It’s upstart Maimonides Park (Brooklyn Cyclones) vs. former champ Four Winds Field (South Bend Cubs) in the finals of the High-A MiLB Best of the Ballparks vote.
The presence of Maimonides Park in the High-A competition came as a result of the MLB overhaul of the minors; previously the team had been in the Short Season A NY-Penn League. The home of the Brooklyn Cyclones knocked off #1 seed Parkview Field in a close vote. Meanwhile, former Low-A champ Four Winds Field knocked off Frawley Stadium (Wilmington Blue Rocks) in the other bracket, leading to what should be a fascinating final round.
This year’s High-A competition looks drastically different than previous High-A votes; the 2021 reorganization of Minor League Baseball eliminated the California, Carolina and Florida State Leagues, with many teams in that level of competition lowered to Low-A ball or eliminated completely. This High-A lineup contains most of the former Low-A Midwest League, several former Low-A Sally League teams, some former Carolina League teams, and several former Short Season A Northwest League and NY-Penn League teams. Of this new lineup, only the former Carolina League teams competed at the High-A level in prior years. Old name, new competition.
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.
This was a challenge to seed: ballparks formerly in three levels of play, including Short Season A, were hard to compare. There is no uniformity at this level yet–there are ballparks here that are the pride of MiLB, and other ballparks are college facilities lacking a visitors clubhouse. And while we expect plenty of facility upgrades in coming years, they’re not all planned out or implemented. We will be eager to see what our readers think of the new High-A lineup. These seeds are based on previous rankings. Last year’s High-A champion, The Diamond (Lake Elsinore Storm), is now competing at the Low-A level.
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 at the bottom of this page in the form of brackets. Vote below: