PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Eighty-two-year-old Phil Nienstedt is heading back to Chicago for Game 3 of the World Series.
Seventy-one years in the making, but finally I was kind of hoping I'd still be alive when they got back in the World Series and here I am," Phil Nienstedt said.
Nienstedt was at Wrigley Field the day this picture was taken.
"This picture was made on the morning of the last game of the 1945 World Series," he said.
His dad was somewhere in line at the time of the photo and was waiting to make history.
"He go to the park at two o'clock in the morning and he stood in line for six hours on a cold Chicago, dark morning and he got the tickets for $7.50," he said.
Phil was 11 and his brother was 14. They both stayed home from school that morning on the slim chance his dad would come back with good news.
"(He) came home and said, 'OK kids, I got the tickets and we're going to the ballgame,'" Phil said.
After waiting 71 years for the Cubs to make the World Series, Phil's going back with his brother who's now 85.
"Whole different era and a different game, different setting, but a lot of it will be the same Wrigley Field; old baseball park," he said.
He had a little help from his family with purchasing the tickets that don't quite range under $10 like 71 years ago.
"My family all pulled their resources and chipped in and I'm so thankful for that," he said. "Very, very nice."
Phil has faith the Cubs will win, but if not, either way he wins.
"Of course I'd love to see them win, but I think my main ambitions has been fulfilled the fact to be there again at the same place, 71 years later, watching the World Series game with my Cubs is quite a thrill," he said.