Cardinal O'Malley and those red socks

Here's a baseball statistic even the most diehard fans are unlikely to know: the bishop of Boston who has witnessed the most Red Sox championships was Boston's first cardinal, William H. O'Connell, a Lowell native who served as archbishop of Boston from 1907 until his death in 1944.

That factoid is revealed in a blog posting by the current archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who used the occasion of a visit to Fenway Park to reflect on the home team's recent winningness:

"The president of the Red Sox, Larry Lucchino came by to greet me and I told him I was very pleased to be there. I also told him I was very proud of the fact that since I have been the Archbishop of Boston, the team has won two championships. Only one other Archbishop in the history of the diocese can make that claim. Cardinal O’Connell saw the victories of 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918 … but, I have just gotten started!"

O'Malley, who grew up in Ohio and Pennsylvania, apparently developed an affection for the Red Sox while serving as bishop of Fall River, from 1992 to 2002, and since his arrival in Boston in 2003 he has repeatedly cited his allegiance to the Olde Towne Team.

In 2003, shortly after his installation in Boston, he offered public advice to the team, saying, "They just need to stay focused now, keep cool," and he told reporters, "the first request I received from a Boston priest was that the new archbishop make sure that the Red Sox would win this year, so I'm working on it."

In 2006, when he went to Rome to receive the red hat that signaled his elevation to cardinal, he pulled up his cassock at a news conference to show reporters his cardinalatial red socks and said, "At least nobody can doubt my sports affiliation now, with the Red Sox."

And in April of this year, as he prepared to attend a papal Mass at the old Yankee Stadium, he told reporters, "I'll be wearing my red socks, and if I get a chance I'll bury them in the outfield." The cardinal was, of course, referring to an episode in which a construction worker had buried a Red Sox jersey in the clubhouse concrete at the new stadium in an effort to bring bad luck to the Yankees.

Now O'Malley reports in his blog that he attended the Sept. 23 game at which the Red Sox defeated the Cleveland Indians to clinch a wild card berth. The game was a chance for O'Malley to see how the other half lives -- the cardinal is a Capuchin Franciscan friar who has taken a vow of poverty, has few personal possessions, and traded down both the car and the house that came with his job -- but a donor gave him tickets to watch the game from a luxury box. An excerpt from the cardinal's report, written with his characteristically dry wit:

"We were invited to use one of the private boxes at the stadium and we were joined by several priests of the archdiocese and some members of the staff at the pastoral center. I must say, after seeing the game from one of the private boxes, I can now say those seats down by home plate have lost their luster."

(Photo above courtesy of the Archdiocese of Boston.)