To No. 14, from No. XIV.
The White Sox’ championship-reunion ceremony kicked off Saturday with a special presentation for Paul Konerko, a gift from a famous fan who was in the stands during the 2005 team’s World Series run.
It was a signed jersey from Pope Leo XIV.
Pope Leo XIV sent a special gift for PK14 pic.twitter.com/AZ34d8iTkp
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) July 12, 2025
“Allegedly, I’ve got to sign one later to send back to him,” Konerko said. “I’m not sure he’s as excited for mine to get there as the other way around. But I’ll return the favor, for sure.”
This ceremony came after the players assembled Friday for the unveiling of Mark Buehrle’s statue on the Rate Field concourse. There were introductions of much of the 2005 roster as well as speeches from Jermaine Dye, Geoff Blum and Ozzie Guillen, plus a teamwide toast to Bobby Jenks, who died last weekend after battling stomach cancer.
While the stands were far from packed during the ceremony — fewer than 22,000 fans attended Saturday’s game, a 6-2 loss for the Sox — you only need to know Sox fans to know how much the 2005 team still means, something that’s not lost on the men who won that championship.
“It’s cool when you see someone, and they say, ‘My dad waited 90 years for this,’ or ‘I waited [so long] for this.’ The joy it brings to their face, it’s cool,” Cliff Politte told the Sun-Times on Friday. “I’m not great, but I was able to do something to help that, make someone’s home happy. It’s great. We did a special thing here.”
“Any city, anywhere you’re going to bring a championship, it means a lot,’’ Jon Garland said Friday. ‘‘But after playing in different cities, you have true fans everywhere, but South Siders are something different. The commitment they make to their team is unprecedented. It’s absolutely outstanding. And to give them that [championship]? I love this city. I love South Siders. Hopefully, they just don’t forget me.”
It hasn’t escaped the players’ memories, either.
“I think about it every day,” Konerko said. “I don’t think about anything else that I did. I don’t think about All-Star Games; I don’t think about that stuff. I think about the World Series every day. There might be some days I don’t, but there’s sometimes I think about it six times a day.”
Sox fans know how their captain feels. Even the Sox fan in the Vatican.
Schultz smoked again in Futures Game
For a second consecutive year, Sox top pitching prospect Noah Schultz went to the Futures Game and had a miserable performance in the prospects showcase.
Last year, he faced six batters, allowed four runs and three hits, walked one and hit another.
On Saturday, he again allowed four runs — the only runs the American League gave up in a 4-2 loss. He gave up four hits, including a home run, to the six hitters he faced.
While last season was strong for Schultz outside of the midsummer exhibition, this latest bashing in the Futures Game follows a string of three bad starts to begin his time at Triple-A Charlotte; he has an 11.91 ERA.
