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Next year is here! Screams like old times
- Updated: October 23, 2016
Dan Pellettieri was 9 years old in October 1945, when his older brother, John, took him to the World Series at Wrigley Field.
John was 27 and had returned that summer from serving in the Army during World War II. He came home to Chicago a hero after fighting with the 712th tank battalion that landed on Utah Beach in Normandy in the weeks following D-Day.
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As Dan, now 80, watched Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo squeeze the final out of the National League Championship Series in a 5-0 win over the Dodgers on Saturday night in the same ballpark seven decades later, he thought of his late brother as tears streamed down his face.
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Dan brought with him to the ballpark a photograph of himself standing next to his brother, holding his tickets to the 1945 Series, the last one the Cubs had played in before clinching the NL pennant on Saturday.
“He reached into his pocket, unfolded the picture, and held it up to the sky,” said John Jr., who took his uncle to Game 6 in the hopes that the family would see something he’s waited 71 years to witness.
The Pellettieri brothers were devoted Cubs fans, as was their father and his father before them. After being awarded two Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star among other service medals, John was thrilled to take his younger brother and father to see his beloved ballclub take on the Tigers for the championship.
“My brother was quite proud to be able to do this,” Dan said. “It was an important thing.”
John died on Aug. 6, 1980, 36 years to the day he was wounded in combat while in Mayenne, France. The Cubs lost both ends of a doubleheader to the Pirates …
