It was a topsy-turvy Elite Eight round in the High-A MiLB Best of the Ballparks fan vote, where a top-four finish didn’t ensure a trip to what we think will be a very competitive Final Four round.
At this point in the voting it’s all about the matchups, and in the Elite Eight round, the wrong matchup was deadly. Leading the voting in the Elite Eight was Four Winds Field, home of the South Bend Cubs. Receiving the second-most vote was Day Air Ballpark, home of the Dayton Dragons–and, unfortunately for Day Air Ballpark fans, Four Winds Field’s opponent. Third in the Elite Eight voting was Truist Stadium (home of the Winston-Salem Dash) and fourth was Dow Diamond (home of the Great Lakes Loons)–opposing Truist Stadium in the bracket. So the ballparks receiving the second- and fourth-most number of votes were eliminated from the contest. The other two brackets were close: Jackson Field (Lansing Lugnuts) prevailed by 16 votes, while ABC Supply Stadium (Beloit Sky Carp) won by 20 votes. So we move on to a Final Four featuring three Midwest League teams and one Sally League team.
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 ranking of High-A ballparks. This was an extremely difficult list to seed: Honestly, there’s not a lot of difference between most 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 part in our seedings, as well as improvements entering this season. Occupying the top spot is Four Winds Field, home of the South Bend Cubs and last year’s champion, followed by 2022’s runner-up, Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers). 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. This is by far the most difficult bracket to seed.
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:
Here is the schedule for all the 2023 Best of the Ballparks fan votes:
- Grapefruit League, Completed (winner: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium)
- Cactus League, Completed (winner: Camelback Ranch-Glendale)
- College Baseball, Completed (Larry H. Miller Field)
- MLB, Completed (winner: PNC Park)
- Triple-A, Completed (winner: Polar Park)
- Double-A, Now-May 27
- High-A, May 19-June 11
- MLB Partner Leagues, June 2-June 17
- Single-A, May 31-June 20
- Summer Collegiate, June 13-June 25
- MLB Summer Collegiate, June 4-June 21
