How Many Wins Is a Pope Price?

A papal conclave is the final word information story. It’s an occasion shrouded in ceremony and secrecy, which takes place extremely hardly ever; solely thrice previously 40 years, actually. Even on this period when seeing every little thing has made the mysterious mundane, the world is left ready in whole ignorance for information of white smoke. Billions of observers, Catholic or not, look on in rapt fascination. And when the conclave produced the primary American-born pope, Leo XIV, issues solely obtained extra fascinating.

I come from a Catholic prolonged household, however for probably the most half, I used to be a faithful low-church protestant in my youth and am largely irreligious now. Nonetheless, I’ve at all times held the Vatican in a sure esteem. Its grandeur, its rituals, its dense and historic jargon — all of that appears mystical and romantic from a distance. Is it the only conduit to Almighty God? Maybe not, from the place I sit. But it surely’s an interesting establishment nonetheless.

That cloud of fairy story surprise evaporated right away on Thursday, when the cardinal electors selected Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago to inherit St. Peter’s throne.

The pope of my youth, John Paul II, was a serene, austere cleric from a faraway land, who’d confronted off towards dictators and survived assassins. Leo XIV has lived his life as a man named Bob from Illinois, who taught highschool for some time and did missionary work in Peru. He went to Villanova, and retweeted a publish about Kris Jenkins’ buzzer beater to win the nationwide championship in 2016. I do know individuals like this, and now one in every of them is among the most revered and influential individuals on the planet.

The Cubs tried to say Leo XIV proper off the proverbial bat, however the delusion of Pope Cubs Fan didn’t survive the afternoon. (For what it’s value, and once more I say this as an irreligious particular person, I believe falsely claiming the pope’s allegiance is legitimately profane. Just like the sort of factor that will get you despatched to a circle of Hell you don’t go to till close to the top of Inferno.)

The reality is even weirder: The pope will not be a Cubs fan, however a White Sox fan. (What an enormous blow to Barack Obama, who absolutely awoke final Thursday considering he’d go down as probably the most well-known White Sox fan of all time.) So stated his brother, and a household good friend whose dad went to Recreation 1 of the 2005 World Sequence with the person then generally known as Father Bob. He even confirmed up in a crowd shot throughout the broadcast of that World Sequence sport.

“A Pope Who Ministers to the Struggling? Yup, He’s a White Sox Fan,” learn the New York Instances headline. The joke has been made roughly 100,000 occasions previously week, however the sentiment behind it’s true sufficient we can provide a bit of leeway. With greater than a billion Catholics on the planet, absolutely somebody on the market hasn’t heard it but.

A sober and respectful observer would both deal with the pope’s White Sox fandom as a little bit of trivia, or at most use it as a literary gadget to half-jokingly illustrate his concern for the poor and susceptible.

I’ve further questions. Absolutely the chief of the most important church on the planet, and some of the influential organizations of any form, is a lifelong fan of one of many worst main sports activities groups within the nation. The juxtaposition of absolute cosmic energy and (to not put too high-quality a degree on it, however) cleanup hitter Matt Thaiss will not be solely compelling, it’s inherently unstable.

Certainly the pope’s favourite workforce can’t be this unhealthy eternally. The primary might be final, and the final might be first, it says within the Bible. (Matthew 20:16, proper earlier than Jesus predicts his personal torture and dying.) Leo XIV is the primary pope who’s a baseball fan (he additionally reportedly likes tennis), however he’s not the primary pope who has loved sports activities extra typically.

So let’s look again by historical past: What impact, if any, does the pope have on his favourite sports activities workforce? What number of runs, or objectives, is a pope within the stands value?

I discovered fairly credible proof as to the sports activities fandom of the previous 4 popes, together with Leo XIV. Going additional again, issues obtained a bit of dicey. Skilled sports activities weren’t fairly as systematized as they’re now. For instance: Pope John XXIII was from Bergamo; somebody who grew up there now would most likely be an Atalanta fan. However Atalanta wasn’t based till 1907, when the long run Pope John XXIII was 26 years previous.

Talking of issues that solely turned systematized lately: Italy itself! Solely the eight most up-to-date popes have been born for the reason that unification of Italy in 1861. (The unified Italian state is just 20 years older than the Cincinnati Reds, so simply bear that in thoughts the following time you consider getting snooty about Skyline Chili.)

All of that is to say that I Googled “Paul VI soccer,” and each single end result was for the soccer workforce of Paul VI Excessive Faculty in Haddon Township, New Jersey, and I made a decision that was a superb place to cease. Paul VI does have a baseball tie-in, because it occurs; it’s the alma mater of former large league nearer and present Purple Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey. (Although close by Bishop Eustace Prep is Camden County’s premier producer of main league pitchers.)

