Next up in our popular 2021 Best of the Ballparks fan vote: the Double-A round of the competition. With a lineup featuring several new parks, this also includes our 2021 ranking of MiLB AA ballparks.
We’re entering the brave new world of Minor League Baseball after the takeover of the industry by Major League Baseball, and the next set of changes are present in our Double-A fan vote and rankings. This year in Double-A sees the elimination of the Texas, Southern and Eastern leagues, one ballpark new to Double-A after being built for Triple-A (Riverfront Stadium, home of the Wichita Wind Surge, which was a finalist in the Triple-A vote in 2020), one former independent-baseball facility entering affiliated ball (TD Bank Ballpark, traditionally a huge contender in the independent votes) a long-time Double-A ballpark returning from Triple-A (Wolff Stadium), and a ballparks seeing major renovations (UPMC Park). With all of these changes and new ballparks faring well in 2020 fan votes, anything can happen.
We know from marketing stats that 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.
Here’s our ranking of Double-A ballparks. This was an extremely difficult list to seed: This is the top level of Minor League Baseball, and the quality of the facilities reflects that standing. Honestly, there’s not a lot of difference between most of the ballparks in this competition, and there are plenty of arguments for most of these ballparks deserving a higher rating. Results of last year’s vote also played a part in our seedings, as well as improvements entering this season. Occupying the top spot is Blue Wahoos Stadium, home of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos and last year’s champion. We don’t expect the voting to follow our seedings: our readers can be independent. and they share a love of ballparks and the fan experience. This is by far the most difficult bracket to seed.
Some things to note. First, you are allowed to vote multiple times, but you can only vote once per day. Second, you don’t need to fill out a full slate: partially filled lineups will count. A running tally of the vote will be presented at the bottom of this page in the form of brackets. Vote below:
