Here’s a question for you: What do Joey Votto, Tom Izzo, and Pope Pius XII have in common?

You may or may not recognize the first two as sports figures, and the third could have given the benediction at a ballgame, I suppose, but no, that’s not it.

Votto is a Major League Baseball star who some would say is a borderline Hall of Famer with a career .294 batting average and 356 home runs. Izzo is a Hall of Famer, as a college basketball coach, most notably at Michigan State, with 707 wins, eight Final Fours, six Big Ten Tournament championships and one national championship. And Pius XII is one of the most famous — or infamous, depending on your take — popes in modern times, his papacy running from 1939-58 and defined by World War II.

My query at the beginning of this column is kind of a trick question, and I wouldn’t expect you to know the answer, unless you happen to be peeking into my home office window when I’m on my computer late at night (and if you do, might I suggest a different hobby — either that or tap on the window and I’ll invite you in for a glass of wine.)

Anyway, one of my hobbies is genealogy, and those three may be, could be, might possibly be cousins of mine.

I think many of us, in one way or another, want to be related to someone........

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