The Rev. Wayne Pavela stands in front of his 10-acre garden east of Columbus last week. Pavela, who gives all the produce away to the poor and needy, is also a Chicago Cubs season ticket holder who was recently honored by the team before a game as the game ball deliverer.
What happened to the ball the Rev. Wayne Pavela placed on the mound at Wrigley Field? Well, based on the average lifespan of a baseball, it likely didn't make it more than a few pitches.
The first ball out there, it might not have even made it past the warmup tosses Chicago starter Drew Smyly took ahead of his four-plus innings of work last month. Whatever happened, Pavela never witnessed just how much usage came out of his short trip between the lines of the friendly confines.
"I really have no idea," Pavela said. "I was on my way back to my seat so who knows how long that ball was out there - probably not very long. It probably didn't even make the game."
Ordained to the priesthood 1977, formerly assigned to Scotus Central Catholic for 16 years and most recently in Humphrey for the last 24, Pavela is now retired but still going strong as a grower and a baseball fan.
He's had an extensive garden east of Columbus for 30 years. His land, which includes every imaginable crop over 10 acres, is his way of living the ministry of Jesus and giving back to the poor all over eastern Nebraska.
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Some goes to Simon House here in town, others to food banks across the region, senior centers, nursing homes, food pantries, rescue missions and the Salvation Army.
And while he tends to the garden mostly all on his own, it requires occasional help. When the Cubs are home at Wrigley Field, there's a pretty good chance Pavela is out of town.
He's in Chicago right now to watch a Cubs homestand that included the San Diego Padres earlier in the week and the world champion Atlanta Braves this weekend. Chicago is well below .500, fourth in the Central Division and in the midst of a rebuild six years after ending a 108-year championship drought.
But it's never been about the winning, it's just about baseball.
Since 2010 he's been a season ticket holder who makes it to the Windy City for 20 to 30 games per year. He saw all three World Series games in 2016 and, if he recalls correctly, might have gone on his first trip to see the Cubs after purchasing a ticket package from the Scotus gala.
He's been invited to Cubs autograph events and been acknowledged a time or two before in front of the home crowd. None of that, he says, compared to May 18 when he was the honorary game ball deliverer.
"In 2018 I was the season ticket holder of the game, walked on the field for the game and waved. I've had something special like this happen a couple times," Pavela said. "This is the most recent, and this was bigger than that."
The Rev. Wayne Pavela is featured on the Wrigley Field big screen before delivering the game ball out to the mound May 18 against Pittsburgh.
Pavela started out as a Mets fan who gradually found a love for Chicago because the Cubs were always available on TV through WGN. That plus the attraction of maybe someday going to Wrigley, which is much more local to Nebraska than New York, turned him into a Chicago supporter.
Initially, in his professional life he wanted to be an athletic trainer and found his way into the Braves organization. He wasn't needed in Atlanta and assigned to a minor league affiliate in Twin Falls, Idaho. But while he was on the right track, something was missing.
Pavela answered the call and began seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota; and went on to study Theology in Denver at St. Thomas Seminary. After Holy Orders he started at St. Bernard's in Omaha and taught at Elkhorn Mount Michael. In 1981 he was transferred to Scotus where he won an auction at the gala in 1985.
He, Jim and Gary Puetz and Vern Younger held football practice one Saturday morning that late summer, made the trip to Chicago and saw a ballgame the Sunday before Labor Day. The Cubs won that one over the Braves 15-2. According to baseball-reference.com, the victory included a three-hit, four RBI day by third baseman Keith Moreland.
Since then he's witnesses such moments as a 16-inning win over the Colorado Rockies in 2014, a no-hitter by Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels in 2015 and a pitching duel between San Francisco's Johnny Cueto and Chicago's Jon Lester in the first game of 2016 NLDS. The Cubs won 1-0 on a Javier Baez eighth-inning home run on their way to the title.
The Rev. Wayne Pavela takes a photo alongside Cubs Hall of Famer Lee Smith during an autograph session before the game in Chicago on May 18.
"At 11 o'clock somebody brought us pizza, and then at 1 they brought doughnuts," Pavela laughed as he remembered the win over the Rockies that clocked in at 6 hours and 27 minutes. "We didn't leave Wrigley until quarter to two when the game got over."
And, of course, he was there for the three home games of the World Series in 2016. The Cubs ended a century-plus of misery after coming back from a 3-1 series deficit, but, naturally, lost two of three in front of the home crowd.
"I told the priest up at St. Francis that, 'World Series, I'm going,'" Pavela recalled. "Gary (Puetz) asked me, 'What would you do if you were walking to the stadium and somebody came up to you and said, 'Father, I'll give you $10,000 for that ticket?' ('I told him) I wouldn't sell it.'"
The best he's ever seen included a home run by Barry Bonds in 2007 and Greg Maddux on the mound as a Cub both early and late in his career.
This summer, the Cubs are back to being the lovable losers. Chicago was in the midst of a nine-game losing skid after Wednesday's 19-5 hammering by San Diego.
When Pavela decided to convert from a game-by-game ticket buyer to a season-ticket holder he was first denied. Based on his area code, it didn't seem the Cubs were too fond of selling to someone who might not be close enough to attend all 81 home games.
A letter to Frank Maloney, a former college football coach at Syracuse who had joined the Cubs management team later in life, helped change his luck. A prior relationship with a priest who taught Pavela in Denver earned him a place to stay without shelling out money for a hotel. That priest moved on to DePaul University, just about two miles from Wrigley, and the college became Pavela's home away from home. For the 50-60 games he can't attend, priests and staff at DePaul have access to his ticket.
He sits in left field general admission. There are no assigned seats in the bleachers, which sometimes requires camping out ahead of time to ensure he finds his regular spot. That's not much of a problem these days, "because they're so bad," Pavela joked.
These days he goes early to spend time with the group he spends time with out in left field.
"We go to the ballpark early cause you're let in five minutes early (as a season ticket holder," he said. "Sometimes, depending on what the game is, we wind up going and sitting outside the ballpark four hours ahead of time. If there's a 7 o'clock game, I might be there at 2:30.
"We really don't have to be there that early; it's just, there's a bunch of us that like to stick together and sit out there and talk. It's kind of camaraderie."
There were some cheers from the left field bleachers that evening when he was displayed on the big screen and made the short journey out to the mound. Before the game he was part of an autograph signing with former relief pitcher and Cubs Hall of Famer Lee Smith.
He was also given an official "Game Ball Deliverer" certificate and a pack of baseball cards only available to fans with season tickets.
It would be a better story if the Cubs knew about Pavela's gardening efforts and rewarded his hard work, but in reality, the ceremony is part of a normal rewards program the team holds for those with season tickets.
Regardless, from his perspective there was more to it than a simple random selection.
"(My ticket rep) didn't really have to convince me. I was dumbfounded because I thought, 'This is a big deal,'" he said. "To be asked to do that was kind of humbling."
Chicago won the first two of the three-game set with the Pirates but lost 3-2 the night Pavela delivered the ball. They then lost the next four in a row to Arizona, although he was headed back to Columbus for the final game of the homestand.
Before he had his moment he was sure to watch the same ceremony in the days leading up to his moment and get it right.
So what was on his mind as he stepped onto the hallowed grounds of Wrigley? After 40 years as a fan, what kind of emotions were rushing through his heart? Was this, in some way, a small taste of heaven?
It was much simpler than all that: "I put it down on the rubber," he said, "and made sure the sucker didn't roll off."
The Rev. Wayne Pavela comes off the field with a member of the Cubs support staff after placing the ball on the mound before a home game against Pittsburgh on May 18.
Nate Tenopir is the sports editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach him via email at sports@columbustelegram.com.
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