Baseball Stadiums: Reviewing 2014 Resolutions

In January, I made four resolutions related to visiting Minor League Baseball stadiums.  As 2014 comes to a close, I wanted to revisit my resolutions and see what I accomplished.

My first resolution was...

In 2014, I resolve to visit all four Georgia @MiLB teams: @GreenJackets, @GwinnettBraves, @TheRomeBraves, and @gnatsbaseball. #PlayBall
— Steven Ericson (@geoSteven) January 1, 2014

I visited the Gwinnett Braves in July (read about my visit here), but did not succeed in visiting the other three teams.  I spent a majority of my summer working on my dissertation, and did not get to visit Augusta, Rome, or Savannah.  So I was only 1-for-4 in completing this resolution.  Now that my dissertation is completed, I hopeful will visit those teams during the 2015 season.

My second resolution was...

In 2014, I resolve to see all four @MiLB teams in Alabama: @BhamBarons, @HuntsvilleStars, @Mobile_BayBears, and @BiscuitBaseball. #PlayBall
— Steven Ericson (@geoSteven) January 1, 2014

I was 2-for-4 with my goal of visiting all the Minor League teams in Alabama.  I visited the Birmingham Barons in early May (read about visit here), and visited the Huntsville Stars in August while meeting up with a gang of former Stars coworkers (read about visit here).  I did not make it to Mobile or Montgomery though.  Again, working on my dissertation prevented me from fulfilling some of my travel goals for 2014.

My third resolution was...

In 2014, I resolve to visit @Threshers and get a photo with @PhinleyThresher while attending @theAAG conference in @VisitTampaBay. #PlayBall
— Steven Ericson (@geoSteven) January 2, 2014

I actually accomplished this resolution.  On the first day of the AAG Annual Meeting, I made a trek from downtown Tampa to Clearwater for a game between the Threshers and Tampa Yankees (read about visit here).  The game and meeting Phinley lived up to expectations.  I went on a Tuesday night, but the Threshers had a beer special so I enjoyed a few Yuengling lagers.

My fourth resolution was...

In 2014, I resolve to visit all three @MiLB teams in Kentucky: @LouisvilleBats, @LexingtonLegend, and @BGHotRods. #PlayBall
— Steven Ericson (@geoSteven) January 2, 2014

I was 1-for-3 on completing this resolution. I saw my first Bowling Green Hot Rods game (read about visit here), but did not get to visit the Lexington Legends or Louisville Bats.  I had hoped to visit the Bluegrass region before going to Cincinnati for the AP Human Geography Reading, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record I did not get to do that because I was working on my dissertation.

Of my four resolutions, I only completed one.  Maybe I was too ambitious with my resolutions, but at least I tried.  Tallying up the individual components of my resolutions, I was 5-for-12, which depending upon how you look at it is amazing or decidedly mediocre.  It means I accomplished 41.6 percent of the tasks to complete all four resolutions.  By normal standards of excellence that's not good, but by baseball standards I'd be batting .417 which is Hall of Fame caliber stats.

Ultimately, I'm disappointed I didn't complete more of my resolutions, but I knew that some of them were overly ambitious.  Regardless of my results, I am glad that I set some travel resolutions to keep myself motivated and my mind churning with ideas of places to visit.  I will set some travel goals for 2015 and post about those within a few weeks.