The White Sox Held The World's First "Pope Night" At The Ballpark Last Night, Complete with Custom Pope Leo Mitre Hat Giveaways, A 7th Inning Stretch "Peace Be With You", And More
We used to have a guy around here who blogged anything that happened within a ten-mile radius of 35th and Shields.
If somebody dropped hot dog at Guaranteed Rate G-Spot Field, there'd be 800 words sitting in blog submissions the next morning.
Sadly, he has passed away. (Unconfirmed. But confirmed.) But out of respect for the deceased, I'm picking up the beat.
RIP WSD.
Anyway.
Last night the White Sox threw an official Pope Leo Night and it was one of the greatest promotions in the history of professional sports.
Chicago Sun Times - Cynthia Castañeda has been Catholic as long as she’s been a White Sox fan — for her entire life.
Despite clear weather after severe storms that could only be described as an act of God, she and her husband Michael made the trip from Indiana to make the game and, more importantly, to celebrate Pope Leo XIV.
They were among the tens of thousands lining up outside Rate Field who collected a complimentary Sox-themed pope hat.
The couple, who both grew up on the South Side, are hoping the Sox-loving pope’s presence could bring about a new championship era.
“It makes for a deeper connection knowing he’s a Sox fan,” she said. “I hope he’s back for another World Series win.”
The giveaway was initially intended for just 2,500 fans with special tickets. But the giveaway soon expanded to the entire stadium of nearly 41,000.
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It was also their ninth sellout of the year. The pope hat giveaway was originally supposed to be a couple thousand special-ticket hats, then demand went so insane they ordered over 40,000 miters and gave one to every human in the building.
Sister Mary Jo, the nun who threw viral heat in 2018, took the mound again. Nancy Faust on the organ. Donn Pall, an actual former Sox pitcher whose actual nickname was "The Pope," announced Play Ball.
As for making the pope-themed game an annual tradition?
“We’ll see,” says Brooks Boyer, White Sox executive vice president. “We wanna be super respectful to the pope, to the Vatican. Hopefully this represents a tie to his childhood team, doing it the exact right way.”
Boyer said the giveaway even caught the attention of the Pope, whose brother confirmed to the team’s front office that His Holiness had heard about the event.
Vendors outside the stadium sold pope pins, hats and shirts bearing the classic Sox batter logo adorning the papal crown.
The hats weren’t the game’s only religious fare.
Famed former White Sox organist Nancy Faust returned to her seat to perform the National Anthem after the first pitch was thrown out by Sister Mary Jo Sobieck of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield.
And the seventh inning stretch was replaced by a full "peace be with you" handshake conducted by my guy Pat McGann, Chicago comedian, criminally underrated, a man I've been watching since he hosted Zanies five nights a week and who then went and toured the country with Sebastian Maniscalco.
From Zanies host to leading 40,000 people in liturgy at a ballpark.
Incredible arc.
Preceding the seventh inning stretch, the team held a fifth inning “Peace be with you,” led by Evergreen Park and Marist High School alum Father Tom Hurley and comedian Pat McGann.
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I am SO all-in on replacing "take me out to the ballgame" with a shake the hand of the person sitting next to and/or around you and say hi it's not even funny. No offense, but that song is beaten to death, it's fun maybe once or twice- but then it just becomes forced. If you insist on keeping it because of "tradition", then throw this on at the end of it.
Let's bring camaraderie back.
(Sidebar- the Sox lost 5-4 in 10 innings. Blew it on a night dedicated to God's literal representative on Earth. The most White Sox thing imaginable, and honestly, it made the night better. Except for wasting another light's out performance from young phenom Sean Burke (Worcester, MA native, and St. John's High grad, nbd.)
And perhaps the best part of all of this is that the Pope KNOWS.
His brother confirmed to the front office that Leo heard about the whole event over in Rome.
There's no version of this where he wasn't smiling his ass off.
Yes, well aware the Church spent a couple decades earning every bit of the reputation it got, I'm not relitigating that.
But this Chicago guy took the job and somehow made being Catholic feel fun again, to the point where a first-place baseball team just dressed 40,000 people as bishops on a Tuesday night.
That kind of shit doesn't happen two years ago.
A White Sox fan from Dolton did that.
First place in the AL Central with the Vatican on the group chat. What a time to be a Chicago White Sox fan.
Props to the organization for going all out, and doing right by their fans-
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For the second time in 5 days no less!
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