(OSV News) — The Chicago White Sox have headed into the post-season with a bit of inspiration from one of their best-known fans — Pope Leo XIV.
In a Sept. 29 X post, the team shared images of a Sept. 9 letter from the Chicago-born pope, who expressed his hope that the White Sox would promote peace and goodwill among people.
The letter was addressed to White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who had written to Pope Leo following the team’s pope-themed Aug. 11 game against the Cincinnati Reds at Chicago’s Rate Field.
The evening saw more than 38,000 “pope hats” — stylized black-and-gold miters — distributed to fans, with Dominican Sister Mary Jo Sobieck of Springfield, Ill., throwing out the first pitch and fans giving each other the “sign of peace” during the fifth inning.
Pope Leo was reported to have watched the game and lamented the team’s loss to the Reds, according to Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, who had an Aug. 12 audience with the pope.
In his Sept. 9 message, Pope Leo said he was “pleased” to receive Reinsdorf’s “kind letter” and “most grateful for this thoughtful gesture.”
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The pope quoted from “Life in Abundance,” his Feb. 6 letter on the value of sport, saying that “sport can truly become a school of life, where all can learn that abundance does not come from victory at any cost, but from sharing, respecting others and from the joy of walking together.”
In his letter to Reinsdorf, Pope Leo added, “In this spirit, it is my hope that the White Sox will continue to foster bonds of friendship and solidarity among people, and thus bear hopeful witness to the possibility of living and working together in peace.”
The pope concluded his letter to Reinsdorf by saying, “I willingly invoke the Almighty’s abundant blessings upon you and your loved ones.”
The White Sox posted the letter the same day the team was in Houston to play the Astros in Game 1 of the American League’s wild card series.
The post-season spot was hard-won after the team, having clinched the American League Central Division in 2021, began what Catholic sports journalist and OSV News contributor John Knebels described as a “stunning descent.”
“They slipped to 81-81 in 2022, then fell to 61-101 in 2023,” Knebels told OSV News. “Things somehow became considerably worse in 2024, when Chicago finished an almost unfathomable 41-121.”
Knebels said those 121 losses were a record that surpassed “the 120 losses of the expansion New York Mets in 1962.”
He said a combination of White Sox manager Will Venable, “shrewd off-season additions,” player development and roster improvement have “produced one of baseball’s most remarkable turnarounds.”
Some Sox fans may be hoping the papal blessing evokes the team’s victory over the Astros in Game 1 of the 2005 World Series.
Video footage of then-Father Robert Prevost at the match went viral soon after Pope Leo’s election. The Sox swept the 2005 series 4-0, ending a decades-long drought known as the “Curse of the Black Sox,” a reference to a 1919 scandal over alleged match-fixing by several players who were later acquitted.
Reflecting on this season’s wild card series, Knebels said the White Sox had, in a sense, already won.
“For an organization that appeared historically lost only two years earlier, simply becoming respectable would have represented significant progress,” he said. “Instead, the Chicago White Sox became a playoff team.”
The Sox certainly played like one in the Sept. 29 wild card game, besting the Astros 6-3.
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
