Offbeat: Was Pope Pius XII a closet Yankees fan?
This was sent in to me by a reader this week and it seemed too fantastic not to be true:
My father was in a private audience with Pope Pius XII. He asked where my father was from (New York City) and the Holy Father then asked: “how are the Yankees doing?”
I don’t know, but it looks like the Holy Father’s (holy) hands could throw a mean slider!
Papist baseball fans will also appreciate this (verified) story:
“During a USO tour by a number of players in 1944, [Baseball Hall of Famer Joe] Medwick was among several individuals given an audience by Pope Pius XII. Upon being asked by the Pope what his vocation was, Medwick replied, “Your Holiness, I’m Joe Medwick. I, too, used to be a Cardinal.” (source)
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14 Comments
I don’t know a single european who is a baseball fan. I know one who likes american football – he once spent a year as an exchange student in Washington. I’m not saying it’s impossible PXII was a yankees fan just … very unlikely.
However – it is widely known that baseball is very important to Americans. And we do know the names of some of the teams – especially, perhaps, the New York Yankees. There’s another one called Red Sox from Boston, right?
I suppose Americans know the names of some of the major soccer teams – wouldn’t you, if you met someone from Manchester ask how ManU/City was doing? Wouldn’t you ask someone from Barcelona about “Barca”?
Pope Pius XII should have done more to help the Yankess win the World Series in 1942. Of course he kept quiet because they were playing the Cardinals.
Leo, Of course it’s possible he was “just making conversation!” But, he at least knew something about baseball, possibly enjoyed the sport: we’re making conversation 
Interesting that Bill noted he had long heard PXII was a fan – be neat if something would be found out for sure in our conversation. Go Red Sox!
Isn’t it possible His Holiness was just making conversation? I’ll admit that I don’t know much about baseball-talk, but that seems to me the most plausible explanation.
Heaven forbid
I have often heard that Pope Pius XII was a baseball fan. No way to confirm this that I know of, but it’s a nice thought to have in mind.
We know from the book “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant,” later made into the musical “Damn Yankees,” that the Yankees are the devil’s own team. And so it may be supposed that the Holy Father was interested to learn how the evil one was managing affairs even in the world of sports.
It doesn’t look like he was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan!
From a speech by Sportscaster Vin Scully covered in a NYTimes article (2008):
More than half a lifetime ago, Scully said … he and Ralph and Ann Branca had an audience with Pope Pius XII in 1956. “My Irish, red-haired mother said, ‘Vinny, whatever you do, remember everything, so when you come home, I can share the experience,’ ” … When the pope appeared, the audience was arranged in a U.
“He was tall and gaunt with skin like parchment . . . The pope moved from person to person, speaking in German, French and Italian, until he came to the Brancas and Scully.
“And where are you from, my son?” he asked. Branca, the Brooklyn right-hander, said, “Mount Vernon,” which the pontiff remembered from a visit to Fordham years before.
“And I’m standing there … ready to remember everything, and he turned to me, and there I am, my throat is dry, my knees shaking, my palms sweating and he asked, ‘Are you with them?’ ‘Yes, your Holiness,’ I said. And he left.”
Scully added, “How would you like to go home and tell your mother that?”
Sportscaster Vin Scully relates this in a NYTimes article (2008):
More than half a lifetime ago, Scully said … he and Ralph and Ann Branca had an audience with Pope Pius XII in 1956. “My Irish, red-haired mother said, ‘Vinny, whatever you do, remember everything, so when you come home, I can share the experience,’ ” … When the pope appeared, the audience was arranged in a U.
“He was tall and gaunt with skin like parchment . . . The pope moved from person to person, speaking in German, French and Italian, until he came to the Brancas and Scully.
“And where are you from, my son?” he asked. Branca, the Brooklyn right-hander, said, “Mount Vernon,” which the pontiff remembered from a visit to Fordham years before.
“And I’m standing there … ready to remember everything, and he turned to me, and there I am, my throat is dry, my knees shaking, my palms sweating and he asked, ‘Are you with them?’ ‘Yes, your Holiness,’ I said. And he left.”
Scully added, “How would you like to go home and tell your mother that?”
SO, maybe he was a Yankee’s fan – doesn’t look like he was a Brooklyn Dodgers one!
Well, popes aren’t infallible about everything…
Perhaps this will help explain it: http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/publications/columbia/detail/548824.html. Given that the Knights owned the Yankee Stadium for some time, and that three Popes have celebrated Masses there–as a Catholic, I’m also proud to say– “GO YANKEES!!!” (I’m sure Pius XII was a Yankees fan–it only makes sense!)
Don’t be so …AMERICAN!!!!!!
Let’s just say that before his reign, they were still the Devil Rays:
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