My wife Anita and I are great fans of Pope Francis and enjoyed watching those memorable moments from his trip to America last summer. There was his historic address to Congress, the Masses attended by thousands, and the Popemobile parades in New York and Philadelphia. Through it all, he touched so many Americans, especially the most vulnerable, while reminding us of our rich tradition as a nation of immigrants.
What surprised me the most during the pope’s visit and gave me goosebumps was Sister Sledge’s opening performance at the Festival of the Families in Philadelphia. Sister Sledge kicked things off with a rousing rendition of their 1970s hit, “We Are Family.” It had the crowd on its feet, including a front row of nuns dancing to the disco beat, while I experienced what I can only describe as a baseball epiphany.
Pope Francis has spent most of his life in his native Argentina, so it’s not surprising that he’s a great soccer fan. He wasn’t much of a player in his youth. He once described himself as a “paladura” — someone not very good at kicking the ball. But he loves following his favorite San Lorenzo team, has invited soccer players to the Vatican and, after the World Cup, helped organize an Inter-Religious Match for Peace that was played in Rome.
What I didn’t realize, until Sister Sledge began singing “We Are Family,” is that Pope Francis may also be a great baseball fan and that his favorite team may well be our Pittsburgh Pirates.
The first sign came just before his visit to America when the Philadelphia Phillies printed a Pope Francis rookie card and distributed it at a home game. Considering that Philadelphia had the worst team in baseball last season, you can’t blame Phillies fans if they’re now using the pope’s rookie card as a prayer card.
While the Phillies may have tried to draw Pope Francis into intervening for their last-place team, I’m convinced that the pope sent a clear message at the Festival of Families that his heart belongs to the cross-state Pirates. The song selected to open the festival was the theme song for the 1979 Pirate World Series champions.
During the 1979 season, Willie Stargell, affectionally known as “Pops,” was sitting in the dugout during a rain delay when the loud speakers at Three Rivers stated blaring out “We Are Family.” Mr. Stargell decided that the song would make a great anthem for his Pirates, so he picked up the dugout phone, called upstairs to the Pirates publicity director and told him he wanted the song played in the bottom of the seventh at every Pirates home game.
The song became so popular that, in the bottom of the seventh of the clinching game against the Cincinnati Reds that gave the Pirates the 1979 National League pennant, Pirates wives climbed on top of a shelf that rimmed the field just behind home plate at Three Rivers, where they danced to “We Are Family.” Roger Angell, covering the game for The New Yorker, wrote that the wives were “waving and laughing and hugging and shaking their banners in time to the music. It was terrific.”
I told my wife Anita that I’m convinced that Pope Francis knew about the spontaneous celebration at Three Rivers and that it probably inspired the Sister Sledge opening at the Festival of Families. Anita, who grew up in a Catholic family from Coraopolis, just shook her head and said it’s also possible that a song titled “We Are Family” was the perfect theme song for the Pope’s celebration of families.
She added that if Pope Francis wanted to root for a baseball team wouldn’t it more likely be the Cardinals since at one time the pope was a cardinal, or if he wanted to pray for truly afflicted baseball fans wouldn’t it be those long-suffering Cubs fans. All I could do was point out to Anita that the Pirates had 20 consecutive losing seasons until Francis was elected as pope. Miraculously, they haven’t had a losing season since.
In 1951, Hollywood made a movie, “Angels in the Outfield,” about a woeful Pirates team that wins the pennant with angelic help. This season, while Pirate fans are watching the pierogi race, I’ll be scanning PNC Park for a sign that the angels are back. And it wouldn’t surprise me if “Pops” is out there with them, ready to pass out his Stargell stars.
Richard “Pete” Peterson (peteball2@yahoo.com) is a South Side native and a retired English professor at Southern Illinois University. He is the author of “Growing Up With Clemente” and “Pops: The Willie Stargell Story” and the editor of The Pirates Reader.
First Published: April 2, 2016, 4:00 a.m.