Time for independent baseball to shine, as the next phase of the Best of the Ballparks fan competition moves on to indy ballparks — an intriguing mix of new facilities, former MiLB ballparks and older, upgraded facilities. So vote in our expanded field!
Last year we limited the number of ballparks in the first round to 32 ballparks. But that meant leaving some notable ballparks off the list, so this year we decided to include all 57 ballparks in the . There is a wide range of options for you to choose from: last year’s winner, TD Bank Ballpark, receives an automatic #1 seed in this year’s competition. Because there are 57 facilities, we begin the voting with an initial play-in round (thanks, NCAA, for the inspiration!)
We began this year’s Best of the Ballparks vote in May with fans asked to choose their favorite Triple-A, Double-A, High-A and Low-A affiliated ballparks. We’ll launch voting for summer-collegiate ballparks later this month, as well as the fan selection for Short Season A and Rookie ballparks. And, of course, we’ll run another round this month for MLB ballparks.
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.
Some notes on the voting. First, votes are filtered by IP address, so we’re limiting folks to one vote. (Feel free to hit that reload as many times as you want, but multiple votes will be filtered out of the final tally.) Second, you don’t need to fill out a full slate: partially filled votes will count. Third: desktop users will see all the choices; tablet and smartphone users will see one choice at a time. (Tablet and smartphone users can move between choices by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the ballot.)
Voting for this round has ended.
Here is our ranking of independent ballparks:
1. TD Bank Ballpark (Somerset Patriots; AtL)
2. CHS Field (St. Paul Saints; AA)
3. Shaw Park (Winnipeg Goldeyes; AA)
4. Constellation Field (Sugar Land Skeeters; AtL)
5. U.S. Steel Yard (Gary SouthShore RailCats; AA)
6. Jimmy John’s Field (Birmingham-Bloomfield Beavers/Utica Unicorns/Eastside Diamond Hoppers; USPBL)
7. Le Stade Municipal (Quebec Capitales; Can-Am)
8. Community America Ballpark (Kansas City T-Bones; AA)
9. Haymarket Park (Lincoln Saltdogs; AA)
10. Provident Bank Park (Rockland Boulders; Can-Am)
11. Boomers Stadium (Schaumburg Boomers; FL)
12. Sioux Falls Stadium (Sioux Falls Canaries; AA)
13. Newman Outdoor Field (Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks; AA)
14. All Pro Freight Stadium (Lake Erie Crushers; FL)
15. QuikTrip Park at Grand Prairie (Texas Airhogs; AA)
16. Yogi Berra Stadium (New Jersey Jackals; Can-Am)
17. Bosse Field (Evansville Otters; FL)
18. Clipper Magazine Stadium (Lancaster Barnstormers; AtL)
19. Regency Furniture Stadium (Southern Maryland Blue Crabs; AtL)
20. PeoplesBank Park (York Revolution; AtL)
21. Rent One Park (Southern Illinois Miners; FL)
22. Wuerfel Park (Traverse City Beach Bums; FL)
23. Bethpage Ballpark (Long Island Ducks; AtL)
24. Lawrence-Dumont Stadium (Wichita Wingnuts; AA)
25. Skylands Stadium (Sussex County Miners; Can-Am)
26. New Britain Stadium (New Britain Bees; AtL)
27. RCGT Park (Ottawa Champions; Can-Am)
28. Kino Stadium (Ballpark at Harbor Yard (Bridgeport Bluefish; AtL)
30. Uni-Trade Stadium (Laredo Lemurs; AA)
31. GCS Ballpark (Gateway Grizzlies; FL)
32. Kokernot Field (Alpine Cowboys; Pecos League)
33. Stade Fernand-Bédard (Trois-Rivières Aigles; Can-Am)
34. Silver Cross Field (Joliet Slammers; FL)
35. The Corn Crib (Normal Cornbelters; FL)
36. Albert Park (San Rafael Pacifics; PacAssn)
37. Joe Becker Stadium (Joplin Blasters; AA)
38. Lewis & Clark Park (Sioux City Explorers; AA)
39. UC Health Stadium (Florence Freedom; FL)
40. CarShield Field (River City Rascals; FL)
42. 45. Arnold Field (Sonoma Stompers; PacAssn)
46. Wilson Park (Vallejo Admirals; PacAssn)
48. City Park Field (Pittsburg Diamonds; PacAssn)
49. Joe Bauman Baseball Stadium (Roswell Invaders; PL)
50.
AA = American Association
AtL = Atlantic League
Can-AM = Can-Am League
EL = Empire League
FL = Frontier League
PacAssn= Pacific Association
PL = Pecos League
USPBL = United Shore Professional Baseball League
Here are the brackets:
Click on the image for a larger version.