FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The last time the Chicago Cubs were in the World Series, Harry S. Truman was president and there were only half as many teams in Major League Baseball.
Thousands of fans packed Wrigley Field for Game 7 in 1945, including 105-year-old Opal Deuth of Fort Collins.
“The World Series was a big, big thing,” Deuth said.
Not many people living today can say they were at Chicago’s “Friendly Confines” for the final game in 1945 series. The Cubs were hosting the Detroit Tigers.
“Well I’ll tell you it was really cold,” Deuth said. “People were hunched up to try to keep warm.”
Deuth was 34 years old at the time. Now, 71 years later at 105, she recalls memories preserved in black and white footage. The Cubs were in a make-or-break game with Detroit and Deuth was cheering for the Motor City — and for a very good reason.
“He could run,” Deuth said. “He was fast.”
That fast runner was her husband, Tigers center fielder Chuck Hostetler. Hostetler gave it his all during the series, but injured himself as he rounded third base heading to home plate.
“He was the one who fell down,” Deuth said.
But Hostetler and his team would prevail by beating the Cubs and clinching the World Series title. Deuth, who was 1932’s Miss Wichita, looks back fondly on her husband’s World Series fame.
“That’s part of my life, a happy part of my life,” she said.
It was a time not only for baseball but also romance.
“[Hostetler] was the kind of husband who’d be on the road and call me up and sing me a song,” Deuth said.
Hostetler died in Fort Collins in the 1970s. Today, Deuth admits she doesn’t care much for baseball and hasn’t been watching the 2016 World Series.
“I should not say this, but I’m not very fond of Chicago,” she said with a laugh.
The Second City is, after all, the home of her husband’s former rivals. But when asked who should win the World Series this year, Deuth said the Cubs have waited long enough. She’s hoping for a Chicago victory in 2016.