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Like many youngsters who grew up playing baseball and watching Humboldt Crabs games each summer, Conor Fitzgerald dreamed of making it to the Major Leagues. Unlike most kids, he did — just not in the way he expected. 

Fitzgerald is a cameraman and filmmaker. Since graduating in 2020 with a film degree from the University of Notre Dame he has shot footage for the NBA on TNT, college football on Fox, college basketball for ESPN and most other major NCAA sports, including baseball, golf and hockey. And for the past four years, he has operated a camera for live broadcasts of A’s games.

“So I guess I made it to the majors as a cameraman instead,” he said during a phone interview this morning. 

Fitzgerald. | LinkedIn.

We reached out to Fitzgerald yesterday after finding an online trailer for his new feature-length documentary, “Lou’s Team: The Story of the Humboldt Crabs” (above). As the title suggests, the film examines the 80-year history of the country’s oldest continuously operated summer collegiate baseball team, based right here in Arcata.

After graduating college during the pandemic, Fitzgerald had time to wrap up production and editing on his first documentary feature, “PLUM: A Baseball Life.” It’s a profile of his friend Bill Plummer, who was Hall of Famer Johnny Bench’s backup on the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970s. 

“As I was finishing that one up I told myself, ‘That was a lot of work, to do the whole project and edit and all of this. I might not do another one.’”

But then he realized that the Humboldt Crabs were approaching their 80th birthday, and he couldn’t think of any project that really dug into the team’s early days. So he reached out to some friends on the board of directors and other people he’d known growing up, including former Crabs players. The project really took off after he landed an interview with Yankees bullpen coach and former Major League player Mike Harkey, who was on the 1985 Crabs squad.

“Once I got that interview set I was like, ‘OK, I can build around this.’”

Fitzgerald was born in Eureka but spent most of his childhood in Redding, coming back to Humboldt each summer. His mom worked for the Simpson Timber Company and was friends with several Crabs board members, including volunteer treasurer Mary Ellen Barthman. 

These connections helped Fitzgerald secure a few old photos, programs and other memorabilia. Eventually he was put in touch with Maria Briggs, daughter of Crabs legend Lou Bonomini, the team’s co-founder, longtime manager and eventual namesake of the documentary.

Briggs had the goods.

“She has the whole history of the team that her parents kept: the newspaper clippings all the way back to the ‘40s, all the programs, a lot of a lot of old news file photos, some old archive footage. Without what she gave me [the film] would be a fun little project to do, but it wouldn’t be what it is now,” Fitzgerald said.

With a runtime of just over two hours, the documentary includes interviews with many notable former Crabs, including Bob Milano, who would go on to coach college baseball at Cal; Mark Marquess, the first Crabs alum to make it to the majors and, later, a legendary coaching career at Stanford; and former Santa Clara head coach John Oldham, all of whom have since passed away. [CORRECTION: Oldham, not Marquess, was the first Crab to make it to the majors.] 

“I was able to interview them all at their houses and talk for hours about their time playing for the Crabs and sending their college players to play for the Crabs as well,” Fitzgerald said.

His favorite story in the film is that of Jack Fimple, a local Coast Guardsman who, in 1979, attended an open tryout for the Crabs. He landed a spot on the roster, and his standout play earned him an invitation to play college baseball at Humboldt State University. After just one season as a Lumberjack, Fimple was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 29th round of the 1980 MLB draft. He would go on to play for the L.A. Dodgers and California Angels.

Fitzgerald said stories like Fimple’s could help his documentary appeal to an audience beyond local Crabs fans and other baseball diehards. 

“I think it’s those kind of stories that anyone can look at [as] just a good, fun story,” he said. 

Fitzgerald is currently trying to line up a screening at one of Arcata’s movie theaters in early to mid-June. His hope is to host a Saturday matinee sandwiched between the Arcata Farmer’s Market and an evening Crabs game at Arcata Ball Park. 

He’s nearly done with editing the film but said he’s still open to squeezing in some more footage.

“If there is anyone out there who happens to have footage from 1995 or earlier” — whether that’s home video shot by family members of players or old TV news clips — “if anyone does have any old footage, I’ll still take it,” Fitzgerald said.

He can be reached via the “Contact” button on his website, where you can find historical Crabs photos and more information about “Lou’s Team,” among other projects.