--- title: Baseball Playing Nun Should Be the MVP of Every Game description: The Catholic nun threw the perfect first pitch at a Chicago White Sox game, winning the hearts of fans everywhere. canonical: https://time.com/5371732/baseball-nun/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-20T14:53:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:23.682Z og:title: This Baseball-Playing Nun Should Be the MVP of Every Game og:description: The strike-throwing nun tossed the first pitch for the Chicago White Sox og:url: https://time.com/5371732/baseball-nun/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte61c70f5a39982d1/698938130a4a22307d9d3784/baseball-nuns.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Some of the Sisters of Life nuns joined the faithful riding og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Baseball-Playing Nun Should Be the MVP of Every Game twitter:description: The strike-throwing nun tossed the first pitch for the Chicago White Sox twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte61c70f5a39982d1/698938130a4a22307d9d3784/baseball-nuns.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Fact That Baseball Nun Isn't the MVP of Every Game Is an Unforgivable Sin > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 20, 2018 2:53 PM UTC  Some of the Sisters of Life nuns joined the faithful riding the 4 train home from Yankee Stadium after Pope Benedict XVI held mass at the stadium . Some of the Sisters of Life nuns joined the faithful riding the 4 train home from Yankee Stadium after Pope Benedict XVI held mass at the stadium . New York Daily News Archive—NY Daily News via Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 20, 2018 2:53 PM UTC Sister Mary Jo Sobieck is no joke on the baseball mound. The [Chicago White Sox](http://time.com/5215805/integrate-spring-training/) invited the nun, who works for local Marian Catholic High School, to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a Saturday baseball game at Guaranteed Rate Field against the Kansas City Royals. Plenty of guest players have been known to flub the [first pitch experience](http://time.com/4716562/trump-baseball-first-pitch-history/) — it’s not as easy as it looks to throw a [perfect fastball strike](http://time.com/4809377/john-legend-chrissy-teigen-baby-at-baseball/), after all. But Sister Mary Jo is a pro. Dressed in her traditional habit, a t-shirt with the name of the high school she reps and a pair of sensible sneakers, the nun warmed up by showing off her casual ball skills before tossing the overhand pitch. It was a strike, naturally. Since that impressive performance, Sister Mary Jo has won the hearts of spectators and baseball fans across the country, even winning an invite to appear on ABC’s _Good Morning America_ for her unexpected athletic prowess. Who knows what other skills the nuns of America are hiding. The ensuing game was close, but ultimately the White Sox [won out 7-6](https://www.google.com/search?ei=EtJ6W7erC%5FiAk-4Pksqf4AE&q=chicago+white+sox+kansas+city+royals+8%2F18&oq=chicago+white+sox+kansas+city+royals+8%2F18&gs%5Fl=psy-ab.3..33i160k1l2.18492.20353.0.20572.5.5.0.0.0.0.154.565.0j4.4.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..1.4.565...0i22i30k1j33i21k1.0.YUh6gmMuHyo#sie=m;/g/11ggr7wkhv;4;/m/09p14;dt;fp;1) over the Royals. Perhaps Sister Mary Jo’s opening pitch was a bit of good luck, too. > [](https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/1030979523087622144) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5371732/baseball-nun/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5371732/baseball-nun/"},"headline":"The Fact That Baseball Nun Isn't the MVP of Every Game Is an Unforgivable Sin","datePublished":"2018-08-20T14:53:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:23.682Z","description":"Don't sleep on Sister Mary Jo","url":"https://time.com/5371732/baseball-nun/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte61c70f5a39982d1/698938130a4a22307d9d3784/baseball-nuns.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte61c70f5a39982d1/698938130a4a22307d9d3784/baseball-nuns.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Some of the Sisters of Life nuns joined the faithful riding","caption":"Some of the Sisters of Life nuns joined the faithful riding","creditText":"New York Daily News Archive—NY Daily News via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5371732/baseball-nun/","name":"The Fact That Baseball Nun Isn't the MVP of Every Game Is an Unforgivable Sin"}}]}] ```