Chicago White Sox host pope hat promotion night at the ballpark

 

Holy sellout! White Sox fans flock to ‘Pope Hat’ night honoring Illinois native Pope Leo XIV

The White Sox's long-awaited "Pope Hat" promotion took place on a humid Chicago night on Tuesday. Melissa Tamez / Associated Press

By Jon Greenberg

Aug. 12, 2026

CHICAGO — It’s not every day you see baseball fans in religious vestments drinking beer and eating hot dogs, but at Rate Field on Tuesday, the holy and the profane met to celebrate the Chicago White Sox’s No. 1 fan at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV.

The Sox’s long-awaited “Pope Hat” promotion took place on a hot, humid night in Chicago, as the White Sox faced the Cincinnati Reds and the team gave away almost 40,000 miter hats emblazoned with its logo and lappets on the back.

The White Sox sold out the ballpark (announced attendance: 38,113), and the hats were going for around $70 on eBay during the game, which was more than the going rate for tickets on the secondary market ahead of first pitch.

Ever since Robert Prevost, a diehard White Sox fan from south suburban Dolton, Ill., was elected to serve as the leader of the Catholic Church last year, the team hasn’t been shy about hyping the connection. Chicago put up a mural in the ballpark, held a Mass there and has sent more emissaries bearing gifts to the Vatican than some small countries.

“Any time we get to celebrate the Pope and his fandom of the White Sox is something we’ll lean into,” Chicago manager Will Venable said.

The hat giveaway was the brainchild of White Sox marketing executive Mike Downey. It quickly grew in size and scope after its initial announcement in early April.

“He’s the one who really championed this hat concept,” White Sox CMO Brooks Boyer said of Downey. “It started as a 2,500 special ticket promo giveaway. And then as they went on sale, they went right away, and he came in and said, ‘I think I can get the vendor to do 500 more.’ So, we were going to go to 3,000. Once those went, he came in and said, ‘We’ve got to go to 40,000.’ The only anxiety was, can we get 40,000 here by the time of this day? So as soon as we figured out, we could, it’s been a lot of fun to be part of.”

How big was this moment? Well, Boyer had to address reporters in front of a bank of microphones in the dugout after Venable.

The installation of the first American Pope last spring hasn’t gotten old in Chicago, and on Tuesday, the mood around the ballpark was joyful. There were more than enough hats to go around, and many fans rocked them on a muggy night. Some dressed up in costumes and even more wore bootleg “Chicago Pope” T-shirts. The team put up “Leo Knows” signs about White Sox players, a twist on the famous “Bo Knows” Nike campaign.

Pope Leo was everywhere at the White Sox game. Jon Greenberg / The Athletic

“Obviously we want to be respectful of the position and there was a lot of chatter about a pope bobblehead and things like that, and we decided not to pursue something along those lines,” Boyer said. “But the fact that the Pope is an identified White Sox fan, we’re certainly proud of it. We put the mural up where he was sitting in the World Series. It is certainly a point of pride for the Chicago White Sox and White Sox fans, and we’re not going to run from it.”

Because so many people bring him gifts, Pope Leo has more Chicago sports memorabilia than a diehard Grabowski with a man cave. He’s certainly the first Pope to be photographed wearing the same black Sox hat that rappers made famous in the 1990s. Did he know this promotion was going on? How could he not?

“There have certainly been people that have talked to him that claim that he’s following everything that’s going on with the White Sox,” Boyer said. “Pope Leo, if you’re watching, I hope he knows about it. Obviously, we want this to be something that’s very respectful to him and connect him with some of his roots.”

Former White Sox pitcher Donn “The Pope” Pall was a special guest Tuesday night, and Sister Mary Jo Sobieck, a member of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield who went viral for her first pitch in 2018, made a return appearance. Father Tom Hurley and Pat McGann, comedian and White Sox fan, led a blessing after the fifth inning. The team raised money for the Midwest Augustinians, which was Prevost’s order in Chicago.

So what would Pope Leo think about all of this?

“I think he’d enjoy it,” Sobieck said. “I think he would say it’s bringing a lot of people out. He’s all about community and having people share things. You get people together, and you don’t know where it leads. It leads to friendship, depth of conversation and all of that. I think he’d be game.”

If he has been following along from Vatican City, Pope Leo has to be enjoying this White Sox season. Chicago has been in first place (or within a game) in the American League Central since early June, a far cry from the last three seasons, when the Sox were one of the worst teams in baseball. In 2024, of course, they set a modern-day baseball record with 121 losses. Now, the Sox (61-57) could make the playoffs and even get a bye out of the wild-card round.

Chicago’s mascot, Southpaw, also took part in the celebration of Pope Leo on Tuesday night. Melissa Tamez / Associated Press

Has Pope Leo pulled some favors?

“I’ve been asked that question quite a bit: Is there any sort of divine intervention going on with this team this year?And I just said ‘we accept,'” Boyer said.

While the Sox took an early four-run lead, any blessings from above were washed away by a bullpen meltdown in the eighth inning. The White Sox lost to the Reds, 5-4, in 10 innings. Even a Pope’s goodwill can only go so far. In this case, perhaps, the Sox could’ve used the spirit and the right arm of the other Pope, Pall, a reliever who had a 3.45 ERA in six years with Chicago.

Jon Greenberg is a columnist for The Athletic based in Chicago. He was also the founding editor of The Athletic. Before that, he was a columnist for ESPN and the executive editor of Team Marketing Report.

