Pope Leo asks fan 'Sox or Cubs?' as he signs a baseball

“White Sox or Cubs?”

Those were the first words out of Pope Leo XIV’s mouth when he greeted Jason Perash in a receiving line at the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall Monday morning.

“Uh, Sox,” answered Perash, a 46-year-old attorney and sometimes freelance journalist who presented the new pontiff with a Rawlings Official Major League Baseball and asked him to sign it.

Pope Leo XIV, who is reportedly a lifelong Sox fan, complied, inscribing the ball in blue ink with “Leone PP XIV”—his official papal autograph in Latin—right on the sweet spot.

“It’s one of my life highlights, it’s already that big in my mind,” Perash said as he stood in the midday sun next to St. Peter’s Basilica with a small crowd of Pope Leo XVI (and baseball) fans gathered around him to take pictures with the papal baseball. One woman wearing a long black lace mantilla even kissed it reverently and crossed herself.

“I'm just happy that he was chosen,” Perash said. “I think he'll do well. And the fact that he relates to baseball in some way is a plus, because every other Pope would probably have been dumbfounded as to why anybody would want them to sign a baseball.”

The baseball signing took place during a papal audience with more than a thousand members of the media from all over the world. Perash, who lives in Colorado and is an Orioles fan, is a personal injury lawyer. He's also an “autograph guru,” according to one sports memorabilia website.

But he knew a guy, which is how he wound up in the VIP section at the front of Leo’s first official audience with the media with a couple of baseballs and a rosary stuffed in his suit pocket.

Perash has been collecting signed baseballs since he was 10, he said, and his collection includes balls signed by presidents, astronauts, Beatles and even a few other popes—though Leo is the first he’s gotten to sign in person.

Last week, he tried to persuade several cardinals arriving in Rome for the conclave to autograph a few balls. Perash mostly struck out—only a few played along—and he missed then-Cardinal Prevost altogether. On Monday morning, though, he took the biggest of swings and connected.

“It’s phenomenal,” Perash said, carefully tucking the pope’s baseball back into its protective plastic clamshell container.

“An American guy…who likes baseball—I never thought I’d see the day,” he said.

Pope Leo’s ball will have pride of place in Perash’s collection, which also includes a Mark Buehrle perfect-game ball and several Frank Thomas dingers.

“I guess he knows something about baseball, if not maybe even a lot,” Perash said. “I don’t know. I've only known the guy for a few days, like everybody else. So, as time goes on, we’ll learn more.”

Cathleen Falsani documented the installation of Pope Benedict XVI as the Sun-Times religion reporter and columnist from 2000-2010. She is at the Vatican to cover the installation of Pope Leo XIV for Chicago Public Media.