With several more close votes now in the books, we’ve moved on the Elite Eight round in the 2022 MLB Partner Leagues Best of the Ballparks fan vote.
Entering the final days of voting we saw three contests that were virtual ties, but at the end of voting the margins ended up being wider than anticipated. The Pioneer League and Frontier League have been eliminated from the competition, leaving us three Atlantic League ballparks, four American Association ballparks and Jimmy John’s Field, home of the USPBL. Receiving the most votes in the Sweet Sixteen round: Clipper Magazine Stadium (Lancaster Barnstormers), Impact Field (Chicago Dogs), Regency Furniture Stadium (Southern Maryland Blue Crabs), Franklin Field (Milwaukee Milkmen) and Wisconsin Brewing Company Park (Lake County DockHounds).
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.
Here’s our 2022 ranking of MLB Partner League ballparks. This is an extremely difficult list to seed: This list is a combination of former independent-league ballparks as well as a wide range of former affiliated facilities, ranging from Triple-A to Rookie ball. Honestly, there’s not a lot of difference between many of the ballparks in this competition, and there are plenty of arguments for most of these ballparks deserving a higher rating. Results of last year’s vote also played a large part in our seedings, as well as improvements entering this season. Occupying the top spot is Clipper Magazine Stadium, home of the Lancaster Barnstormers and last year’s champion. We don’t expect the voting to follow our seedings: our readers can be independent, and they share a love of ballparks and the fan experience.
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: