After a first round that saw several competitive votes and plenty of close margins, we’re now to the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2022 MiLB High-A Best of the Ballparks vote.
There were plenty of upsets in the first round, as several top-ten seeds–Fluor Field (Greenville Drive), Frawley Stadium (Wilmington Blue Rocks), Day Air Ballpark (Dayton Dragons) and First National Bank Field (Greensboro Grasshoppers)–were all upset by lower seeds. And some of these upsets came via close margins, as two contests were decided by only five votes. Receiving the most votes in contested brackets: Parkview Field (Fort Wayne TinCaps), ABC Supply Stadium (Beloit Sky Carp), Modern Woodmen Park (Quad Cities River Bandits), Dow Diamond (Great Lakes Loons), Jackson Field (Lansing Lugnuts) and Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)–all Midwest League facilities.
Here are the seeds for the MiLB High-A ballpark vote. Yes, the old classifications and leagues are back—mostly. It’s still High-A, but the geographic league names were replaced by the traditional league names: South Atlantic League (Sally League), Midwest League and Northwest League.
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. This isn’t the result of a formal grading system, but rather recommendations based on years of attending games, seeing how the ballparks function behind the scenes, how these ballparks have made an impact in their communities, performances in previous Best of the Ballparks competitions, and noting how ballparks are regarded within the industry. One of the reasons we love working in baseball is that many industry folks, including many on the player side, are ballpark geeks, and we think this list reflects broad sentiment among those who know ballparks best. This is a wide-open competition. Last year’s winner, Maimonides Park (Brooklyn Cyclones), is the #1 seed, followed by 2021’s runner-up, Four Winds Field (South Bend Cubs).
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: