With an Elite Eight round centered on NY-Penn League ballparks, we’re reading to move on to the next phase of Best of the Ballparks 2016 vote for Short Season A facilities. So vote already!
Short-Season A is one of the most interesting classifications in Minor League Baseball when it comes to ballparks: you have former Triple-A and Double-A ballparks (Avista Stadium, Dodd Stadium, Nat Bailey Stadium), classic old facilities (Centennial Field, Falcon Park, Bowman Field), joint pro-college facilities (Monongalia County Ballpark, PK Park, Medlar Field at Lubrano Park) and ballparks specifically built for short-season play (MCU Park, Ron Tonkin Field, Ripken Stadium). So you know what to do: Vote!
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. The second round saw fans asked to select their favorite independent and MLB ballparks. This final round covers Rookie and Short Season A facilities.
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, and we want you to vote for as many ballparks as you like. 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 Short Season A ballparks. Last year’s finalists, Monongalia County Ballpark and Bowman Field, receive the top two spots in our ratings. As you’ll recall, Monongalia County Ballpark won the fan vote by a large margin.
1. Monongalia County Ballpark (West Virginia Black Bears; NYP)
2. Bowman Field (Williamsport Crosscutters; NYP)
3. Ripken Stadium (Aberdeen IronBirds; NYP)
4. Centennial Field (Vermont Lake Monsters; NYP)
5. MCU Park (Brooklyn Cyclones; NYP)
6. Ron Tonkin Field (Hillsboro Hops; NWL)
7. Medlar Field at Lubrano Park (State College Spikes; NYP)
8. Nat Bailey Stadium (Vancouver Canadians; NWL)
9. PK Park (Eugene Emeralds; NWL)
10. Joseph L. Bruno Stadium (Tri-City ValleyCats; NYP)
11. Avista Stadium (Spokane Indians; NWL)
12. Richmond County Bank Ballpark (Staten Island Yankees; NYP)
13. Dodd Stadium (Connecticut Tigers; NYP)
14. Dutchess Stadium (Hudson Valley Renegades; NYP)
15. LeLacheur Park (Lowell Spinners; NYP)
16. Volcanoes Stadium (Salem-Keizer Volcanoes; NWL)
17. Eastwood Field (Mahoning Valley Scrappers; NYP)
18. Everett Memorial Stadium (Everett AquaSox; NWL)
19. Gesa Stadium (Tri-City Dust Devils; NWL)
20. Memorial Stadium (Boise Hawks; NWL)
21. Falcon Park (Auburn Doubledays; NYP)
22. Dwyer Stadium (Batavia Muckdogs; NYP)
Here are the opening round brackets:
Click on the image for a larger version.