Padres Welcome Home U.S.S. Essex

The Padres have a rich history of honoring the military men and women who serve our country. With multiple military bases and branches located in and around San Diego County, it makes perfect sense and their camouflage uniforms for Sundays have proven to be both popular and fitting for the area.

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Tuesday the Friar was on hand in holiday garb to welcome home sailors of the USS Essex. The Essex had been gone on a 7 month deployment and carried over 4,500 sailors and marines as reported by Heather Hope.

The Essex is an amphibious assault ship and had left from San Diego Bay in early May.

The Padres recently unveiled new Sunday home uniforms of their own to honor the Navy to good reviews. Also of note is that when these jerseys are sold a portion of the sales will go directly back towards the US Navy.

Next: Padres Pick up 4 in Rule 5 Draft

The Padres do a good job of staying involved in the community and with the Chargers entire future in doubt – it could be an interesting time for the team to really gain a foothold as the last remaining top level professional sports team in San Diego. There was a lot of optimism and fan buy-in last off-season as the Padres made a lot of changes to the club. The on field results did not match, though there was a slight uptick in overall attendance for the season.

With the All Star Game coming to Petco Park for the first time in its history, next year should be an exciting one for the Padres. They have a lot of holes to fill on the team but I wouldn’t discount A.J. Preller continuing to reshape this roster and putting a competitive team on the field. Last year he went flashy with big names and contracts. This year, he has already shipped sluggish second baseman Jedd Gyorko for the athletic center fielder Jon Jay and moved the disappointing Yonder Alonso paving the way to put Wil Myers at first which will hopefully keep him on the field.