With several upsets from the first round, we’re heading into the second round of voting in Best of the Ballparks for summer-collegiate facilities, and we want to hear from you.
Summer-collegiate ballparks are the ultimate lollipops for ballpark fans: they’re usually older ballparks once used for Minor League Baseball, as these teams give new life to classic facilities. And voting was heavy in this category, leading to several upsets from our seedings. Fans chose Veterans Field, home of the Chatham Anglers, over Dunn Field, home of the Elmira Pioneers, in a matchup of classic ballparks. Fans also chose Goss Stadium, home of the Corvallis Knights, over Kiger Stadium, home of the Klamath Falls Gems. In perhaps the biggest upset of the entire Best of the Ballparks competition, fans chose Old Mountain Field, home of the Ocean State Waves, over Fleming Stadium, home of the Wilson Tobs, in another matchup of historic facilities. And in the tightest vote so far, fans selected Lowell Park, home of the Cotuit Kettleers, by a single vote.
Alas, we needed to throw out a passel of votes for a single poll. Yes, we can tell when someone at the same IP address is voting for the same single ballpark over and over, so we threw out all the bad votes, leaving Carson Park, home of the Eau Claire Express, a winner over Danville Stadium, home of the Danville Dans.
But that round is history. Below you’ll find a form for submitting your votes (desktop users see the entire slate; mobile users see one poll question at a time). The first round of voting generated more than 8,400 respondents.
Voting for this round is now closed.
About Best of the Ballparks: we structured the voting by classification, so the competition is broken down into Triple-A, Double-A, High A, Low A, short season A and rookie (which both begin June 17). 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 our marketing/user 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.
Here’s our list of the top 32 summer-collegiate ballparks:
1. Warner Park (Madison Mallards; Northwoods League)
2. Cardines Field (Newport Gulls; NECBL)
3. Fleming Stadium (Wilson Tobs; Coastal Plain League)
4. Dunn Field (Elmira Pioneers; Perfect Game League)
5. Wahconah Park (Pittsfield Suns; Futures League)
6. Holman Stadium (Nashua Silver Knights; Futures League)
7. Wade Stadium (Duluth Huskies; Northwoods League)
8. Kokomo Municipal Stadium (Kokomo Jackrabbits; Prospect League)
9. Simmons Field (Kenosha Kingfish; Northwoods League)
10. Lowell Park (Cotuit Kettleers; Cape Cod League)
11. Athletic Park (Wisconsin Woodchucks; Northwoods League)
12. Kiger Stadium (Klamath Falls Gems; West Coast League)
13. Homer Stryker Field (Kalamazoo Growlers; Northwoods League)
14. Clemens Field (Hannibal Cavemen; Prospect League)
15. Carson Park (Eau Claire Express; Northwoods League)
16. Witter Field (Wisconsin Rapids Rafters; Northwoods League)
17. Robin Roberts Stadium (Springfield Sliders; Prospect League)
18. Danville Stadium (Danville Dans; Prospect League)
19. Damaschke Field (Oneonta Outlaws; NYCBL)
20. Mulcahy Stadium (Anchorage Bucs; Glacier Pilots; Alaska Baseball League)
21. Goss Stadium at Coleman Field (Corvallis Knights; West Coast League)
22. Vince Genna Stadium (Bend Elks; West Coast League)
23. American Momentum Bank Ballpark (Brazos Valley Bombers; Texas Collegiate League)
24. Pat Thomas Stadium (Leesburg Lightning; Florida Collegiate Summer League)
25. McKeon Park (Hyannis Harbor Hawks; Cape Cod League)
26. Recreation Field (Vermont Mountaineers; NECBL)
27. Sims Legion Park (Gastonia Grizzlies; Coastal Plain League)
28. Seaman Stadium (Okotoks Dawgs; Western Major Baseball League)
29. Veterans Field (Chatham Anglers; Cape Cod League)
30. Old Mountain Field (Ocean State Waves; NECBL)
31. Murnane Field (Utica Brewers; Perfect Game League)
32. Fraser Field (North Shore Navigators; Futures League)
Figures in the brackets refer to percentage of votes cast.