Fan at 1945 World Series and 2016 World Series

John Hanson is 84 years old, but these days he feels like a Thomas Kid again.

Baseball can execute that for a person. The Chicago Cubs are doing it for Hanson.

IT has been 71 eld since the Cubs played a Global Serial publication game at Wrigley Field, only that drought ended Fri night when they hosted the Cleveland Indians. The memories flooded back for Hanson, and the more he talked about his beloved Cubbies, the Sir Thomas More excited he became.

The date was Oct. 6, 1945, and after terzetto games in Detroit, the Tigers came to Wrigley Field for Courageous 4 of the World Serial. The game was sold out, except for seats in the right-handed-field bleachers, which were merchandising for $1.20.

"I remember everything nearly that 24-hour interval, and my wife, Karen, and my family said I should tell somebody. So I guess it's pretty newsworthy," said Hanson, WHO is retired and has lived in Gunbarrel since 1992.

At 10 a.m. Hanson's father, Earl, and Hanson's schoolboy friend, Wreath Cowan, went to Wrigley Field to get word if they could get tickets. They arrived to get hold lines from two slate Windows wrapping around the block. Tickets were a active item on the north side of Chicago. Accordant to reports in newspapers at the meter, scalpers were getting as much as $200 for $7.20 corner seats and $6 grandstand tickets were fetching $75. The bleacher seats Hanson wanted were existence scalped for $10.

"We were so defeated when we saw the lines," Hanson said. "We didn't think there was any way we were going away."

Then the baseball gods intervened for the 13-class-old Cubs fanatical who had attended about 25 regular-season games that summer.

"It was stupid luck," Hanson said with a laugh. "We are standing in breast of a third ticket booth. Information technology was dark, nobody there. But then the Cubs decided to open up that third windowpane and we were offse in note. We ended up getting front-dustup seats in the bleachers."

Jamie Squire, Getty Images

Everett Schlegl, WHO accompanied two games of the 1945 World Series, holds a rainwater checker ticket from 1945 ahead Game Three of the 2022 World Series at Wrigley Field on October 28, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by )

The game, Hanson recalled, "was nothing special … the Cubs lost." The score was 4-1 and Dizzy Trout went the distance for Detroit, throwing a 5-hitter. The Tigers' four-endure ordinal against Cubs starter Irradiatio Straight-laced did the damage. Roy Cullenbine's RBI double was the inning's big blow. Detroit went along to win the World Serial publication in seven games.

World War Cardinal had just ended and many of the big league' best players were still serving in the military. Some dismissed the 1945 World Serial equally something of a joke. Sportswriter Frank Graham of the New York Journal-American called the series "the fat men versus the tall men at the office picnic." The Tigers, nevertheless, had Dormitory of Fame slugger Hank Greenberg, WHO had been discharged from military service aboriginal. He hitting the single two Tigers homers in the series and drove in seven runs.

Hanson was crushed when the Cubs lost, but little did he know that his miserableness was retributory beginning.

"It's impressive to see the Cubs eventually back in the series," helium said. "There's been a lot of heartbreak over these last 71 years."

Like many Michigan fans, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks corpse Hanson's all-time favorite Cubs player. And he loves the current, vibrant, young players such as Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo who could pass wate the Cubs contenders for days to seminal fluid.

Yet that 1945 team up remains close-set to his heart and vivid in his memory. To earn money to offer to games at Wrigley, he raised chickens and sold egg to his neighbors in Francisco Villa Ballpark, a township almost 25 miles west of Chicago.

"I played out my egg money on tickets to Cubs games," Hanson said, his voice warming at the memory. "I'd bring forward the train into Wrigley, information technology was peck safe back then. I was there for fielding practice and batting practice all the time.

"Wrigley was a great place. They had a ramp the players walked from the clubhouse to the domain. They stopped to give me autographs. The guys got to recognise me; they accepted me."

His ducky player was first baseman Phil Cavarretta, who led the National League in hit with a .355 medium, and was named NL MVP.

"Cavarretta was great, but Don Johnson, the secondly baseman, was the guy who talked to me the all but," Hanson said. "Helium'd say, 'Hey, kid, you sure are here a lot!' It's hard to explain how practically that team meant to me."

Sadly, all of the scorecards, game programs and autographs Hanson collected from his glorious summertime are nowhere to be found.

"When I went away to college at Centennial State A&M (now Colorado State), my mom (Gladys) innocently cleaned domiciliate because at present she had an empty nest," Hanson said. "I came home and looked in the basement and said, 'Mom! You threw out all of my stuff!' She felt terrible."

71 years aft he held tightly to his Game 4, World Series scorecard, Hanson wishes He could clutch it again. But then, he doesn't really need to.

"I've been a rock-ribbed Cubs fan since I was about 5 or 6," he said. "I spent that summertime at Wrigley Field of force. I went to the World Series. I'd allege that's a pretty good thing."

Fan at 1945 World Series and 2016 World Series

Source: https://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/29/84-year-old-cubs-fan-1945-world-series/