We have an evenly matched Final Four in the 2018 Best of the Ballparks fan vote for Short Season-A, with two NY-Penn League and two Northwest League ballparks in play. So go vote!
We have some top seeds still in play for the Final Four voting, and we have a Cinderella here as well: Gesa Stadium, home of the Tri-City Dust Devils (Northwest League). Will LeLacheur Park repeat, or will we see a new champion? We’ve seen lots of close votes in this year’s competition, and we saw a 9-vote margin separating MCU Park (Brooklyn Cyclones) from Dodd Stadium (Connecticut Tigers). We expect close votes in this round.
Short Season-A covers an interesting set of ballparks, ranging from historically significant ballparks like BB&T Ballpark at Bowman Field and Centennial Field to newer ballparks like Monongalia County Ballpark and Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium. There are former Double-A and Triple-A ballparks in the mix as well. Over 326,000 fans have weighed in during the 2018 Best of the Ballparks vote.
Here’s our schedule for Best of the Ballparks 2018 vote:
MLB: Completed
Class A and Class AA: Completed
Class AAA: Now-July 6
Short Season A/Rookie: Now-July 6
Independent: Now-July 9
Summer Collegiate: July 2-22
We are running the contest with seeded brackets, so there will be plenty of action in coming days. Here’s a breakdown of the voting schedule:
First Round: Completed
Second Round: Completed
Third Round: Completed
Fourth Round: Now-July 5, 2 p.m. Central
Finals: July 5, 2 p.m. Central-July 9, 4 p.m. Central
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 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 votes will count. A running tally of the vote will be presented, and you can view the results to date in the brackets graphic at the bottom of this page.
Leading this year’s seedings: last year’s winner, LeLacheur Park, home of the Lowell Spinners. There has not been a repeat winner, but all three past winners have come from the NY-Penn League: Monongalia County Ballpark (2015), BB&T Ballpark at Bowman Field (2016) and LeLacheur Park.
Here is the ranking used at the beginning of the vote:
1. LeLacheur Park (Lowell Spinners; NYP)
2. BB&T Ballpark at Bowman Field (Williamsport Crosscutters; NYP)
3. MCU Park (Brooklyn Cyclones; NYP)
4. Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium (Aberdeen IronBirds; NYP)
5. Ron Tonkin Field (Hillsboro Hops; NWL)
6. Medlar Field at Lubrano Park (State College Spikes; NYP)
7. Avista Stadium (Spokane Indians; NWL)
8. Centennial Field (Vermont Lake Monsters; NYP)
9. Monongalia County Ballpark (West Virginia Black Bears; NYP)
10. Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium (Vancouver Canadians; NWL)
11. Dodd Stadium (Connecticut Tigers; NYP)
12. PK Park (Eugene Emeralds; NWL)
13. Joseph L. Bruno Stadium (Tri-City ValleyCats; NYP)
14. Richmond County Bank Ballpark (Staten Island Yankees; NYP)
15. Dutchess Stadium (Hudson Valley Renegades; NYP)
16. Volcanoes Stadium (Salem-Keizer Volcanoes; NWL)
17. Eastwood Field (Mahoning Valley Scrappers; NYP)
18. Everett Memorial Stadium (Everett AquaSox; NWL)
19. Memorial Stadium (Boise Hawks; NWL)
20. Gesa Stadium (Tri-City Dust Devils; NWL)
21. Falcon Park (Auburn Doubledays; NYP)
22. Dwyer Stadium (Batavia Muckdogs; NYP)
NWL = Northwest League
NYP = NY-Penn League
