Arcata Plaza is the beating heart of Humboldt County’s college-town counterculture. Nag champa wafts from storefronts while dreadlocked hitchhikers kick hacky sacks or strum out-of-tune guitars. Clusters of 20-somethings swap stories about their botany professor at Cal Poly Humboldt or trade memories of high school back in the Bay Area or Los Angeles, the far-off hometowns that supply Arcata with its steady stream of student transplants.

But just a hundred yards east of the plaza sits a very different institution: baseball. The Humboldt Crabs, who just completed their 81st season, are the longest-running summer collegiate team in the nation. Each year, players from across the country head to the fog-soaked North Coast, keeping their fundamentals sharp while immersing themselves in one of the most vibrant small-town baseball cultures America has to offer.

It was an unusually warm evening on Humboldt Bay on July 19 — perfect weather for one of the Crabs’ quirkiest traditions: Pajama Night, paired this year with a fireworks show. Fans in sleepwear lined up at the gate as Arcata’s team prepared to face their Pacific Empire League rivals, Wine Country’s Healdsburg Prune Packers, in the final game of a three-game set. The Crabs had dropped the first two contests, and the crowd was eager for redemption. Kids waved foam crab claws, more than a thousand fans packed the bleachers, and the ballpark buzzed with anticipation. 

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A Healdsburg Prune Packer swings and misses as Humboldt Crabs fans look on from the packed Arcata Ball Park stands.

The Humboldt Crabs’ heckler section roars, unleashing taunts and laughter as the Healdsburg Prune Packers take the field.

A Humboldt Crabs pitcher winds up on the mound as a runner takes a lead off first base, the tension building at Arcata Ball Park.

Crusty the Crab, the Humboldt Crabs’ beloved mascot, poses with families for photos between innings.

The ballpark itself is stitched into civic life. Highway 101 runs just beyond the outfield wall. Arcata City Hall and the police department sit close enough to hear the crack of the bat. Fans pass beneath the firehouse balcony at the gate, where off-duty firefighters often watch games from above.

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“All ages of fans” come out, said 18-year-old security staffer Wyatt Zerlang, the grandson of longtime Crabs board member Larry Zerlang. “It’s been around forever.” The place feels less like a stadium and more like a town square.

The Humboldt Crabs were founded in 1945, and according to their website, they are “the oldest, continuously-operated, collegiate, independent, wood-bat, summer baseball team in the country.” As Scott Gourley........

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