“I will never forget the feeling of first seeing Wrigley Field. I’ll never forget walking into the Cubs clubhouse for the first time. When I opened the door, the first guy I met was Stan Hack, the Cubs’ third baseman.

I recognized him, and I’ll never forget what he said. ‘Andy Pafko, welcome to the big leagues, welcome to Chicago.’ That was the greatest moment of my life.

“I played outfield, primarily in center, but I also played right and left. When Stan Hack retired, they moved me to third base. To me, it was just a thrill to be in the big leagues. I think that the greatest fans are in Chicago. They have to be. They’ve been so loyal all these years.

“The year the Cubs were in the World Series, 1945, was a great year for me and for the team. We were battling the Cardinals for the championship, and I drove in the winning run with a fly ball to right field. That put us into the World Series.

“I didn’t move to Chicago at first. I had always lived back home in Wisconsin. After I played for the Cubs for a couple of years, I met a girl in Chicago through a mutual friend, and we got married. Then, of course, I made my home in Chicago. We first lived on the Northwest Side, then we moved to the Kelvyn Park neighborhood, where we lived for 20 years before moving to Mount Prospect.

“When I was living in Chicago, I used to drive to the baseball games at Wrigley Field. I drove my car the same route every day for a long, long time. If I had a good game, I took the same route. If I had a bad game, I would change my route to change my luck. I was kind of superstitious.

I don’t know if it helped a lot, but I think that most ballplayers have their own pet superstitions.

“People say to me, ‘Andy. Don’t you wish you were playing today with all the big salaries?’ I say, ‘No.’ Personally, I have no regrets. I played in the greatest era of all, in the ’40s and ’50s against Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Stan Musial, and Jackie Robinson. You can’t replace those guys.”

— Andy Pafko, former Chicago Cubs outfielder

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