Pope John Paul II grew up in Wadowice, Poland, not removed from Kraków, and performed soccer as a boy. It’s not stunning, then, that he turned a fan of one of many native groups, KS Cracovia, which received the Polish league title thrice between 1930 and 1937. As you may already remember, the following 50 years of Polish historical past have been eventful to say the least. World Conflict II and the early years of Communist dictatorship turned formative experiences for the younger Karol Wojtyła, they usually additionally had a deleterious impact on KS Cracovia, which fell to the second and even the third division at occasions.

Cracovia achieved promotion to the second division in 1978, the season earlier than their most well-known fan was elected pope, and in 1982-83, they reached the primary division and took half of their first Europe-wide cup competitors earlier than falling on arduous occasions once more.

Cracovia obtained promoted again to the primary division once more within the closing 12 months of John Paul II’s papacy, 2004-05, and with one interruption, it has remained within the prime flight ever since. I used to be unable to search out game-by-game stats from Polish minor soccer leagues, however I do have the outcomes from 2004-05, and was in a position to produce a desk of Cracovia’s outcomes each earlier than and after the pope’s dying on April 2:

On the one hand, Cracovia had extra wins and extra factors in fewer video games after the pope’s dying than earlier than. However alternatively, Cracovia’s aim differential was worse; 4 of these seven wins got here by a single aim. If something, that means extra favorable bounces of the ball after the dying of John Paul II than earlier than. Maybe, as soon as relieved of the appreciable burdens of main the Church, John Paul II’s spirit was free to intercede within the fortunes of his favourite soccer workforce.

John Paul II’s successor was his chief adviser, Benedict XVI, né Joseph Ratzinger. Born in Bavaria in 1927, Ratzinger’s Bayern Munich fandom was notable, although overshadowed by different allegiances he expressed in his youth.

Ratzinger was some of the highly effective figures within the Vatican for nearly 25 years earlier than he turned pope; so too Bayern Munich in German and European soccer. When white smoke emerged from the 2005 papal conclave, Bayern Munich was on its option to its 14th Bundesliga title since Ratzinger had been elevated to cardinal in 1977. Ratzinger’s 28-year tenure as cardinal additionally noticed Bayern Munich win 11 home cup competitions, plus the 2001 Champions League:

However, as you’ll be able to see, Bayern’s fortunes obtained even higher underneath the papacy of Benedict XVI. It was throughout the late 2000s that Germany’s greatest membership consolidated its beautiful run of dominance. And after Benedict XVI’s retirement, issues obtained even higher:

Benedict XVI vacated the papacy on February 28, 2013. Within the months afterward, Bayern Munich turned the primary German workforce to finish what in soccer is called a “treble” — profitable the home league, home cup, and the continental cup title in the identical season. The 2012-13 season kicked off a run of 11 straight league titles for Bayern Munich, together with a second treble in 2019-20. The primary full Bundesliga season after Benedict XVI’s dying in 2022 was the primary title received by somebody aside from Bayern Munich since earlier than Benedict XVI’s retirement.

Coincidence? I believe not.

In case you watched The Two Popes, you most likely keep in mind the coda, through which the newly retired Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins) and Francis (Jonathan Pryce) get collectively to look at the 2014 World Cup closing between Benedict XVI’s Germany and Francis’ Argentina. The movie is closely fictionalized, however I’ll watch any movie the place two heavyweight actors get put in a room and argue with one another for 2 hours. (This was additionally the extremely profitable premise of, amongst different movies, Crimson Tide.)

One facet through which The Two Popes was true to life: Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the long run Pope Francis, was an enormous soccer fan. You may need seen then-Cardinal Bergoglio’s membership card for CA San Lorenzo de Almagro, a membership from Buenos Aires.

Bergoglio was created a cardinal on February 21, 2001, and evaluating the interval from that date to his election, San Lorenzo’s mixture outcomes have been virtually precisely the identical as they have been throughout Francis’ papacy:

San Lorenzo received two league titles and the Copa Sudamericana (South America’s second-tier continental membership cup competitors) when Bergoglio was a cardinal. Inside 15 months of Francis’ election to the papacy, San Lorenzo received one other league title (its final so far), plus the 2014 Copa Libertadores, which is the South American model of the Champions’ League — inarguably the membership’s most prestigious end in its historical past.

Having already talked about the 2014 World Cup, I’d be remiss if I didn’t additionally take discover of Argentina’s victory on the 2022 World Cup. Certainly, Francis was the primary sitting pope since Pius XI in 1938 to look at his dwelling nation win the World Cup. La Albiceleste can be at the moment the two-time defending Copa América champion.

