Savannah’s favorite baseball team reimagines the entire sport
If you’ve ever watched a Major League Baseball game and thought, I wish something were happening right now, the Savannah Bananas might be for you. The Georgia-based, three-team organization does more than just play ball. Its games feature a separate set of 11 rules, known as Banana Ball: There are no walks or mound visits, batters can steal first base, fans can get hitters out by catching their foul balls, deadlocked games end in a wild Showdown Tie Breaker format, and more. “We make baseball fun,” says Bananas head coach Tyler Gillum. Banana Ball is the brainchild of Jesse Cole, who, along with his wife and club co-owner, Emily, founded the Bananas in October of 2015. Cole had already been a bit of a baseball experimentalist— while running a collegiate summer league team in Gastonia, North Carolina, he put together Grandma Beauty Pageants and whoopee cushion giveaways, and in the early Bananas days he created a Dad Bod cheerleading squad and organized synchronized dances starring players and umpires—but it took him a while to come upon the notion of actual rule changes. In 2016, the Bananas won the Coastal Plain League championship, but, he says, “I kept noticing that no matter how exciting the show was with the promotions and fun, fans were still leaving early. So I said, ‘What if we take the traditional baseball friction points—walks, stepping out of the box, mound visits—and eliminate them and do the opposite?’”
It may all seem like an act, but the on-field talent is legitimate: This past season’s rosters boasted first round MLB draft picks and former professional players, and plenty more are interested in joining. “We’ve heard from 1,500 to 2,000 players,” Cole says, “whether that’s Major Leaguers, Minor Leaguers, first-round draft picks.” “It’s cool to realize that this is everything I’ve always wanted,” says Bananas pitcher Kyle Luigs. “I’ve always wanted this platform of changing the game and making it better for the next generation.” Indeed, fan accessibility is a big selling point. Most general admission tickets are $35, and players interact with spectators in a variety of ways before, during, and after games. “I’d rather create a billion fans than a billion dollars,” Cole says. For the 2024 Banana Ball World Tour, which began last month in Tampa, the club’s three teams are slated to play in six big-league ballparks and minor-league stadiums around the country. More than 2 million fans have entered the lottery for tickets, and there are even plans for a cruise, Bananaland at Sea, in October. “I think the world needs this,” Gillum says. “Usually someone is mad and someone is happy in sports, but in Bananaland everyone is smiling and laughing and having a great time.”