When Cardinal Robert Prevost was selected as the new Pope and the first to hail from the United States, one thought came to mind: Is he a baseball fan?
The Chicago native is surely a Cubs or White Sox fan, right? Not to mention, he could be the first Cardinal to be a Cubs fan. Blasphemy!
Quickly after the initial news of Prevost’s selection spread globally, ABC News started reporting that Pope Leo XIV is, in fact, a Cubs fan.
“He’s tough, because it is not easy to be a Cubs fan on the South Side of Chicago,” ABC’s Terry Moran said on air.
The Cubs acted quickly, too, posting an image on social media of their famed marquee outside Wrigley Field with the message, “Hey Chicago, He’s a Cubs Fan!”
But not so fast.
A few hours later, in a video interview with Chicago’s WGN9, John Prevost, a brother of Pope Leo, said he is actually a White Sox fan. This makes sense considering he is originally from the South Side of Chicago.
“He was never, ever a Cubs fan, so I don’t know where that came from,” he said. “He was always a Sox fan. Our mother was a Cubs fan and our dad was a Cardinals fan, so I don’t know where that all came from.”
The White Sox had some fun on their scoreboard, replying, “Hey Chicago, he’s a Sox fan!”
The Pope and baseball have not been synonyms outside of occasionally holding papal events at baseball stadiums. Pope Paul VI celebrated Mass at Yankee Stadium in 1965. Pope John Paul II had a ballpark scrapbook during his tenure with the number of masses he held at U.S. stadiums: Yankee Stadium (1979), Shea Stadium (1979), Dodger Stadium (1987), Candlestick Park (1987), and Camden Yards (1995). Pope Benedict XVI held mass at Nationals Park and the new Yankee Stadium in 2008.
On the memorabilia front, Sparky Anderson donated a ball autographed by Pope John Paul II to Cooperstown. A rare ball signed by Pope Francis is currently at auction and expected to fetch a considerable fee. Within hours of the global news, Topps issued a baseball card under its Topps NOW banner to honor Pope Leo.
The selection of an American Pope gets you thinking about the endless possibilities of how one of the world’s most important people may integrate with baseball moving forward. Will he sing “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” or throw out a first pitch in Chicago, or maybe a World Series Game? Will the White Sox, who carry a woeful 10-28 record and sit in last place in the AL Central, make a miraculous turnaround through divine intervention? Will he visit with Italian American Baseball Foundation officials when they are at the Cervelli-IABF Academy in Tuscany (just two hours north of Vatican City)? The possibilities are endless!
We’ll leave the religious and political reform to other pundits, but we’re counting the days for Pope Leo’s first visit to an American ballpark. To that we say, AMEN!
AP Photo
