After several close votes and an evenly distributed field with five leagues still represented, we are now at the Elite Eight round of the 2019 Summer Collegiate Best of the Ballparks vote. So you know what to do: Vote!
The Sweet Sixteen voting was intense, to be sure, with three races decided by a handful of votes: fans chose Robin Roberts Stadium (Springfield Sliders) over Ting Park (Holly Springs Salamanders) by 25 votes, Kokomo Municipal Stadium (Kokomo Jackrabbits) over Warner Park (Madison Mallards) by 16 votes, and Herr-Baker Field (Fond du Lac Dock Spiders) over Borleske Stadium (Walla Walla Sweets) by four votes. We do warn quite frequently that every vote counts, and we certainly saw it in the previous round. It took a Herculean effort for Travis Field to defeat defending champion Corbett Field: Corbett Field received the second-most votes in this round of competition, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the top vote-getter, Travis Field.
So we move on to the Elite Eight round.
Over 50,000 fans weighed in during the first three rounds of voting, with ballparks representing five summer-collegiate leagues still in contention. There is an amazingly wide variety of ballparks used in summer-collegiate leagues across the United States and Canada. We began with 64 noteworthy summer-collegiate ballparks, ranging from WPA facilities and ballparks hosting Negro Leagues games to former Single-A, Double-A and Triple-A ballparks. (Yes, we did take history into account when compiling this list.) We began this competition with last year’s winner–Corbett Field, home of the Souris Valley Sabre Dogs–and randomly generated the rest of the brackets. With over 20,000 voters participating, the second round of voting narrowed the field to 16.
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.
We are running the contest with seeded brackets, so there will be plenty of action in coming days. Here’s our schedule for the Best of the Ballparks 2019 summer-collegiate vote:
First Round: Completed
Second Round: Completed
Third Round: Completed
Fourth Round: Now – July 13, 3 p.m. Central
Fifth Round: July 13, 3 p.m. Central – July 18, 3 p.m. Central
Final Round: July 18, 3 p.m. Central – July 23, end of day
Here’s our schedule for Best of the Ballparks 2019 vote:
MLB: Completed (PNC Park)
Low A: Completed (Parkview Field)
High A: Completed (LECOM Park)
Class AA: Completed (Hodgetown)
Class AAA: Completed (Las Vegas Ballpark)
Short Season A/Rookie: Now-July 12
Independent: Now-July 8
Summer Collegiate: Now-July 23
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. Signing up for the Ballpark Digest newsletter means you’ll receive regular updates on the votes.