On any given game day, thousands of fans each night line up outside of ballparks across the country to watch what has become one of the biggest viral phenomena sweeping the nation.

What is that exactly?

Banana Ball.

Walking the streets before the gates open, you feel the excitement buzzing all about from the fans, waiting to get inside to watch the Savannah Bananas and the Party Animals players and the organization who, through a game of baseball with a little extra flare, bring so much joy, laughter, smiles, and happiness to all those in attendance.

It’s more than just a game; it is the greatest show in sports.

At any given point in time before, during, or after a game, you can look into the stands and see just how much people are truly enjoying every aspect of it – the game, the interactions from the players as they run and dance across the top of the dugouts to engage with the fans, the TikTok dances midgame, the insane trick plays, the many ways to get fans involved including the baby race, the banana throw, the plunger ring toss, the homerun by a small child as the outfield pretends to blow every play, and so much more.
Yes, a real game of baseball is being played, but it is so much more than baseball – it’s about the people. It’s about the fans. It’s about, for one evening, just being present, forgetting everything else in life, and enjoying an evening of baseball and quirky entertainment.

The Savannah Bananas, whose home field is Grayson Memorial Stadium in Savannah, Georgia, was originally a college team in the Coastal Plains League founded in 2016, where they won three league championships in 2016, 2021, and 2022. The team, however, eventually left the league in 2022 to pursue strictly Banana Ball after the success of the One City World Tour in 2021.

But what is Banana Ball?

Banana Ball, as it is currently known, was created by a man named Jesse Cole after he decided he wanted to find a way to make baseball more fun.

“I put myself into the fan’s shoes and tried to say, ‘Alright, how do you make the game more fun, more exciting, not so long, not so slow, not so boring?’ So, I looked at all the long, slow, and boring things and tried to make it fun – no walks, no bunting, a two-hour time limit, fans can catch a foul ball for an out, all of that,” Cole said.

The rules of Banana Ball? According to the Savannah Bananas’ official website,

  1. Every inning counts – win the inning, get a point unless it is the last inning when every run counts.
  2. There is a two-hour time limit.
  3. If you step out of the batter’s box, it is a strike.
  4. If you bunt, you’re ejected from the game.
  5. Batters can steal first base on any pitch of an at-bat.
  6. There are no walks allowed. If a player gets walked, it is a sprint, and the runner can sprint around the bases until every defensive player, aside from the pitcher and catcher, has touched the ball.
  7. No mound visits are allowed.
  8. If a fan catches a foul ball, it is considered an out. So, it’s not recommended you catch your favorite team’s foul balls.
  9. If the game is tied at the end of the two-hour time limit, the game will go into a Showdown Tiebreaker. In each showdown, the batter must score, and it is worth one point. If they do not score, but instead get out, it is a Showdown Shutdown.
    – Round 1, pitcher, catcher, and one outfielder vs one batter
    – Round 2, pitcher and catcher vs one batter
    – Round 3, pitcher, catcher, and one fielder vs one batter with bases loaded. In this final showdown, every run counts as a point. If no team has won after three showdowns, they will continue with bases loaded and one fielder until one team has won. If at any point a homerun is hit over the outfield wall, it’s a walk-off win, and the game is over.
  10. 10. If there is a play on the field that is questionable, whether it’s a play at one of the bases, whether he’s safe or out, whether it is a fair or foul ball, or when the ball is caught or not caught, a selected fan has the ability to challenge the call on the field.

All of this has led to the rapidly growing success and admiration for the Banana Ball game. Across the Bananas’ TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, the team has over 11.2 million followers, and that number only continues to skyrocket.

With the growing popularity, all shows on the tour have sold out, and there is currently a waitlist of almost 900,000 people to get tickets, with between 3,000-5,000 people being added to it daily.

The 2023 Banana Ball World Tour began on February 17 in Palm Beach, Florida, and by its end on September 16 in Cooperstown, New York, the team will have played around ninety games in thirty-three cities across twenty-two different states.

“I mean, we are very fortunate; since our first season, we have sold out every single game, so we sold every game except for that first season, and we only sold a handful of tickets our first few months. So, my wife and I had to sell our house and empty out our savings – we were sleeping on an airbed for months until we finally sold out our first game,” Cole said.

One of the core values of the Savannah Bananas is the belief that what they do and who they are is centered around the belief that everything they do is fans first.

Before every game, VIB (very important banana) members get the opportunity to get on the field and meet the players, take pictures with them, and get autographs an hour before everyone else is let in to find seats, which are first come, first serve.

Before the gates are opened to the rest of the fans, the team will go out and walk through the crowd of fans, giving high fives, dancing to the infamous “Hey! Baby,” and getting them pumped before the game before returning to the field.

After the game, all of the players from both teams, coaches, umpires, and owner Jesse Cole will go outside of the stadium to take more pictures with fans, sign more autographs, make TikTok videos with fans, dance around to the Banana Band, etc. for almost two hours after the game, just to try and make each fan’s experience that much better.

While getting to a game isn’t the easiest because all games are sold out, those who want to watch games to see what it’s all about can go to the Savannah Banana’s YouTube Channel, where all games are streamed with commentary from the Bananas’ own Biko Skalla and Josh Talevski.

Currently, the Bananas have a record of 27-22-2, and the Party Animals are 22-27-2, and both are looking to add to their win column with the next game on Thursday night in Savannah. That game will be available to watch on ESPN2.