Take Pope Leo Out to the Ball Game

The Catholic Church has just gone through the ritual of burying one pope and electing a new pontiff. Sometimes there has been mystery and some drama to it. On other occasions, we have witnessed immediate jubilation and some real disappointment. In the case of Cardinal Robert Prevost there has been more attention than usual, especially since the new pope was born in Chicago nearly seventy years ago.

While I am honored and excited by his election and installation as Pope Leo XIV, what delights me most is the fact that he is the first pope to be a baseball fan and a massive one as some wag declared. This says more about his character than reams of newsprint concerning his religious life and education.

There has always been something especially endearing about devout baseball fans who live and die with their teams, no matter how well or poorly they play. To be a Mets, Giants, A’s or Devil Rays fan requires a great deal of intestinal fortitude, even to follow them in their local newspapers.

This requires an extraordinary amount of patience, fortitude and humility just to admit one’s baseball allegiance to either of Chicago’s two teams. The Cubs became legendary because it took them over a century (1906-2016) to win another world series. For this the Cubs will always have a special place in baseball history. As a charter member of the Junior Circuit in 1901, better known as the American League, the White Sox would always be the new guys in town.

When the news first broke that the pope was a Cubs fan, the imagination of thousands of people, many of them Catholics saw the Divine hand at work. The Cubs have always received the greater amount of newspaper space. The White Sox were akin to one of Cinderella’s sisters.

When Pope Leo’s brother John said the pope had been and always would be a devoted fan of the other team in Chicago, the White Sox, I believe many were disappointed. The difference is as palpable as the New York Yankees and the other team in town, the often lowly Mets.

I remember being at the annual convention in Chicago many years ago of the Society for American Baseball Research, better known as SABR. The keynote speaker was a local journalist who compared the relative suffering of both the city’s teams. He said that he believed that Cubbie fans suffered right after birth but Sox fans suffered in utero as well. 

Being a Sox fan, according to the New York Times, requires devotion, loyalty, faith and above all forgiveness. It looks as if Pope Francis also could have been a White Sox fan. And though no one mentioned it, the Sox will always bear the burden of being the only baseball team in history to try to throw a world series to the gamblers.

For a man of God, and as the new leader of the universal Church, being a White Sox fan is almost a religious act. When a fan wears a Chi-Sox jersey or sports a White Sox cap, it is akin to wearing sack cloth and ashes. I have no doubt Pope Leo would agree with me. 

Even though the city has had six World Series Championships, split evenly between their two teams, the Cubs have always had the better and more recognizable brand. However, both teams are known more for their losing habits than for the ability to win often. 

While the Cubs’ first World Series Championship in a century got all the headlines in 2016, I do not remember any fuss over the White Sox’s Championship in 2005, which ended an 88-year drought. Many White Sox fans said about the same thing. They really need some divine help on and off the field. Having someone close to God’s ear might just be what the doctor prescribed.

Perhaps numbering the pope in their fandom might change the fact the Pale Hose have played second fiddle to their North side rivals for many years. John Prevost was born in 1955, in Dalton, on the South Side of Chicago. His baseball destiny was chosen because Comiskey Park, the original home of the Sox, had been there and accordingly, everyone was a Sox fan. 

The Sox now play in Rate Field, a venue David Waldstein of the NYT described, as a less charming stadium in a grittier part of town…afar from chic. The Cubs fans live on the North side where their Wrigley Field stands. In sheer contrast, Wrigley Field has been called a boutique ballpark, known for its ivy-covered outfield walls, its history of day games, and celebrities, who perform their off-key renditions of Baseball’s National Anthem Take Me Out to the Ball Game. 

Many years ago, the late comedian George Carlin, known more for his bawdy jokes, made an apt comparison of the differences between professional football and baseball. In football the object is for the quarterback, otherwise known as the field general, to hit his receivers with deadly accuracy….With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches into enemy territory…In baseball, the object is to go home and be safe.

If I ever had the opportunity to interview Pope Leo XIV or even ask him a single question, I know exactly what I would say. 

