Batting third and playing third base . . . Timothy Cardinal Dolan.
The head of the New York Archdiocese said that announcement is more likely than his being elected pope.
“I’ve got a better chance of following A-Rod at third base for the Yankees than following Benedict XVI as the bishop of Rome,” Dolan (right) told CNN yesterday, alluding to the sidelined Alex Rodriguez.
Dolan will be one of the 115 cardinals casting votes in the papal conclave this month.
He’s also one of about a dozen favorites, with legal bookies offering odds of his election at from 16-to-1 to 50-to-1. When told his name was on several lists of potential popes, Dolan replied, “I’ve been on my mom’s list for a while.”
Dolan said his fellow cardinals would be looking for an exceptional candidate.
“In a particularly radiant way, the pope is supposed to remind us of Jesus,” he said.
He also praised Benedict, saying his greatest skill was his ability to communicate “deep theological profundity that has been expressed with amazing clarity and almost childlike simplicity.”