Text and Illustration by the Editors of PillartoPost.org
Leave it to Chicagoans to discover that the first American pope is a White Sox fan—and immediately turn the revelation into a ballpark promotion.
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost and raised in suburban Dolton, Illinois, has never been coy about his allegiance. He attended Game One of the 2005 World Series and has been photographed at the Vatican wearing a Sox cap. Once the baseball world confirmed that His Holiness preferred the South Side to the Cubs,
Chicago’s marketing minds went to work. The result was “Pope Hat Night” at Rate Field on August 11: nearly 40,000 black-and-white mitres bearing the White Sox logo. What began as a special-ticket giveaway for 2,500 customers sold so quickly that organizers added 500 hats.
Those disappeared, too. The team finally surrendered to popular demand and ordered enough for practically everybody in the building. Announced attendance reached 38,113, producing the splendid sight of an entire major-league crowd dressed like an unusually rowdy College of Cardinals. The national media could not resist. MLB.com proclaimed,
“O holy night!” ESPN reported on fans lining up early, while Reuters distributed the spectacle internationally. The Associated Press soon placed the hats among baseball’s most imaginative modern promotions.
The Athletic captured the essential Chicago incongruity: people in religious headgear drinking beer and eating hot dogs while celebrating the Vatican’s most prominent Sox supporter.
The Sox handled the joke with a degree of restraint. Officials reportedly considered—and rejected—a papal bobblehead. Instead, they added “Leo Knows” signs, borrowing from the old “Bo Knows” campaign. Players who hit home runs wore the mitres in the dugout.
Special guest for O Holy Night at White Sox Park was Dominican Sister Mary Jo Sobieck, who tossed out the first pitch. Father Tom Hurley and Pat McGann, comedian and White Sox fan, led a blessing after the fifth inning. The team also raised money for the Midwest Augustinians, which was Prevost’s order in Chicago, which gave the evening a legitimate connection to the man being honored.
The commemorative hats were reportedly selling online for about $70 before the game had ended. That was more than some tickets had cost.
Only one element refused to cooperate: the baseball gods.
The White Sox built a 4–0 lead, hit three home runs and appeared headed for a storybook victory. Then the bullpen surrendered the advantage, and Cincinnati won 5–4 in ten innings. So much for divine intervention and proving the baseball Gods still rule the game.
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| Fans filled every seat for O Holy Night promotion |
Still, Chicago had its fun, the ballpark sold out and the White Sox received the sort of cheerful national publicity that no conventional bobblehead could have delivered. The evening proved that baseball promotions work best when they spring from something genuinely local—a hometown pope, a long-suffering team and thousands of fans delighted to look ridiculous together. The Cubs may have the larger congregation. But the White Sox have the Augustinian pontiff.
SOURCES: * MLB.com * The Athletic * Reuters * Associated Press
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