Our search for the Best of the Ballparks continues with the first round of voting for the best independent-baseball facilities across the United States and Canada — and we want to know what you think.
Our Best of the Ballparks competition kicked off with Triple-A voting and continued with Double-A, High Class-A voting and Low Class-A voting yesterday, and summer-collegiate voting today. 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 round of 32, followed by three additional rounds before winners are announced. We’ve selected our top 32 independent ballparks to keep this poll manageable. We’re sure some readers will question why their favorite independent ballpark was not included, and the answer is simple: it just wasn’t feasible to include every independent ballpark.
We know from our marketing research 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.
Voting in this round is now closed.
Here’s our list of the top 32 independent ballparks:
1. CHS Field (St. Paul Saints; AA)
2. Shaw Park (Winnipeg Goldeyes; AA)
3. Constellation Field (Sugar Land Skeeters; AtL)
4. U.S. Steel Yard (Gary SouthShore RailCats; AA)
5. Le Stade Municipal (Quebec Capitales; Can-Am)
6. QuikTrip Park at Grand Prairie (Grand Prairie Airhogs; AA)
7. Boomers Stadium (Schaumburg Boomers; FL)
8. All Pro Freight Stadium (Lake Erie Crushers; FL)
9. Newman Outdoor Field (Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks; AA)
10. Provident Bank Park (Rockland Boulders; Can-Am)
11. Clipper Magazine Stadium (Lancaster Barnstormers; AtL)
12. Santander Stadium (York Revolution; AtL)
13. Haymarket Park (Lincoln Saltdogs; AA)
14. Rent One Park (Southern Illinois Miners; FL)
15. TD Bank Ballpark (Somerset Patriots; AtL)
16. Wuerfel Park (Traverse City Beach Bums; FL)
17. Bosse Field (Evansville Otters; FL)
18. Community America Ballpark (Kansas City T-Bones; AA)
19. Bethpage Ballpark (Long Island Ducks; AtL)
20. Lawrence-Dumont Stadium (Wichita Wingnuts; AA)
21. Sioux Falls Stadium (Sioux Falls Canaries; AA)
22. T.R. Hughes Ballpark (River City Rascals; FL)
23. Regency Furniture Stadium (Southern Maryland Blue Crabs; AtL)
24. Skylands Stadium (Sussex County Miners; Can-Am)
25. Stade Fernand-Bédard (Trois-Rivières Aigles; Can-Am)
26. Uni-Trade Stadium (Laredo Lemurs; AA)
27. Yogi Berra Stadium (New Jersey Jackals; Can-Am)
28. GCS Ballpark (Gateway Grizzlies; FL)
29. The Corn Crib (Normal Cornbelters; FL)
30. Silver Cross Field (Joliet Slammers; FL)
31. Potter County Memorial Stadium (Amarillo Thunderheads; AA)
32. Albert Park (San Rafael Pacifics; PacAssn)
