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Monongalia County Ballpark finished on top of three other finalists to win our 16th Annual Ballpark of the Year Award. The first-year home of the NY-Penn League’s West Virginia Black Bears beat out First Tennessee Park in Nashville, MGM Park in Biloxi and HoHoKam Stadium in Mesa for the honor.
On August 26, 2015, we emceed a pre-game ceremony in which plaques were presented to the architects, the County, West Virginia University and the Black Bears. The recipients are shown above. From left: Kari Miller from DLA+ Architecture; Tom Bloom and Eldon Callen, Monongalia County Commissioners; Randy Mazey (and his two children), WVU’s head baseball coach; Shane Lyons, Director of Athletics at WVU; Matt Drayer, GM of the Black Bears; presenter Joe Mock, webmaster of BaseballParks.com.
Below is Joe addressing the crowd and also presenting the Black Bears’ plaque to Matt Drayer.
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Read our in-depth review of Monongalia County Ballpark to see why we selected it as the best new or remodeled ballpark of 2015. You can also read the press release that made the announcement. It includes quotes from the Black Bears’ owners, the architects involved (which included Populous, which did receive a plaque but wasn’t present for the ceremony), the governmental entities, WVU and more.
The photos are by Dale Sparks, and are courtesy of the Black Bears.