Gordon Wittenmyer is a Cincinnati Reds beat writer at the Cincinnati Enquirer.
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White Sox Get 38,000 People to Dress Like the Pope, Lose Anyway
The White Sox beating the Cincinnati Reds this week in Chicago? There isn’t a bigger sure thing in sports, right?
Come on. Is the pope Catholic?
More to the point, is the pope a White Sox fan from Chicago?
As if that kind of divine firepower doesn’t already suggest some kind of winged assist from above for the White Sox’s sudden ascent into playoff contention this year after averaging 108 losses the past three, the White Sox promotions department rubbed it in with the Reds’ arrival to town for a series.
They brought out a nun for the ceremonial first pitch of the series and gave away “pope hats” to fans who shrugged off inclement weather forecasts to produce only the ninth sellout of the season at the Sox ballpark with 38,000 Pope Leo impersonators wearing their new hats for the beer-boosted, fun-loving – if perhaps a tad sacrilegious – promotion.