{"id":671501,"date":"2026-04-09T08:09:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T08:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/671501\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T08:09:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T08:09:44","slug":"white-sox-are-paying-homage-to-their-holiest-fan-by-giving-away-limited-edition-pope-hats-at-an-upcoming-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/671501\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox Are Paying Homage to their Holiest Fan by Giving Away Limited-Edition Pope Hats at an Upcoming Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n<p>The White Sox announced that they&#8217;re paying tribute to one of their famous fans: Pope Leo XIV<\/p>\n<p>The team will be giving out White Sox-themed pope mitres<\/p>\n<p>The special edition hat will be available for a select few, and only for the Aug. 11 game against the Cincinnati Reds<\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo XIV is receiving an unexpected tribute from his favorite baseball team.<\/p>\n<p>The Chicago White Sox announced that, in celebration of the Pope&#8217;s support, they will be giving away White Sox-themed pope hats to anyone who purchases the package for Aug. 11 tickets. The White Sox will face off with the Cincinnati Reds that day.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Those who receive the hat will sit in a &#8220;designated area&#8221; comprising five sections, according to the White Sox&#8217;s <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/whitesox\/tickets\/specials\/themes?access_code=Popehat2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:website;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;website&quot;}\">website<\/a>. The hat is a black-and-green mitre headdress worn by the Pope during Mass.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Pope Leo XIV wears a Chicago White Sox baseball team capCredit: Maria Grazia Picciarella\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2bc6807e25014ed466c32dc09e8ba7e7.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo XIV wears a Chicago White Sox baseball team cap<br \/>Credit: Maria Grazia Picciarella\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty<\/p>\n<p>Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PEOPLE&#039;s free daily newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;PEOPLE&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n<p>Since the conclave, Pope Leo has made headlines for becoming the\u00a0<a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/pope-leo-xiv-honors-pope-francis-first-speech-declares-evil-will-not-prevail-11730969\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:first American pontiff;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;first American pontiff&quot;}\">first American pontiff<\/a>, born and raised\u00a0in Dolton, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Promptly after learning the Pope&#8217;s origins, it was revealed that he&#8217;s an avid White Sox fan, so much so that he attended Game 1 of the 2005 World Series against the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>More recently, in late March, a White Sox fan was in Rome and, upon seeing the Pope, shouted, &#8220;God bless the White Sox,&#8221; prompting Leo to give him a thumbs-up in agreement,\u00a0<a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/chicago\/news\/chicago-white-sox-fan-pope-leo-rome-vatican\/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:CBS News reports.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;CBS News reports.&quot;}\">CBS News reports.<\/a> The 70-year-old has even been spotted sporting the merch.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Pope Leo XIV leads a mass for Palm SundayCredit: REMO CASILLI \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/21d77c57a511e6dfd116410353835dfc.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo XIV leads a mass for Palm Sunday<br \/>Credit: REMO CASILLI \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty<\/p>\n<p>In June 2025, Pope Leo was photographed wearing the team&#8217;s hat during an appearance at his weekly general audience at the Vatican, according to <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/pope-leo-xiv-spotted-wearing-white-sox-hat-at-vatican\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:MLB.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;MLB.com&quot;}\">MLB.com<\/a>. At the time, the Pontiff donned the black Sox cap, which soon went viral. \u201cPope Leo XIV representing his favorite squad,\u201d the team wrote alongside an Instagram post.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I read something about that,\u201d White Sox manager Will Venable said at the time. \u201cYeah, I mean, it&#8217;s great. I love the support. Need it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The support is mutual. The team celebrated his 2005 appearance by painting a mural of him near the section where he sat for the event, the <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/white-sox-honor-pope-leo-xiv-with-graphic-installation-at-rate-field\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:MLB;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;MLB&quot;}\">MLB<\/a> previously reported.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/white-sox-offering-limited-edition-pope-hats-11946108\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:People;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;People&quot;}\" class=\"link \">People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW The White Sox announced that they&#8217;re paying tribute to one of their famous fans: Pope&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,50,11153,54,4,6606,396,2562,998],"class_list":{"0":"post-671501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicagowhitesox","12":"tag-cincinnati-reds","13":"tag-favorite-baseball-team","14":"tag-houston-astros","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-pope-leo","17":"tag-white-sox","18":"tag-whitesox","19":"tag-will-venable"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116373736316924296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}