Saturday, January 7, 2017

Baseball Stadiums: 2017 Resolutions

I'm now into year three of writing baseball-travel resolutions (read 2015's resolutions here; read 2016's resolutions here).  These resolutions/goals mostly focus on attending Minor League Baseball games, but sometimes I add a Major League Baseball goal.

The first resolution for 2017...
Over the past few years, I've gotten to interact with Josh Pahigian, who has written numerous books about attending MLB and MiLB games (see his Amazon author page here).  He lives in Portland, Maine, and teaches at the University of New England.  During this past season he reached out to me about using a photo I took of a biscuit at a Montgomery Biscuits games (read my post here) in his upcoming book The Amazing Baseball Adventure: Ballpark Wonders from the Bushes to the Show, and we've corresponded about attending a game together when I'm in the Boston area for the AAG Annual Meeting in May.  My schedule is still in flux, so I'm not sure what ballpark or game we may attend, but I'm optimistic that I'll get to either a New Hampshire FisherCats or Portland Sea Dogs game and meet Josh.

My second resolution for 2017...
I've previously aimed to see all the MiLB teams in Alabama, and setting the same goal this year.  I have seen the Barons (read post here), BayBears (read post here), and Biscuits (read post here) at different times since I started blogging about my stadium visits, but have never visited all three ballparks during the same season.  My fiancĂ©e Katie has been keen on the idea of seeing the Biscuits and BayBears, so I decided it would be a good goal to try and see all three teams during the upcoming season as we hopefully visit more of Alabama's craft breweries.

My third resolution for 2017...
Last August, Katie and I had hoped to visit the Mississippi Gulf Coast and attend a Biloxi Shuckers game, but we were unfortunately unable to accomplish that trip because of other commitments.  As she loves the beach and thankfully enjoys baseball, too, I've pitched the idea to her that we could visit Biloxi this summer for some beach time while also watching the Shuckers and visiting some of Mississippi's craft breweries.

My fourth resolution for 2017...
Last year, I resolved to see the Atlanta Braves play a game during their final season at Turner Field.  So it seemed appropriate and kind of obvious that I'd resolve to see the Braves play a game during their first season at SunTrust Park this year.

Now that I have my four baseball travel resolutions set for 2017 I have to start planning and make them a reality.  I accomplished two of my four resolutions for 2016, and hopefully will be more successful this year.