CHICAGO — It’s not every day you see baseball fans in religious vestments drinking beer and eating hot dogs, but at Rate Field on Tuesday, the holy and the profane met to celebrate the Chicago White Sox’s No. 1 fan at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV.The Sox’s long-awaited “Pope Hat” promotion took place on a hot, humid night in Chicago, as the White Sox faced the Cincinnati Reds and the team gave away almost 40,000 mitre hats emblazoned with its logo and lappets on the back.The White Sox sold out the ballpark (announced attendance: 38,113), and the hats were going for around $70 on eBay during the game, which was more than the going rate for tickets on the secondary market ahead of first pitch.Ever since Robert Prevost, a diehard White Sox fan from south suburban Dolton, Ill., was elected to serve as the leader of the Catholic Church last year, the team hasn’t been shy about hyping the connection. Chicago put up a mural in the ballpark, held a Mass there and has sent more emissaries bearing gifts to the Vatican than some small countries.“Anytime we can celebrate the Pope and his fandom of the White Sox is something we’ll lean into,” Chicago manager Will Venable said.White Sox fans pose in their “Pope Hats” before Tuesday’s game against the Reds. (Jon Greenberg / The Athletic)The hat giveaway was the brainchild of White Sox marketing executive Mike Downey. It quickly grew in size and scope after its initial announcement in early April.“He’s the one who really championed this hat concept,” White Sox CMO Brooks Boyer said of Downey. “It started as a 2,500 special ticket promo giveaway. And then as they went on sale, they went right away, and he came in and said, ‘I think I can get the vendor to do 500 more.’ So we were going to go to 3,000. Once those went, he came in and said, ‘We’ve got to go to 40,000.’ The only anxiety was can we get 40,000 here by the time of this day. So as soon as we figured out we could, it’s been a lot of fun to be part of.”