresno State.

So, Nick Giacone's the one guy who has been mentioned by readers who merits, based on the criteria, to be put on that list of all-timers that appeared in the T/S years back.

It's got to be really, really hard to crack that list. Don't you think?

If everybody got on the list...if there were no criteria...being on the all-time team wouldn't be special, would it? I can live with seeming to be a stodgy old fart who sets what some people are going to think are incredibly stupid standards. Hey, the all-time team thing was my idea to start with...so, I got to set the criteria based on the thoughts of people who know more about the game's history than I do.

Nick Giacone meets the criteria.