{"id":275279,"date":"2026-04-19T07:07:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/275279\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:07:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:07:27","slug":"pope-leo-duo-blesses-sox-as-fans-at-sutter-health-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/275279\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo duo blesses Sox-A\u2019s fans at Sutter Health Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Perez and his son, Tristan, live in Bakersfield, not Chicago. After some prodding, both admit they\u2019re not practicing Catholics, either.<\/p>\n

But the Chicago White Sox have been Oscar\u2019s favorite team for decades, he said, because a former influential youth baseball coach who mentored him adored the club. And if you love the White Sox, then you also know one of their most famous fans is Pope Leo XIV, a south suburban Chicago native<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So on Saturday, the father-son duo donned papal garb at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, where they happily posed for pictures with native Chicagoans \u2014 and Sacramentans \u2014 during the A\u2019s dramatic come-from-behind, extra-innings win over the Sox.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone to Dodger Stadium. We\u2019ve been to the Anaheim Stadium, and this is our third stadium,\u201d Oscar Perez said, adding, \u201cin LA, we popped up next to the White Sox dugout, and we got a warm reception from the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

They plan to attend Sox games in San Franciso and San Diego next, they said.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, they posed with a fan who told them they\u2019d attended the same 2005 Sox World Series home game that Leo did … and dozens of other fans, too. \u201cThe Athletics fans, they\u2019ve been so welcoming,\u201d Oscar Perez said.<\/p>\n

\"A A woman poses with Oscar and Tristan Perez, dressed in papal garb, during an Athletics game against the Chicago White Sox in West Sacramento on Saturday. CHRIS FUSCO cfusco@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

White Sox fans have been dressing like Pope Leo ever since May 2025, when he became the first pope from the United States. The Sox have embraced Leo, marking the seat<\/a> in their ballpark where he watched the 2005 World Series opener against Houston in Chicago; the Sox swept the Astros and haven\u2019t won a world championship since.<\/p>\n

The team even is planning a \u201cPope Hat\u201d giveaway at an August game against the Cincinnati Reds. The hat is meant to resemble a religious mitre, adding a signature white stocking in the middle.<\/a><\/p>\n

Will the Perez family make the journey to Chicago to upgrade their S-O-X mitres?<\/p>\n

For now, they\u2019re describing their papal routine as a distinctly \u201cCalifornia\u201d thing.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar Oscar and Tristan Perez dress in papal garb \u2013 a reference to suburban Chicago native Pope Leo XIV \u2013\u00a0as they attend an Athletics game against the Chicago White Sox in West Sacramento on Saturday. CHRIS FUSCO cfusco@sacbee.com <\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Fusco<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Chris Fusco is executive editor of The Sacramento Bee and regional editor for all McClatchy newsrooms in California. Before joining McClatchy in September 2025, he worked as executive editor of the Press Democrat News Group in Santa Rosa, managing editor of the Houston Chronicle and executive editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. A suburban Chicago native, he is a 1994 graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Perez and his son, Tristan, live in Bakersfield, not Chicago. After some prodding, both admit they\u2019re not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-275279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}