Upland Hall of Fame: Frank Pastore

Back in 1986, I was looking at some of my baseball cards to see where some of the Pros lived. Irvine, close. Diamond Bar, closer. Upland! WTF?!. There it was, on the back of the 1986 Topps Traded (not the card pictured) Frank Pastore card.

Keep reading, it'll get good.

I had to go ask my mom to see if I was mistaken or maybe there was a whole bunch of Uplands in some other part of California where baseball players live on every corner. Nope, somehow my mom had even known this. This was at a time when I idolized baseball players. I knew every position player on every team and could give you a pretty close guess of each persons stats were so this new news blew me away.

I heard that he lived near 15th and Campus but I didn't dare roam over there for fear that look like some crazy fanatic.

I promise, keep reading

A few years later I met another Frank Pastore, it was the MLBers father and he was one of the coaches for the Upland Legion 15-16 year old team. Frank Sr. was also one of the old guys that would yell at you if you dared look at a blade of grass at the Memorial Park baseball field the wrong way.

Anyway, back to Frank Jr. Frank would later end up on the business end of a Steve Sax hit back up the box that would end his career. These days he's hosting a religious radio show out out of LA.

To me, and many others in this nation, it's not what Pastore did on the diamond or over the airwaves what makes him a legend. It's the feat that he accomplished in May of 1987 that makes him one of Upland's most important (former?) residents.

He completed the 72 oz. steak meal challenge at the Big Texan Steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas in 9 1/2 minutes. Yikes! 72 oz. is 4 1/2 of meat plus a bread roll with butter, potato, ranch beans, shrimp cocktail, and salad.

His record stood for 21 frikin' years until it was broken by super stomach pro eater Joey Chestnut (the guy that finally beat Kobayashi in the July 4 Nathan's hot dog eating contest) in March of 2008. RINGER!!

As far as I am concerned, Chestnuts record should have an asterisk next to it due to his pro status. Pastore is still the champ.

Frank Pastore's eating prowess, All Things Upland's first Upland Hall of Fame member.