City of Chicago to host big celebration at White Sox Field in honor of the election of Pope Leo XIV

 

Fans take pictures of the mural of Pope Leo XIV during a rain delay in the game between the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox at Rate Field on May 20, 2025  (2025 Getty Images)

Pope

• Pope Leo XIV
• United States

Chicago set to celebrate election of Pope Leo XIV

The Archdiocese of Chicago, hometown of Pope Leo XIV, is hosting an event in the city's Rate Field, residence of its beloved White Sox baseball team, to celebrate the election to the papacy of a native son.

By Vatican News

The US city of Chicago, Pope Leo XIV's hometown, is preparing to celebrate his election with a day of prayer and music.

The meeting, which will take place in Chicago's Rate Field, is described by the Archdiocese of Chicago - hosting the event - as one of faith, unity, and community spirit. 

In a post on X the Archdiocese wrote: Join us at Rate Field - Home of the @WhiteSox for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the election of Pope Leo XIV on June 14. Get your tickets now at https://ticketmaster.com/event/040062AB8F6B11DB

Rate Field is the city's baseball stadium, home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago White Sox.

Gates will open at 12:30 on Saturday, June 14, with the programme beginning at 2:30 pm, ending with Holy Mass, presided over by Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, at 4:00 pm local time. 

Cardinal Blase Cupich released a short video message when the event was first announced, inviting all to participate.

Although Pope Leo XIV will not be present in Chicago for the event, he has announced that he will be participating remotely from Rome, with a video message to be played at the gathering.

The response from the faithful following the announcement of the event has been extraordinary. Within the first 15 minutes of ticket availability, over 9,000 tickets were requested. By the end of the first day, that number had reached 20,000.

Tickets are still available at the price of five USD ($5), and all are invited to join. For more information and to register for the event, please visit archchicago.org/PopeLeoXIV

So, Pope Leo XIV is a Chicago White Sox fan; sending a video message to fans

 

Special Pope Leo video message to feature at Chicago celebration

written by Simone Orendain 

CHICAGO (OSV News)—The Archdiocese of Chicago has scheduled a Mass and a special program June 14 to celebrate the election and inauguration of Pope Leo XIV, and participants will get a video message from the native son of the Windy City.

“Pope Leo XIV will greet us in Chicago and offer a special video message to the young people of the world, which will be broadcast first from our event,” the Chicago Archdiocese said on its website. 

In a previous announcement, the archdiocese said the June 14 events including the Mass, preceded by music, a film, speakers and prayer, will all take place at Rate Field, the ballpark of the Chicago White Sox. The stadium has capacity for some 40,000 participants.

In that announcement the archdiocese said, “Pope Leo XIV’s message of peace, unity and the key to a meaningful life have touched hearts across the globe. This celebration is an extraordinary opportunity for people from the city and beyond to come together in shared pride for one of our own.”

The archdiocese posted a short YouTube video of Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich inviting the public to the celebration, recorded during a short visit home after the conclave in Rome and before returning there for the pontiff’s May 18 inauguration Mass.

The White Sox said the pontiff has a seat ready for him any time he wants to watch a game. The team unveiled a stadium mural on May 19 depicting Pope Leo (near Section 140 where he watched the Sox sweep the Houston Astros in 2005), and sent the pontiff his own team hat and jersey upon his election May 8.

“He has an open invite to throw out a first pitch,” Brooks Boyer, the White Sox executive vice president, chief revenue and marketing officer, told MLB.com. “Heck, maybe we’ll let him get an at-bat.”

Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago and grew up in Dolton, Illinois, a south suburb just outside the city limits, has followed the Southside team since childhood, according to his brother Louis Prevost.

“He was big into baseball,” Prevost told OSV News. “He was a big Sox fan.”

The 69-year old pope also did root for the Chicago Cubs, the Sox’s crosstown rivals, but that was while he was away on mission in the deeply impoverished mountains of Peru, according to his superior at that time, retired Bishop Daniel Turley of the Chulucanas Diocese in northern Peru. A fellow Augustinian and Southsider, Bishop Turley said being far removed from home, living in South America, the missionaries supported all Chicago teams, including the Cubs.

Chris Foss holds up a sign as David Hughes Jr. dressed like a pope gestures on the day of a match between the Chicago White Sox and the Miami Marlins, at the Rate Field baseball stadium, in Chicago, May 9, 2025. (OSV News photo/Carlos Osorio, Reuters)

Then-Father Robert J. Prevost worked in the missions for about a dozen years shortly after completing his doctorate in canon law in Rome at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also called the Angelicum. In between mission stints, he spent a year as vocations director of the former major seminary run by the Midwest Augustinians province in a Chicago south suburb. Bishop Turley said with extensive travel back and forth, Father Prevost became a dual citizen holding both American and Peruvian citizenship. 

He then became prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, visiting his religious order’s communities worldwide, including those in far-flung areas where Christians are a minority.

Father Prevost held the post for 12 years then served as formator at the seminarians’ theologate in Chicago for a couple of years. Then the late Pope Francis made him apostolic administrator (in 2014) and later bishop (in 2015) of the Diocese of Chiclayo, a few hundred miles north of Trujillo, Peru’s third largest city, where a decade earlier he taught at the seminary of San Carlos and San Marcelo.

Fans show off Pope Leo XIV jerseys before the Chicago White Sox game against the Miami Marlins at Rate Field in Chicago May 11, 2025. (OSV News photo/Matt Marton-Imagn Images, via Reuters)

On Jan. 30, 2023, Pope Francis appointed then-Bishop Prevost prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, naming him an archbishop. On Sept. 30 of that year, the pope named him a cardinal.

Pope Leo’s episcopal motto, which he first took as a bishop, is “In Illo uno unum,” Latin for “In the One (Christ), we are one.” It is a guiding phrase from one of St. Augustine’s sermons and is seen as a signal his papacy will be heavily focused on unity.

Simone Orendain writes for OSV News from Chicago.