We are absolutely blown away by the public reception to voting for the Best of the Ballparks, so we can’t wait to see what people register as their favorites for the best Double-A ballparks in the Eastern, Texas and Southern Leagues. The voting is now open!
This is part of our Best of the Ballparks competition, which kicked off with Triple-A voting yesterday. We’ll be running the contest with seeded brackets, so there will be plenty of action in coming days. The first round will be a play-in (thanks for the inspiration, NCAA!), followed by three additional rounds before winners are announced. For MiLB, we’ll be structuring the voting by classification, so the competition is broken down into Triple-A, Double-A, High A, Low A, short season A and rookie. The summer collegiate and independent brackets will encompass what we consider to the top 32 ballparks in their classifications. And, of course, the MLB parks stand on their own.
We know from marketing stats a third of our readers work in the baseball industry, so we’re tapping into that collective expertise. And we know from our research that a third of our readers sell to the baseball industry, so that expertise will be valuable as well. The remaining third — fans, media, government — will certainly have a different view on things as well. We can’t wait to see what our readers — whom we consider to be the smartest folks in baseball — say about the best of the ballparks.
First-round voting ends Friday at 6 p.m., with the second round beginning Saturday at 9 a.m.
Here’s our ranking of Double-A ballparks, combining Texas, Southern and Eastern League facilities:
1. Regions Field (Birmingham Barons; SL)
2. Pensacola Bayfront Stadium (Pensacola Blue Wahoos; SL)
3. Dr Pepper Ballpark (Frisco RoughRiders; TL)
4. Dickey-Stephens Park (Arkansas Travelers; TL)
5. FirstEnergy Stadium (Reading Fightin Phils; EL)
6. Smokies Park (Tennessee Smokies; SL)
7. Whataburger Field (Corpus Christi Hooks; TL)
8. ONEOK Field (Tulsa Drillers; TL)
9. ARM & HAMMER Park (Trenton Thunder; EL)
10. Riverwalk Stadium (Montgomery Biscuits; SL)
11. Canal Park (Akron RubberDucks; EL)
12. Metro Bank Park (Harrisburg Senators; EL)
13. Hammons Field (Springfield Cardinals; TL)
14. Bragan Field at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville (Jacksonville Suns; SL)
15. Northeast Delta Dental Stadium (New Hampshire Fisher Cats; EL)
16. Arvest Ballpark (Northwest Arkansas Naturals; TL)
17. Trustmark Park (Mississippi Braves; SL)
18. Peoples Natural Gas Field (Altoona Curve; EL)
19. MGM Park (Biloxi Shuckers; SL)
20. Hadlock Field (Portland Sea Dogs; EL)
21. Security Bank Ballpark (Midland RockHounds; TL)
22. The Diamond (Richmond Flying Squirrels; EL)
23. The Ballpark at Jackson (Jackson Generals; SL)
24. AT&T Field (Chattanooga Lookouts; SL)
25. Wolff Stadium (San Antonio Missions; TL)
26. Jerry Uht Park (Erie SeaWolves; EL)
27. Prince George’s Stadium (Bowie Baysox; EL)
28. Henry Aaron Stadium (Mobile BayBears)
29. New Britain Stadium (New Britain Rock Cats; EL)
30. NYSEG Stadium (Binghamton Mets; EL)
VOTING IN THIS FIRST ROUND HAS ENDED.
