When the man once voted the most hated player in baseball met the head of the Catholic Church, no introductions were necessary.“Hi, I’m A.J. Pierzynski,” the former major-league catcher recalled telling Pope Leo XIV.“Oh, I know who you are. You don’t have to introduce yourself,” the pope replied.The former White Sox catcher and the world’s most famous White Sox fan met Wednesday at the Vatican. Pierzynski, who was raised Catholic, arranged for the private audience through friends, and on Thursday posted a photograph of the encounter on social media.
An incredible honor to meet @Pontifex and give him the ball that was the last out in Game 1 of the 2005 World Series. @whitesox pic.twitter.com/81aT5UTOSs
— A.J. Pierzynski (@ajpierzynski12) June 25, 2026The pontiff, a White Sox fan from his days growing up in Chicago, attended Game 1 of the 2005 World Series between the White Sox and Houston Astros. Fox cameras captured him cheering on the White Sox as Bobby Jenks struck out Adam Everett for the final out of Game 1, images that became much more notable last year when he became the first pope from the United States.
Pierzynski was the catcher for that White Sox team, which swept the Astros to bring the South Side a World Series title for the first time since 1917. Along with a signed Pierzynski jersey (“I don’t know if that was the best idea or not”), he presented the pope with the ball from the final out of Game 1.“I know he was at the game. It was just sitting on my wall,” said Pierzynski, a colleague of mine at Fox Sports and on the Foul Territory network.“I was like, ‘It’s better at the Vatican with him than sitting on my wall.’ I figured it was the perfect thing.”Former White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko previously gifted the pontiff a signed jersey with “Pope Leo” written on the back. The pope also has a bat that once belonged to Hall of Famer Nellie Fox, who spent most of his career with the White Sox, and other memorabilia from Chicago’s pro teams.His reaction to receiving the ball Pierzynski caught to end Game 1?“Oh my gosh, he was like, ‘This is unbelievable.’ He was like, ‘No way, this is the ball?’ And he literally said, ‘I was at Game 2, too. But nobody knows that. They didn’t find me.’”Pierzynski, accompanied by his wife, Lisa; daughter, Ava; and friends, said a man from North Carolina was in another of the parties waiting to meet Leo. The man brought a Carolina Hurricanes jersey to present to the pope.The Hurricanes just won the Stanley Cup, but Pierzynski said a security guard warned the man that his gift would not be warmly received.“Eh, he won’t like that much,” Pierzynski recalled the security guard saying. “He’s a White Sox fan.”Pierzynski said his group’s meeting with the pope went longer than most, lasting about five minutes. As the session wrapped up, he mentioned the current White Sox team, one of the biggest surprises in baseball.“It was kind of as I was walking away,” Pierzynski said. “I said, ‘Hey, White Sox are in first place.’“He just looked at me and goes, ‘Oh, I’m watching and paying attention, don’t worry.’ And he just kind of smiled at me.”
