He and his wife, Louise, had eight children; Frank was the youngest. When Frank was 5, his father died, and the older siblings essentially became parents to the younger ones, especially Frank, who adored the Cubs.

Box seats, back then, cost all of $2. The bleachers were even less.

“We used to go to the games all the time,” Frank said.

Well, not all the time.

In 1944, with World War II raging on two fronts, the Cubs finished in fourth place, four games under .500. In 1945, they won 98 games and captured the National League pennant. (There were no playoffs back then, just the World Series.) The Cubs were led by Hank Wyse, a right-handed pitcher from Lunsford, Ark., and Andy Pafko, an outfielder from Boyceville, Wis., who had hit a dozen home runs and batted .298.

Frank and his older brothers followed the team diligently that season. Frank collected yearbooks and newspaper clippings about the team. (Ned Jr. still has those.) When the Cubs made it to the 1945 World Series, the older Colletti brothers decided they would go to Game 5 at Wrigley.

“It was my brother Joe, Oscar and Ned,” Frank recalled. “They kept telling me I couldn’t go, I was too young, that it was going to be cold outside and we would have to sleep on the sidewalk.

“But I tagged along up Oakley. I thought at the last minute they would say they were kidding and take me along. But they didn’t. I stood there on the street crying as I watched them go.”

Frank listened to Game 5 on the radio the next day. The Tigers won, 8-4, and the Cubs went on to lose the Series in seven games. The next year, the Cubs finished third in the eight-team N.L. In 1947 they finished sixth, then last, last again, seventh and last.