.
If anyone watched that classic WS "Game 7" last night...
I had to post a
coda to my Catalina Cubs post yesterday:
The information in the post is from two articles, one from
the
Long Beach Press-Telegram and the other is from the
Orange County Register.
Jay Berman/OC Register
This man is Lolo Saldaña. He was born on Catalina in 1929, 87 years ago.
He has many memories of the Cubs spring training seasons on Catalina. He played baseball (and golf) in high school
and the boys would often attend afternoon training sessions with the Cubs. Cubs uniforms and equipment were often
passed down to Avalon high school players when they had acquired some wear.
New York Times
Above is a 1947 photo of Lolo Saldaña (right) wearing a 1930 uniform worn by Cubs Hall-of-Famer Hack Wilson
when he had one of the best seasons anyone ever had. Lolo said, “And it just happened to be my size.”
The Cubs would leave Avalon shortly after the March St. Patrick’s Day events and play several spring games at
Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, home of their minor-league affiliate Angels, then make their way to Chicago
for the opening of the season.
Lolo went to college in Long Beach and Cal Poly where he was an excellent golfer and, for one thing or another, he might have turned pro. He had a stint in the Army in the early 50's.
He returned to Catalina and opened a barbershop in 1955 where he still works today. The walls, shelves and tables of Saldaña's shop are covered with baseball (and golf) related sports memorabilia, including photos, newspaper clippings, pennants, bats, hats and helmets. Baseball uniforms – many of them related to Avalon – are in a partitioned back room. It's like a West Coast annex of baseball's Hall of Fame, except you can't get a haircut at the Hall of Fame. More than six decades later, Lolo Saldaña remains a source of Cubs knowledge – and optimism.
He was at his chair, giving a customer a haircut, in mid-December when a neighbor – everyone is pretty much a neighbor in a city of 4,000 – stood in the door and commented on the Cubs' acquisition of pitcher Jon Lester.
“Maybe next year,” Saldaña told him. “This could be the year.”
It was!
MLB/CutFour
On the right, my time traveling Cub [see yesterday's post], first baseman Anthony Rizzo, practicing his 2016 World Series victory leap on Catalina!
"So...we cool now?"