Your Holiness, since you are a devout White Sox fan, I would like to know what you think about the Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred’s recent reinstatement of Pete Rose and 16 others, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the Sox’ greatest players. 

While Rose is best known to fans all around the country for his record 4256 base hits, most people probably have not realized that the vast majority of the other forgiven players were members of the White Sox or as history has called them, the infamous Black Sox of the 1919 World Series who tried to fix the series against the Cincinnati Reds. At the time of his banishment, Shoeless Joe Jackson had a lifetime batting average of .356, which then ranked as the third highest in baseball history. A century later, it is still #4 on the historical list. Next to Rose, Jackson had much more to lose than anyone else on the list.**

This reminds me of the film, Field of Dreams, which I have cited in a prior essay, The Golden At-Bat. Dreams was a cinematic rendition of W. P. Kinsella’s novel, Shoeless Joe. Both revolve around religion and the search for truth as evidenced in its symbolic relationship with baseball. The protagonist tries to redeem the memory of one of the game’s greatest hitters. They want Baseball to posthumously forgive Jackson for his crimes against the integrity of the game he played better than most people who ever lived. Someone called the game hierophantic, a strange manifestation of the sacred in everyday life. ***

Since the powers that be tell us that Pope Leo should follow in the sandal prints of his predecessor Pope Francis, my guess is that he would apply temperance, forgiveness and mercy on Joe Jackson’s life and his soul. It is principles such as these that identify the religious ideals that have flowed through the veins of baseball since its spirit captured the public imagination roughly 100 years ago. 

For many years, I have believed that loving the game of baseball requires near religious fidelity to a special team, and the ability to accept frequent failure and disappointment. Many baseball players have opined that in baseball a hitter can fail 70% of the time and yet be considered a star. Our popular culture has always recognized this. 

Many people have written about the similarities of baseball and religious faith. A fallen-away Catholic, novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald famously called baseball the faith of 50 million people. And who can forget the Baseball Annie, Susan Sarandon’s admission, in the film Bull Durham, I believe in the Church of Baseball? Law Professor, John Sexton probably has written the classic work on this: Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game. 

I have always noticed that a few teams bear mascots names, which have a religious connotation. I spent 50 years in St. Louis watching the Cardinals, who were actually named after the color of their game hose, a bright shade of cardinal as one early female fan noted. But the association with a Catholic Cardinal is ever present. The most recent was a New York Times article that pointed out while there was some confusion about Pope Leo’s team allegiance, his father had been a Cardinals fan while his son was a Cardinal. 

The San Diego Padres and the Angels of Los Angeles round out the baseball religious nomenclature. I remember a book written by a fellow SABR member, Philip Lowery’s 2006 book, The Green Cathedrals. Many people in my day went to a baseball game at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field after the nine o’clock Sunday Mass. It was an almost religious act. We would no more cheat on our girlfriends than we would root for another team, especially the despised New York Yankees, Baseball equivalent of Philistines.

As an aside, I hope that Pope Leo will try to include Chicago during his travels this summer. And of course, he could catch a game or two at Rate Field on the South side. Just imagine what a festival might erupt. The owners will probably offer his entourage a personal box but I think the pontiff would prefer to sit with the fans below, his people. That is always the best way to enjoy a game.****

It would also be great box office since the pope’s XIV team jersey has already sold more than that of any of their current players. Maybe they can coerce him to sing the Norworth and Von Tilzer anthem like many other celebrities have performed. He could also sign a few autographs as well. What a treat this would be for Catholics and all of America. *****

*Though the series has been usually a seven game affair, in 1919 it was the best of nine games. The Reds won it in eight games.

**While he should have been an early entry to the Hall of Fame, it did not exist until 1937.

***Ironically, I would wager that Pope Leo is very familiar with this book.

****President Trump has already invited Pope Leo to the White House, so maybe he can take a side trip to Chicago.

***** Pope Leo XIV has already signed a baseball, though he had been preceded by Popes John Paul II and Francis, whose autographed baseballs keep appreciating in value.