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.