Cubs Made Los Angeles a Home Before the Dodgers Did

AVALON, Calif. — Lolo Saldaña jumped on the Chicago Cubs’ bandwagon so long ago it may well have been a covered wagon.

When he was a child, a uniform belonging to the Hall of Fame outfielder Hack Wilson was passed down to him. When he was a teenager, Charlie Grimm, who managed the Cubs to their last World Series, in 1945, was impressed enough with Saldaña’s golf swing that he invited him to take a few grounders. And after he got out of the military and opened a barbershop, Saldaña used to cut the hair of the Cubs owner William Wrigley III, whom he knew as Billy.

But Saldaña does not live in the shadow of Wrigley Field — far from it.

Saldaña made his connection to the Cubs in a bygone era, when from 1921 through 1951 the team regularly made its spring training home at this Santa Catalina Island enclave, about 30 miles off the coast of Los Angeles.

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The Cubs are his team and this, he believes, is their year.

He believes this because the beloved Cub Ernie Banks, who died last year, told him so when he came in for a haircut on his birthday before the 2012 season.

“He sat in that chair and we shot the breeze,” Saldaña said. “He said: ‘Lolo, we’re coming. We’ve got the money. We’ve got the right people running things.’ He said, ‘We’ll be there in five years.’ Well, this is the fifth year.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/sports/baseball/cubs-los-angeles-catalina-island-dodgers.html?ref=todayspaper