WATCH: CBS Reporter Gives Chicago-Born Pope Leo a Baseball Bat Used by White Sox Legend

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CBS News foreign correspondent Chris Livesay gifted Pope Leo XIV a prized baseball bat once owned by a Chicago White Sox legend.

On Thursday, Livesay was aboard the papal plane for a trip to Turkey. In a video posted online, Livesay explained his plan to give the Pope a special bat that had been in his family’s possession for years. The bat, he revealed, once belonged to star second baseman Nellie Fox.

A member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Fox played 14 of his 19 professional seasons with the White Sox and won an MVP award in 1959. The Hall of Fame describes him as “one of the toughest outs in Major League Baseball history,” as he struck out just 216 times in 10,351 plate appearances.

Livesay continued:

OK, so I’m doing something I’ve never done before, and that is bring a gift to the Pope. This is a baseball bat that used to belong to Nellie Fox. He was a star second baseman for the Chicago White Sox, which, of course, is the beloved hometown team of Pope Leo. And so, my family, my parents’ generation is all from Chicago, and that’s how we acquired this bat. And so, it was my cousin Jim who mailed this to me and said, “You’ve got to give this to the Pope.” So that’s what I’m going to try and do.

The video then cut to moment Livesay introduced himself and presented the bat. As the correspondent explained the significance of it, Pope Leo’s eyebrows raised when he heard Fox’s name. The pope then thanked him for the gift.

At some point after that moment, Pope Leo jokingly asked Livesay how the bat even made it through the security.

“I’ve never given any pope a gift before, but when your cousin sends you Nellie Fox’s bat in the mail, you can’t say no,” Livesay said in a follow-up tweet. “Especially not on Thanksgiving.”

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