CHICAGO -- Chicago’s Captain and Chicago’s Pope are now officially connected.
During Saturday’s pregame ceremony celebrating the 20-year-anniversary of the 2005 White Sox World Series championship, Paul Konerko, the eventual captain of that special crew, was presented with a special White Sox No. 14 jersey signed by Pope Leo XIV. The back of the jersey had both Konerko’s last name and Pope Leo’s name on it.
Robert Francis Prevost, from Dolton, Ill., attended Game 1 of the ‘05 sweep of Houston, long before he was chosen as the new Pope. He was at the game with the late Ed Schmit, who passed away in 2020, but was a close friend of Prevost, known as Father Bob to their family.
A visual tribute to Pope Leo XIV resides on the concourse wall near Section 140. Konerko, who received the signed jersey from Cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich before the White Sox 6-2 loss to Cleveland, had heard about the Pope’s connection to the White Sox over the last few months.
“Especially when all that went down, I got a lot of text messages and a lot of back and forth with people,” said Konerko, speaking in the back of the Rate Field pressbox after throwing out a ceremonial first pitch to former teammate A.J. Pierzynski. “It's obviously really cool, the fact he was here when we played in the World Series.
“I saw some footage a couple weeks ago, he was wearing a White Sox hat at the Vatican. Who would have thought that? That's pretty cool. It's kind of surreal. I'm sure my mom will have some opinions on it in terms of the meaning of it and that I need to get back to church. But we'll deal with that as it comes."
After talking to the media for more than 20 minutes, Konerko, accompanied by his son, Owen, signed a No. 14 jersey for Pope Leo XIV.
“I'm not sure he's as excited for mine to get there as the other way around,” Konerko said. “But I'll return the favor, for sure."