I do assume that Argentina’s worldwide dominance within the 2020s is the results of divine affect, however not from the Vatican. Throughout a lot of his papacy, Francis was arguably not Argentina’s most revered non secular determine — Diego Maradona was.

From Maradona’s worldwide retirement in 1994 till his dying in 2020, Argentina obtained shut out on the World Cup and Copa América, regardless of having Lionel Messi within the workforce for greater than half of that interval. Messi’s solely worldwide triumph throughout that stretch was an Olympic gold medal in 2008, and the Olympics usually are not a full worldwide competitors in males’s soccer.

However since Maradona died, Argentina has received each males’s World Cup and Copa América that’s been held. That claims to me that there are metaphysical forces at play past even the comprehension of the Catholic Church.

Maradona’s ghost managed the Argentina nationwide soccer workforce, however the late Pope Francis had a big impact on the 2025 conclave. Throughout his 12-year papacy, Francis elevated 108 of the 135 cardinal electors who voted on his successor. Little shock, then, that after two days they settled on somebody who’d labored intently with Francis previously few years.

However this was not a Benedict XVI scenario; then-Cardinal Prevost had risen up the ranks in a short time, and fully throughout Francis’ papacy. He was elevated to bishop in 2014, and to cardinal solely in September 2023. Given Leo XIV’s relative youth and the large depth of baseball record-keeping, we will acknowledge a disturbing sample: The upper up the church hierarchy the brand new pope climbs, the more serious his favourite baseball workforce will get.

When the Fox broadcast caught Prevost within the crowd on the 2005 World Sequence, he was prior common of the Order of Saint Augustine, however he merely held the rank of priest. It wasn’t till 2014 that he was elevated to bishop, and never till 2023 that he rose to the senior roles throughout the Vatican that preceded his papacy.

Then-Cardinal Prevost was solely a cardinal in any respect for 20 months, and people 20 months coincided with the worst 20 months within the historical past of the White Sox. Certainly, they have been 20 of the worst months any main league baseball workforce has ever suffered.

I’m not exaggerating. Seeing that galling .255 within the win share column, I went to Stathead. Within the 200 video games the White Sox performed whereas Prevost was a cardinal, they received simply 51 occasions. That’s the Twelfth-lowest win whole in any 200-game stretch by any AL or NL workforce previously 100 years.

Not the Twelfth-worst document or something like that; the Twelfth-worst 200-game stretch. As of this writing, the 30 extant main league groups have performed precisely 353,000 discrete 200-game stretches for the reason that begin of the 1926 common season. And the White Sox are Twelfth from the underside in profitable share.

Truly, it’s worse than that; 4 of the 11 worse streaks are from different White Sox groups since 2023, in durations that overlapped considerably with Prevost’s tenure as a cardinal. (The opposite seven are the 2002-03 Detroit Tigers, taken at numerous endpoints. Poor Gail from The Final of Us.)

White Sox followers have been absolutely hoping the brand new pontiff would intercede on behalf of their downtrodden group, and certainly their accursed workforce is 2-2 for the reason that cardinal protodeacon introduced, “habemas papam.” Which is best than 51-149, however three of these 4 video games got here towards the Marlins, so in accordance with scripture, I’m selecting to guage not in the meanwhile.

The declining fortunes of Pope Leo XIV’s favourite baseball workforce lead me to one in every of three potential conclusions. First, that the White Sox will get well to competitiveness throughout the papacy of Leo XIV, and that such a restoration might be cited as one of many two miracles required for canonization of Pope Leo XIV as a saint.

Second, that the pope is able to securing divine intervention for the White Sox, however is declining to take action. Christian theology holds that God’s energy and mercy are limitless, nevertheless it’d be unseemly to say the least for the pope of all individuals to name on God’s blessings for egocentric ends. Leo XIV celebrated mass for the primary time as pope on Sunday, and from the pulpit he referred to as for an finish to struggle typically, and particularly for an finish to the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

I believe all of us can agree that ending struggle is a extra righteous use of each temporal and metaphysical energy than influencing the AL Central race.

The ultimate chance is that, as a lot because the pope may wish to name upon the divine energy of the Almighty to repair his favourite workforce, he can’t, as a result of the White Sox are past salvation.

The checklist of mortal sins is longer than I had realized; along with homicide, blasphemy, and simony, apparently wage theft also can separate a sinner from God’s grace. Nonetheless, I don’t know that the White Sox, for all their different failings, are noticeably extra depraved than every other franchise. Definitely not sufficient to warrant this type of punishment. However the will of the Almighty could be mysterious, and his wrath, nicely, that’s been mentioned at size.