Photo by Tracy Mac – Conor Fitzgerald conducts some interviews for his new documentary film.

By Ray Hamill — No club epitomizes the essence of small-town baseball better than the Humboldt Crabs, and few people have ever captured the essence of what the Crabs mean to the North Coast better than Conor Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald’s new documentary film, “Lou’s Team: The Story of the Humboldt Crabs,” was released this summer and chronicles the history of the North Coast club and its 82-year existence.

A must see film — not just for Crabs fans, but for all baseball fans and in particular fans of baseball history — this documentary will be shown at the Minor Theater in Arcata three more times in the coming weeks, including two showings this weekend.

For Fitzgerald, who was born in Arcata and grew up an avid Crabs fan, the five years he spent making this film was, in his own words, a labor of love.

He began filming in 2021 with the idea of making a short piece for the club’s 80th anniversary, but once he got started he knew he was on to something much bigger than he had originally anticipated.

“Everyone I reached out to was interested in being a part of it,” he said. “They wanted to share stories they hadn’t told in years.”

The result is a thoroughly engaging documentary on the oldest continuously operated summer collegiate team in the nation, a story as unique as any in the history of the sport, and one that impresses upon the viewer not just why small-town baseball is such an integral part of the fabric of American society but also the important role it has played in the history of North Coast sports.

But this is a story about so much more than baseball. 

It’s about the Crabs, their players, their fans, their opponents, and the role they all play in the landscape of Humboldt County summers.

It shows us what the team means to people in the area, how (and why) the players are treated like MLB players from the moment they arrive here to the moment they leave, and why the Crabs are our San Francisco Giants, five hours removed from any Major League franchise.

Photo courtesy of Maria Bonomini Briggs – The Arcata Ball Park in the 1970s.

It’s a story about what the iconic North Coast tradition means to kids of all ages in the county and it gives all of us a chance to remember how we viewed baseball when we were young for two glorious and way-too-short months every summer.

And it’s a story told through dozens of interviews, historical footage and newspaper clippings, and one that leaves the viewer with a sense of nostalgia and a newfound appreciation of what it means to be a Crabs fan and a fan of the sport of baseball.

Fitzgerald begins with Lou Bonomini founding the team in 1945 and how the Crabs became a national powerhouse among their peers and a club that nurtured some of the best collegiate players up and down the West Coast while honing the talents of 73 future Major League ball players. 

(“We’ll be getting to 75 pretty soon,” Fitzgerald said, and who in their right mind would doubt him?)

Fitzgerald also breaks down the incredibly successful history of the Club, including the great Crabs teams of 1985 and 1986, which each had four future Major League pitchers, as well as the 2016 team, which had three future MLB players.

His extensive work on the new documentary included “30 to 40 interviews,” many with former Crabs players and coaches, including several that went on to play in the Major Leagues or coach at top college programs.

Some of the interviews were conducted in MLB dugouts ,when former Crabs players or coaches happened to be in the Bay Area or at Spring Training.

“If I wasn’t working and had a few days off, I would travel to do an interview,” Fitzgerald said.

Photo courtesy of Maria Bonomini Briggs – The legendary 1985 Crabs.

One thing these past and present Major Leaguers all have in common was their willingness to talk to Fitzgerald about the Crabs, happy to express what their time in Arcata meant to them and eager to relive the memories of some of the best times of their lives.

“It was so great to have such a large variety of people talking about their experience with the Crabs,” Fitzgerald said. 

During his research, Fitzgerald reached out to Bonomini’s daughter, Maria Bonomini Briggs, who provided him with much of what he needed for the film.

“Her and (Lou’s wife) Vera kept a lot of stuff, programs from the 40s and 50s, newspaper articles,” he said, “Two-thirds of what you see on screen was because Maria kept them. That was a huge part of the documentary. And that’s when I thought this is more than a few minutes.”

In the film, Fitzgerald interviews members of the Crabs Grass Band, which has played such a huge role in the history of the club since 1983, as well as fans and board members and even opposing coaches who relished their experience in front of the large crowds at the Arcata Ball Park — heckling and all — as something truly unique in collegiate summer baseball and a far cry from the two dozen or so fans they usually play in front of. 

Fitzgerald lived in Arcata from 1998 to 2002, and like so many other young ball players in the area he became a big fan of the team before he and his family moved to Redding.

He would continue to support the Crabs from his new home, traveling back to the coast to watch them play every summer and even serving as the team’s batboy for six years every time they played in Redding.

Photo courtesy of Maria Bonomini Briggs – The 1979 Crabs.

A Film Major, in college and part of an Emmy nominated team for his work at a recent Super Bowl, Fitzgerald makes his living covering an assortment of sports teams and events — collegiate and professional — in the Bay Area and Sacramento, serving as a cameraman and working behind the scenes in a variety of ways.

Asked what has impressed him the most about the Crabs, Fitzgerald replied without hesitation.

“I think it’s the fact that it’s stuck around this long,” he said, citing how the community stepped in to keep the team going in the 1950s and 1990s. “The fact a community of this size can keep a team this long is a testament to the community.”

The film has been well received by the club and fans, who have shown up in large numbers to catch some early-summer showings at The Minor Theater.

This weekend, the film will be shown again at The Minor Theater on Saturday and Sunday, at 11 a.m. on both days, as well as one final showing on July 25, also at 11 a.m.

After that Fitzgerald plans on releasing it online.

“I’m hoping this brings out more stories (about the team) from more people and that people share it around and just keep the story going,” he said. “It’s been great to be able to dig into so much history, and I want more and more people to know about the history of the team.”