Sister Mary Jo Sobieck of Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights bounces a baseball off her right biceps before throwing a first pitch at a Chicago White Sox game. Her actions led to her being nominated for an ESPY Award from Best Viral Moment.

Whether it’s jumping over the third-base line in her habit, bouncing the baseball off her right biceps before throwing it or the biting 12-to-6 curveball for a strike to Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito — or a combination of them all — Sister Mary Jo Sobieck’s first pitch continues to garner attention.

The nun at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights has been nominated for an ESPY Award for Best Viral Moment for her first pitch at an August White Sox game. The member of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield will be headed to Los Angeles next week (July 10) for the ESPYs for her 30-second first pitch routine, which also included a point to heaven and a circuitous route to the pitching rubber to avoid stepping on the front of the mound dirt.

“Giolito helped me. I pointed at him and thanked him for saving the pitch before it dropped. ‘That was a strike,’ he said to me with a big grin,” Sobieck said. “I knew I could do it. I really just wanted to get it over the plate. It had been awhile since I’d thrown.”

Since gaining notoriety for her first pitch, Sister Mary Jo has been on the “Fox and Friends” and “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader?” TV shows, and had a bobblehead and limited edition Topps baseball card made in her honor.

She also returned to her high school in St. Cloud, Minnesota to speak to the Pep Club, which she was president of during her time at the school, and to throw the first ceremonial pass for the homecoming football game. A Sister Mary Jo Day was also proclaimed in St. Cloud during her visit.

“I could never have imagined all of this,” Sister Mary Jo told the Chronicle. “All of these things though — even the ESPY — isn’t all about sports. It’s about inspiration. It’s about wanting something, having the desire. I hope it helps people pull out the potential from their own lives.

“For me, I am nowhere near where I was as an athlete at 17 or 18, but I am humbled that what I did (with the first pitch) was inspiring to some people … It’s all about overcoming obstacles. It’s about pushing through. You may not reach your goal, but you never give up. I just hope what I did inspires people. That’s what I hope the video and the first pitch would be about.”

Much to the chagrin of Marian Catholic, the Chicago Archdiocese, Chicago Catholic Schools, and her Sisters of Springfield order — all of which have launched voting campaigns for her — Sister Mary Jo’s category will not be one of the ones aired during the ESPYs telecast July 10.

She said, regardless, she is happy that her viral moment has given her a platform to get her message to more people.

“I have been able to speak to youths and adults about what really drives me and that’s my faith. It is to have a commitment that is something beyond me,” Sobieck said. “It is about where I look to find what I need to keep going every day.”

“There is a passion I had for sports as a kid. I wanted to be the best and I worked on my skills,” Sister Mary Jo said. “That passion is still there, but it is fueled by a more patient endurance. I want to reach something, but it not just what is good for me, it is what is good for the human family.”

The nun said when she looks back on her notoriety, she will hope it gave her credibility in her message telling people to just be themselves.

“In our world of social media, people hide behind a false feeling of who they need to be,” Sobieck said. “I hope I can look back on every opportunity as an opportunity to do something to encourage somebody, to let them know that they matter and have purpose.”

Sister Mary Jo said by accepting the invitation to throw out the first pitch on Marian Catholic Night at Guaranteed Rate Field everything else fell into place.

“I said ‘yes’ to the invitation. I trusted I could do it. You do your best and let God do the rest,” Sobieck said. “He has certainly taken on the other parts. We have not sought out any of this. We did not seek to go on shows, the emails contacting the school. For me, it shows how out of our control things are. This has gotten much bigger than anything I could have had in mind. That is how the Holy Spirit works. The wind blows in and shakes things up a lot.”

Sobieck also has her own 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter baseball trading card. She signed more than 250 cards that are being inserted in random Topps trading card packs.

In learning that Sister Mary Jo is a lifelong baseball fan and an accomplished softball shortstop and center fielder in her own right, Topps officials felt she deserved to be one of their featured autograph subjects for the 2019 Topps Allen and Ginter baseball trading cards.

Bigger versions of the Topps cards are being made and will be offered for donations to the Sister Mary Jo Sobieck Scholarship Fund at Marian.

Again, the sister points to a greater power at work in her getting her own baseball card.

“I never imagined that 20-plus years later that God would integrate my love of sports into a ministry just to encourage people to be genuine,” Sobieck said when signing her baseball cards at the south suburban high school this spring. “Everyone’s like ‘Man, she threw from the mound.’ I couldn’t go halfway. We can’t go halfway in life.”

She said people also need to know that when things don’t work out as planned, to not despair, that it is a growing experience.

Having nine older brothers and sisters, Sobieck said, she didn’t get to sit on the sidelines.

“Being the youngest, I took my punches. So I learned how to overcome adversity,” Sister Mary Jo said.

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com