Baseball signed by Pope Leo XIV sells for – Sports News
A baseball signed by Pope Leo XIV offered for effectively under its estimated worth on Wednesday.
The autographed ball was estimated to be value $10,000 in keeping with RR Auction, a Boston-based public sale home which hosted the bidding. According to Bleacher Report, the merchandise offered for a successful bid of $5,300.
Pope Leo XIV is well-known for his baseball fandom, as effectively as his basic love of sports activities – and is a eager supporter of the Chicago White Sox.
The description of the merchandise learn: “Incredibly rare baseball signed by Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope-and a lifelong fan of the Chicago White Sox.”
RR Auction described the merchandise as an “Official Rawlings Major League (Manfred) baseball signed on a side panel in blue ballpoint”” in “very superb situation,” coming from the Randy L. Kaplan Collection of Signed Baseballs from World Leaders and Heads of State.
On the ball, the Pope’s signature reads “Leo PP XIV. “According to Bleacher Report, Kaplan, who began collecting in the 1990s, sent letters requesting the Pope’s signature to the Vatican offices and later received the signed ball in the mail.Kaplan’s collection spans more than 450 unique pieces of memorabilia, including items signed by former United States presidents Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.”
Pope Leo is a long-standing Chicago White Sox fan, and he makes it very clear that he’s not a Cubs fan,” Kaplan wrote in a letter obtained by RR Auction. “I needed to show him my appreciation for his love of the sport…Just a few weeks later, I had an epiphany, and I knew the ball could be coming back to me signed. Sure enough, I used to be appropriate – the baseball arrived in my mailbox.”.
Pope Leo XIV, whose delivery title is Robert Francis Prevost, grew to become the primary American Pope within the historical past of the Catholic Church when his papacy started on May 8, 2025.
Right after his election, supporters and admirers uncovered his lifelong devotion to Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox. {A photograph} and photographs displaying Pope Leo XIV on the staff’s Game 1 overcome the Houston Astros within the 2005 World Series quickly unfold throughout the web.
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The footage of the Pope originated from FOX’s tv protection of the sport on October 22, 2005. During the highest of the ninth inning with Chicago forward 5-3, the digital camera swept throughout the gang the place the Pope, then referred to as Robert Prevost, wore a darkish jacket with what seemed like a White Sox jersey beneath.
The White Sox proceeded to brush the Astros in 4 video games to say their third championship in franchise historical past and first in 88 years.
At a public gathering on the Vatican on June 11, 2025, Pope Leo XIV wore a White Sox cap to additional validate his allegiance.
Given his great ardour for America’s pastime, it is hardly stunning that the Head of the Catholic Church consented to signal the ball.
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