Login
Was That A Baseball Team Or A Fever Dream? Meet The Savannah Bananas.
Did a baseball team or a boy band just kick off the sports world’s most glamorous gathering?
While the choreography, lip-syncing, backflips and yellow uniforms may have seemed like a baffling combo to the uninitiated, Wednesday night’s ESPY Awards opener looked like business as usual for fans of the Savannah Bananas.
The on-stage spectacle also made it clear why the exhibition baseball team is popular enough to sell out Yankee Stadium and boasts more TikTok followers than any Major League Baseball clubhouse.
The Savannah Bananas launched in 2016 on the idea of “whatever is normal, we will do the opposite,” Joe Martinelli, the president and CEO of Visit Savannah, said that founder Jesse Cole told him. That means you can expect dingers celebrated with dance breaks, outfield acrobatics and a pitcher who stands 10 feet 9 inches tall while slinging his heaters on stilts.
The Bananas aren’t playing by MLB rules when they take the field either.
“Banana Ball,” as it’s called, maintains a strict two-hour time limit, with teams competing for one point per inning, making each leg of the game a battle to score the most runs. All bets are off in the ninth inning, however, when scoring is unlimited.
Waiting out four balls won’t get you a walk. Instead, batters make a full sprint around the diamond while the ball is relayed to every fielder before the defense can make a play.
Providing some true chaos at the plate, the players can even decide that they’re bored with their at-bat and steal first base on any pitch.
Foul balls are fair game no matter where they go because a catch by someone in the stands counts as an out.
Sports: New York Mets’ Misery Is Encapsulated In One ‘Little League’ Play
Though the antics might remind some of the Harlem Globetrotters’ basketball theatrics, Banana Ball has one key difference: While wacky, the competition is real.
“We get that [comparison] a lot,” Cole told the New York Post, “but the biggest difference is that we never know the result of the game.”
