Love of the Royals brings Leaven’s newest reporter to KC

by Moira Cullings
moira.cullings@theleaven.org

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Not many baseball fans were jumping on the Kansas City Royals bandwagon in 2005.

The 56-106 season was the worst the team has ever had.

Yet the Royals won the heart of 10-year-old John Sorce, an avid baseball fan from New Jersey.

“I went to Backyard Baseball one day on the computer, because you could see all the teams,” he said.

Sorce wanted to cheer for a team with a blue uniform, his favorite color, and although there were several, the Royals stood out.

For his 13th birthday, Sorce’s dad took him to Kansas City for the first time to see a game.

“When I came here in ’07, they played Cleveland twice, lost both games — of course,” he said. “But I didn’t care, because I saw the stadium off of the highway.

“And it just felt right.”

Sorce moved to Emporia in 2022 to pursue a sports editor position with the Emporia Gazette — and to be closer to his beloved Royals. He became The Leaven’s new reporter on Oct. 28, 2024.

Leap of faith

“It’s a tricky business being a Leaven reporter,” said managing editor Anita McSorley.

“You start out as a lay Catholic in the pew,” she said, “then climb this very steep learning curve to the point where you can understand and explain everything from embryonic stem-cell research to the inviolability of the confessional.

“But then, you have to learn how to relate all you have learned at a sixth grade level. It’s not for the faint of heart.”

Sorce works mostly remotely and is often out conducting interviews and attending events around the archdiocese.

He never expected to work for a Catholic publication but grew up dreaming about becoming the next Ken Rosenthal, with specific hopes of covering the Royals.

Life changed course when he was covering the Father Pete O’Sullivan Golf Tournament last summer.

He got to talking with a group he recognized from Emporia’s Sacred Heart Church, and a couple weeks later, one of the women emailed him about The Leaven’s open position.

“I wasn’t looking for it,” said Sorce. “Sometimes, things find you.”

When Sorce got the offer, he was excited to move to the Kansas City metro and share stories of faith.

“Things happen for a reason is how I view it,” he said. “I always wanted to get here to Johnson County somewhere. You don’t know how or when it’s going to happen.

“And if you told me a year ago I would be doing this, I wouldn’t have believed you. But this is what God wants me doing right now.”

Pursuing his passion

Sorce was born on Staten Island, New York. He and his parents moved to Middletown, New Jersey, when he was 18 months old, where he was raised with his younger sister.

His love for America’s pastime comes from his maternal grandmother, who at 92 years old continues to cheer on the New York Yankees “all game, every game,” said Sorce.

He attended Brookdale Community College in Lincroft for three years before transferring to Monmouth University, where he earned a degree in communication with a concentration in journalism PR.

It was at Brookdale where he began pursuing sports reporting.

“No one covered [sports] before I got there, and no one’s covered them since,” he said.

At Monmouth, Sorce took the initiative to write a story about a football game that took place before the school year started.

“They ended up publishing that story, and I covered every football game, basketball game, baseball game for two years,” he said. “I was sports editor senior year.”

It happened to be the best two years the university’s men’s basketball team had ever had.

“We were up in Albany, New York, for the conference tournament,” Sorce recalled. “The first year we were there, they beat USC, UCLA, Notre Dame — all these big-name schools.

“The Monmouth bench was a national story. They had these crazy celebrations. The school got covered like it never had before.”

His senior year, Sorce covered the Hall of Fame inductions of Monmouth alumni Brad Brach and Miles Austin.

After college, he worked as a freelance writer before taking a sports reporter/clerk position at nj.com, where he ultimately ended up with the swimming beat.

By this time, he was ready to get out of the northeast and actively seeking jobs in Kansas and Missouri.

But Sorce was also dealing with anxiety and had doubts about his ability to make the move.

“We grew up going to church,” said Sorce. “But I kind of got away from it for a time.

“I was thinking once that all falls into place — my job, and I move out and all that — I’ll go back to [my faith] then. But I had it backwards.

“I’m going to go back to God first and then worry about the job. So, I started praying every night.”

By 2022, Sorce had surrendered his life to God and within three months got the job in Emporia.

“From that [experience, I learned] I’m going to let go,” he said. “I’m not in control — God’s in control.”

A royal start

McSorley is excited to see Sorce grow as a writer. And is not worried at all about his sports roots.

“One of the best writers ever to grace the pages of the Kansas City Star,” she said, “was sportswriter Joe Posnanski.

“It didn’t matter at all that his beat was sports — because he never lost sight of the fact that it was the story of the people behind the sports that made the story interesting.”

Sorce looks forward to telling stories of faith — and catching many Royals games this upcoming season.

“I’m just glad to be in Kansas City,” he said. “That’s God’s doing, for sure.”