15 States to Go

Last week I had a four day weekend for Ascension Thursday.  So for the third time in four years, I used that to take a baseball trip (San Diego three years ago and Toronto last year).  This year, I was going to Cincinnati (more on that in my next post).  But I've been combining trips to Major League games with trips to states I haven't been to, so I went to the Deep South this time.  I wanted to go to New Orleans and then drive to Mobile.  I really want to get to the World War II museum in New Orleans and then I would have crossed off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  But the schedule for the Mobile BayBears didn't work so I settled for just getting to Alabama and seeing the Birmingham Barons, the team that Michael Jordan played for.

I was hoping to get to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, but my flight was a little delayed so that didn't happen.  I just spent some time at the hotel before the game preparing to teach about the Civil War.  I walked to the stadium about an hour early and walked around.  According to Baseball America, Regions Field is the third best stadium in the minors.  I've been to three in less than a year now (including number 9 on the list) and I would agree that Regions Field is the best one I've been to.  The design is a little funky, but it works for Birmingham.  The food and drink selection is outstanding.  They have a barbecue concession stand where I got a sandwich.  It wasn't anything special, but it's nice to have some options.  I was eating that by the bullpen before the game and some guy from Alabama came up and started talking to me.  He had a great Alabama accent.  He had gone to the same high school as the Barons' pitching coach, who had apparently played in the Majors for a little while.

Outside the stadium

The crowd was easily the best crowd I've seen at a minor league game.  At 8,500, it was a sellout.  One reason for that was that it was Thirsty Thursday.  They had bad beer for $2.  Of course, I would gladly pay extra money for good beer.  And the beer selection was easily the best that I've seen at a minor league stadium.  There was a bar out in center field that had a wide selection, including my favorite beer, Sam Adams Summer Ale.  But I can drink Summer Ale whenever I want from March until November, so I figured I should drink a local beer.  Although I didn't like the name, I had a Yellowhammer Rebellion Red Ale.  It's brewed in Huntsville, Alabama.  And it was excellent.

I watched an inning from right field as I drank a beer.

As for the game, it was the Chattanooga Lookouts against the Birmingham Barons.  Once again, I was a year too late to see a Dodgers' affiliate.  Chattanooga switched from the Dodgers to the Twins this year.  Their uniforms still look like they should be a Dodgers' affiliate.  The Barons are a White Sox affiliate (which they've been since 1986).  Chattanooga had the top prospect in baseball, Byron Buxton.  He led off and played center field, but he only went 1 for 5 with a single.  He was only hitting .244 after the game.  We'll see if he lives up to the billing.  Last year, it looks like he was hurt because he only played in 31 games.  He did put up really good numbers the year before.  As for the game, Chattanooga was up 3-0 after four and they ended up winning 5-1.

Byron Buxton at the plate

This gives you a better view of the entire field.

So I have 15 states left to go (here's my current map).  Here are my Power Rankings of how much I want to get to each state:

15.  North Dakota.  Fargo has an independent league team.  I can't think of anything else to do in North Dakota.

14.  Montana.  There are some minor league teams.

13.  Idaho.  Boise has a Rookie ball team.  And one of my roommates from Notre Dame lives there.

12.  Nebraska.  It has the College World Series.

11.  Oregon.  It has the Trail Blazers and some minor league teams.

10.  Mississippi.  Biloxi has a minor league team and it's about an hour and a half from New Orleans.

9.  Maine.  Portland's Hadlock Field has the Maine Monster in left field.

8.  Vermont.  Vermont has charity wiffle ball at Little Fenway, Little Wrigley, and Little Field of Dreams.

7.  South Dakota.  I would love to get to Mt. Rushmore, but it's not easy to get to.

6.  Iowa.  It has the Field of Dreams.

5.  Alaska.  It would be really cool to go to Alaska, but I don't know what to do there.  I would love to go to the Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks, but with my school schedule, I don't think that would ever work out.  I can't really think of what else to do in Alaska.  If anybody has any ideas, let me know.

4.  Louisiana.  I don't care about New Orleans, except for the World War II museum.

3.  South Carolina.  Notre Dame plays at Clemson in the fall.  I applied for that game in the lottery.  I probably won't win though.

2.  Minnesota.  It's the only state with a Major League team that I haven't been to yet.  I'm going to a wedding in St. Paul this fall, but hopefully I'll get there this summer for a Twins game.

1.  Hawaii.  I really want to see Pearl Harbor.  I'm sure there's lots of other fun stuff to do.  I also have in mind that I'd stop there on my way to Australia.  Then I could take a shorter flight to Australia rather than the 15-hour flight from Los Angeles.