{"id":124876,"date":"2025-11-25T07:44:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876"},"modified":"2025-11-25T07:44:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:44:44","slug":"pope-leo-would-love-to-throw-a-white-sox-season-opening-pitch-teams-co-owner-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\"Pope
People take photos with a cardboard cutout of Pope Leo XIV ahead of a public celebration hosted by the Chicago White Sox and the Archdiocese of Chicago upon the election of the new pope, featuring a Mass at Rate Field in Chicago June 14, 2025. Credit: (OSV News photCarlos Osorio, via Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n

CHICAGO (OSV News) \u2014 A stakeholder \u2014 and next owner \u2014 of the Chicago White Sox baseball team said Pope Leo XIV told him that he\u2019d \u201clove to\u201d throw a season opening first pitch in the future \u2014 \u201cschedule permitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Leo\u2019s favorite sports team is the White Sox, and much has been made of his being a huge fan of the Chicago South Siders. He grew up as a diehard Sox fan in Chicago\u2019s south suburb of Dolton.<\/p>\n

Justin Ishbia, a Chicago billionaire, owner of a private equity firm and a co-owner of the team, told several major news outlets he met the pope outside St. Peter\u2019s Basilica at his general audience Nov. 19 and shared with him his vision for the future of the White Sox.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the conversation I extended an invitation for him to visit Chicago and throw out the first pitch on opening day should this ballpark come to fruition,\u201d Ishbia told a Chicago Tribune sports columnist. \u201cAs part of that, I also presented to him a 2005 World Series championship team jersey, signed by the team, as a symbol of teamwork and perseverance. I said, \u2018I\u2019m hopeful you\u2019d bless our stadium, and our stadium will be a place that creates joy and happiness and many championships for decades to come.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The now-famous video footage of then-Father Robert Prevost\u2019s game 1 appearance at the 2005 World Series between the White Sox and the Houston Astros cemented Pope Leo\u2019s place in history as the world\u2019s most well-known Sox fan. The team put markers in the place where he sat that night, in section 140, row 19, seat 2 of Rate Field. The White Sox won the championship.<\/p>\n

Ishbia holds stakes in other U.S. sports teams in the National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer. He described himself as the next \u201csteward\u201d \u2014 not \u201cowner\u201d \u2014 of the White Sox franchise, saying the team belongs to the city of Chicago. He also brought up again the possibility of a new stadium for their ballpark, whose lease ends in 2029, that he hoped would be located in the South Loop, the southern edge of Chicago\u2019s downtown.<\/p>\n

\n

The team has been under the ownership of Jerry Reinsdorf since 1981. In June, Reinsdorf announced Ishbia would potentially be taking over fully by 2034.<\/p>\n

Ishbia said he met Pope Leo through a friend, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch of the Chicago area, who is co-founder of CatholicVote, an organization that advocates for Catholic\u00a0teaching to be part of public life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity for one of the most well-known men in the world who has billions of people who love and follow him \u2014 if we can get him behind us and part of our organization, the brand, that\u2019s one of my roles as steward, to hopefully bring him into the family, into the fold,\u201d Ishbia told the Chicago Sun-Times about the pope. \u201cFor many, many years, hopefully we\u2019ll have a fan in our corner who has unique access to upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told The New York Times that as steward of the team, and being a baseball fan himself, he understands what fans want \u2014 \u201csomeone who cares.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news outlets reported the pope personally took the autographed jersey from Ishbia, rather than having it go directly to an aide.<\/p>\n

Ishbia quoted Pope Leo: \u201cHe said, \u2018No, no, no. Hold on \u2014 that stays with me.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  • <\/li>\n
  • <\/li>\n
  • <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

    <\/main><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The next owner of the Chicago White Sox baseball team said Pope Leo XIV told him that he’d \u201clove to\u201c throw a season opening first pitch in the future\u2014\u201cschedule permitting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":124878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nPope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The next owner of the Chicago White Sox baseball team said Pope Leo XIV told him that he'd \u201clove to\u201c throw a season opening first pitch in the future\u2014\u201cschedule permitting.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-25T07:44:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtnew-4-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876\",\"name\":\"Pope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says - NEWS USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtnew-4-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-25T07:44:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-25T07:44:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtnew-4-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtnew-4-2.jpg\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"NEWS USA\",\"description\":\"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec\",\"name\":\"MrThanh\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrThanh\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says - NEWS USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says - NEWS USA","og_description":"The next owner of the Chicago White Sox baseball team said Pope Leo XIV told him that he'd \u201clove to\u201c throw a season opening first pitch in the future\u2014\u201cschedule permitting.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876","og_site_name":"NEWS USA","article_published_time":"2025-11-25T07:44:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtnew-4-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"MrThanh","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrThanh","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876","name":"Pope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says - NEWS USA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtnew-4-2.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-25T07:44:44+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-25T07:44:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtnew-4-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/avtnew-4-2.jpg","width":1080,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=124876#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pope Leo would \u2018love to\u2019 throw a White Sox season opening pitch, team\u2019s co-owner says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/","name":"NEWS USA","description":"Your Daily Dose of Sports News and Updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/850fd1b8bcb1d322b7f0a04b3d2f18ec","name":"MrThanh","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8c8f2d90ff2a21a61a5e6bc0619622a5021fc65353885d9d7b3db1c8c7c1ca8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrThanh"},"url":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?author=6"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124879,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124876\/revisions\/124879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/124878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}