Sisterhood of the Traveling Jersey: Update and future plans

Hey Gaslamp Ballers and fellow Sisterhood members! I thought it would be good to catch everyone up on what our favorite jersey has been up to lately, as well as reveal some of what's in store for its future.

First of all, padresjagoff has been working on something really cool - a #SotTJ coffee table book!

So far it looks incredible, and I can't wait to see how it progresses.

At the end of the 2015 season, the Staton jersey went into retirement. But it has since made its way back into rotation, returning to Petco Park for the All Star Game last year and then going on the road to visit some other ballparks this season. Padresjagoff took it to Cobb County, Georgia for the inaugural series at the brand new Suntrust Park. Then crazy_charisma brought it on an east coast trip, where it toured Fenway Park and went to a game at Citi Field. But while the jersey wasn't traveling this season I've been holding onto it, doing some patch maintenance to keep it looking sharp, and taking it on little mini adventures around San Diego.

I first got my hands back on the jersey in May. I picked it up from padresjagoff and he told me a little about his trip and the new adornments he added to the jersey, including a 42 patch to commemorate that weekend's Jackie Robinson Day celebration and a Suntrust Park "Inaugural Game" pin.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may or may not know the reason I needed to pick up the jersey from him that day. I didn't have any trips pending or anything like that, but I did have plans for it. Earlier that month, we at Gaslamp Ball had been approached about doing a segment about the Traveling Jersey for one of Fox Sports San Diego's TV programs, Padres POV. They wanted to have one or more of us come in and talk about the project in front of the camera. I ended up being the only one of us available, so we set up a time and date for me to come down and film the interview.

So shortly after picking up the jersey, I headed downtown to the FSSD studio, where I met with the gentlemen who were putting together the segment. They were excited to see the jersey in person, as anyone would be, and they had a nice setup for me inside, complete with a place to hang and display the jersey as I talked about it.

I was very nervous and my voice was shaking, but I managed to stumble through the interview (although afterwards I thought about all the things I forgot about and should have said). I won't go into the details of what I talked about too much, because you will be able to see for yourself this Friday, August 4th, when the segment airs after the Padres game. But I discussed the history of the project, described where some of the pins and patches came from, and waxed poetic about how great Gaslamp Ball and the GLB community is.

That same day, on my way home to North County, I had some free time so I thought it would be great to make a stop in Poway and visit the new Tony Gwynn statue that had just been revealed at Lake Poway Park. If you're in San Diego and you haven't taken the time to go visit the statue yet, I recommend going as soon as you can. It's a wonderful tribute to Mr. Padre, and well worth the drive out there.

I soon had to say goodbye to the jersey again, as crazy_charisma was preparing to take it on her trip out east. I made plans to meet up with her at Alesmith Brewery in Miramar, which not only allowed me to have some beers while I waited but also gave me a chance to finally check out their Tony Gwynn Museum. The museum opened last July, housing some one-of-a-kind memorabilia gifted to Alesmith by the Gwynn family themselves. Unfortunately they don't allow any photos to be taken inside the museum itself, but here is the jersey enjoying some refreshments at the bar.

I handed off the jersey and it went on a great trip to the east coast. When crazy_charisma came back, the folks at FSSD had her come in and talk about her trip for the Padres POV segment as well.

Soon after that, I retrieved the jersey back from crazy_charisma (along with a Mets patch from her trip, which I promised her I would sew onto the jersey). It stayed hanging on my closet door for a little while until June 17th, when Alesmith hosted their annual 5.5K. My boyfriend and I had signed up to be volunteers for the event, and even though I would have to wear a volunteer shirt that morning I decided to bring the jersey with me to wear after our volunteer shift ended.

Our shift consisted of us directing cars to the available parking areas and helping people who were waiting for shuttles to the race's starting line. The shuttles they had that morning were a big party bus and a limo, which was pretty cool. The morning went smoothly and it was probably the easiest volunteer gig I've ever done, plus we got awesome volunteer tshirts and free beer vouchers for it. After we were done, we got to ride in the limo back to Alesmith where we spent the rest of the morning hanging out. Naturally, I had to put on the jersey.

I tried to wear it for most of the rest of that morning, but it was a hot day and if you've ever worn the jersey you know that it's not good at keeping you cool, so I took it off once in a while to air out.

The event was fantastic. I got to try the brewery's commemorative Imperial .394 pale ale, which was delicious. They had several food trucks serving up delicious food (we got some tasty breakfast burritos which totally hit the spot that morning). There was a silent auction with a ton of really cool items and baskets up for grabs to the highest bidders. And the musical entertainment was top notch, featuring Alicia Gwynn who sang and danced to some of her new songs. We also ran into the awesome Geoff Young of Ducksnorts and Baseball Prospectus fame and chatted with him for a while, which was such a pleasure, as always.

And while wearing the jersey, I was spotted by Zack from FSSD, who took the opportunity to get some footage of what he called "the jersey, in the wild" for the Padres POV segment. Zack told me they were still working on the segment and weren't sure when it would air, but assured me he would give me a heads up. And today, he did just that! (Again, tune in to Padres POV after the game this Friday night.)

So that's what's been going on with the jersey lately. I still have it in my possession and I've just been giving it some much-needed TLC, fixing up some of the patches and things that have come loose. I'll definitely be bringing it out to wear while I watch Padres POV this Friday, and hopefully I'll find some other cool things to do with it soon. That said, if anyone out there has any ideas of things for me to do with it, or better yet, wants to join the Sisterhood and take the jersey themselves, PLEASE don't hesitate to reach out to me. As much as I love having the jersey, I'd love even more for it to continue to have adventures with other Gaslamp Ballers. All you have to do is make sure to write a FanPost about your time with the jersey so we can all enjoy reading about it. You can DM me on Twitter or email me, or even just comment on this post and I'll get in contact with you. Let's keep this project going!