What To Do With The Jersey When They Leave

What do you do when one of your homegrown guys leaves for another team? Truth be told, we stopped getting attached to any of our guys since February 1985, when Jack Clark was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. We'll never forget it, Jack Clark and his then wife were being interviewed at the old Lyon's restaurant on El Camino Real in Millbrae by KRON-TV after the trade was made. We were crushed to see the only true star of the team going to St. Louis. It was a simpler time back then, we only had his baseball cards, and none of the countless number of apparel and souvenir items that exist today.

Fast forward to 2009, and this up and comer by the name of Pablo Sandoval came on the scene and became our starting third baseman. We liked what we saw in him, the guy could hit and field his position. He was Vladimir Guerrero all over again, his strike zone was from the laces to the bill of the cap, and he could square up his bat out of the zone. We remember watching him at Petco Park in San Diego at the end of the 2009 regular season and seeing him launch his 25th home run in an extra inning game to win a meaningless matchup. This is our guy, that's what we said ... he's gonna be with us for awhile and will be a cornerstone in our lineup. So we invested … we invested in an authentic road jersey with his name and number. The same one they wore in 2009, and even had the "Burns" memorial patch stitched to the sleeve too.

Through the following years, we saw him peak and fall back, but he was still our guy. After a dismal 2010 season, he regained his form and delivered in the subsequent years and was a key figure in the 2012 and 2014 World Championship clubs. And now he's gone.

His jersey sits quietly in our closet, and we won't wear it again in the foreseeable future. In all honestly, we may not wear again until we travel to Boston in 2016 to see the Giants play the Red Sox in inter league. After that, we won't wear it again until he retires and returns to San Francisco as a hero that helped us win three World Championships.

So long Pablo, we hope the baseball gods will grace you with some good luck and fortune in Bean Town.

Our Pablo Jersey