Atlanta is about to join the Banana republic.
The Savannah Bananas, a barnstorming professional baseball team and social media phenomenon that ranks among the toughest ticket in sports, visits Coolray Field in Lawrenceville for a three-game series this weekend. The games, played at the home of the Stripers, the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate, are sold out.
The Bananas are 15 games into their 2024 season, which includes 84 games in 29 cities. They recently played in an MLB ballpark for the first time, drawing 41,000 fans to Houston’s Minute Maid Park. The game included an appearance by pitching legend Roger Clemens, who pitched a third of an inning.
The Bananas will play in five more MLB venues this year, including Boston’s Fenway Park.
Bananas owner Jesse Cole, the yellow-tux wearing master of ceremonies at most Bananas games, described the experience of the 2024 season’s opening weeks as “bigger, louder and crazier” than ever, a testament to the connection the club has built with fans.
“People are telling us coming to our games is on their bucket list, that they’ve been waiting years to get tickets,” Cole said. “I’m a positive thinker, but even I never imagined this level of support.”
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Cole has built the Bananas’ popularity through social media. The team has 8.2 million followers on TikTok and 2.4 million on Instagram – far surpassing the followings for MLB teams – and has been chronicled the past two seasons in an ESPN docuseries titled “Bananaland.”
The Savannah Bananas’ visit is their first to the Atlanta area since their founding in 2016. The team is based in their namesake Georgia city and plays 30-plus games a year at Historic Grayson Stadium, a century-old ballpark on Savannah’s eastside.
Here’s what else to know ahead of the Bananas’ Atlanta arrival.
Who are the Bananas?
Part baseball team, part dance troupe, part comedy act, the Bananas self-identify as a “baseball circus.” Cole draws inspiration from P.T. Barnum, of Barnum and Bailey Circus fame, and Bill Veeck, the longtime baseball team owner renowned for his marketing prowess and his zany promotions, such as the infamous Disco Demolition night staged in 1979 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.
The Bananas started in 2016 as a team in the Coastal Plains League, a summer circuit for college players. They played a traditional form of baseball – no on-field zaniness – but put a premium on pregame, postgame and between-innings entertainment.
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
In 2018, Cole first experimented with Banana Ball, staging test games in secret. After playing Banana Ball exhibition games in 2019 and 2020, Cole formed a barnstorming team for the 2021 season.
The so-called “world tour” was such a success that Cole folded the college summer league team after the 2022 season and the Bananas became exclusively a Harlem Globetrotters-like traveling squad.
Who are their opponents?
Just as the Globetrotters have a foil in the Washington Generals, the Bananas have a regular opponent in the Party Animals, another barnstorming team created by Cole. Unlike their hoops counterparts the Generals, though, the Party Animals play to win, adding a competitive element to the nightly floorshow.
This year, the Bananas started a third team, the Firefighters. The newest team will play 19 games, albeit none of them during the series at Coolray Field.
The rosters of all three teams feature former professional and college baseball players as well as specialists, such as stilt walkers, musicians and dancers. The club’s player payroll exceeds $1 million.
The Bananas have star power. Former MLB standouts Jonny Gomes, Jake Peavy, Jonathan Papelbon and Bill “Spaceman” Lee have been regulars in past years, as has Josh Reddick, a Savannah-area native who played 14 years in the big leagues. Roy Oswalt appeared in the same game in Houston as Clemens.
Celebrities make cameos as well. Wrestling legend John Cena had an at-bat in a game earlier this year.
Credit: Savannah Bananas
Credit: Savannah Bananas
What is Banana Ball?
Pace of play is an issue MLB addressed with relative success in recent years, with pitch clocks and batter-related restrictions. Banana Ball rules go farther and condense games to less than two hours.
Mound visits, walks, bunting and stepping out of the batter’s box between pitches is prohibited. Foul balls caught by fans in the stands count as outs.
To encourage close finishes, the games are scored with points rather than runs – the team that scores more runs each inning gets a point. Other rules meant to promote drama throughout the games are officiating challenges and the “golden batter,” which allows a team to send any hitter in the lineup to bat in any spot once per game.
When should I arrive for the game?
Just as a typical ballpark visit should include getting there in time for batting practice, you’ll want to arrive at Coolray Field well before first pitch. But instead of going inside to watch a home run derby, you’ll want to hang outside the gates for the Bananas’ “Before the Peel” pregame show, complete with a marching band, cheerleaders and autograph-signing players on parade. The festivities start at 4:30 p.m. and those arriving after 5 p.m. “will feel like they’re very late,” Cole said.
Stick around after the last out, too, as the Bananas host a postgame party, with appearances by the “Man-nanas” male cheerleading square and the “Nanas” dance team comprised of senior-age women.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
What else makes the Bananas popular?
The creative team behind the “greatest show on dirt” is always innovating, and every pitch is an opportunity for a viral moment. Trick plays, impromptu dance routines, acrobatic fielding and celebrity appearances are the norm inside the lines, and the between innings hijinks include a salute to the “banana baby” of the game, which involves a newborn in a banana suit.
Don’t go for a beer or the bathroom during the seventh inning stretch either. Instead of “Take me out to the ballgame,” Cole and the players lead the crowd in a rendition of “Hey Baby,” the 1960s singalong popularized by Bruce Channel.
Where can I get tickets?
Resellers. The Bananas are the toughest ticket in baseball no matter where they play, and all 30,000 seats for the three-game series at Coolray Field sold via a preseason ticket lottery. The face value is $25, but the cheapest seats were going for $338 on March 11, with an average price of nearly $600.
Even at Houston’s Minute Maid Park, a stadium twice the size of Coolray Field, the lowest-price ticket was $121.
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