SAVANNAH ― The mastermind behind the Savannah Bananas, Jesse Cole, put out a call this summer to his team’s biggest demographic to come to Cleveland for the inaugural Banana Ball Youth Tournament, a four-day clinic and playoff for youth.
The response — more than 900 boys and girls from 48 states — exceeded even his seemingly unlimited imagination.
“We learn by doing, and that was a pretty good first test,” Cole said. “The opportunity for Banana Ball’s growth is huge.”
The Bananas’ 2024 season closes Saturday with the finale at the home of the Miami Marlins, LoanDepot Park. Come that game’s conclusion, the Bananas and their sister teams, the Party Animals and the Firefighters, will have played their curious version of baseball in 29 cities this summer, drawing more than 1 million spectators.
Credit: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe
Credit: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe
Yet Cole’s vision goes beyond operating a Harlem Globetrotters-like barnstorming tour. Through the youth events, which will be staged in multiple cities in 2025, he is familiarizing future players with Banana Ball’s unorthodox rules and its embrace of trick plays and dance routines.
And with the 2026 launch of the Banana Ball Championship League, with teams based in six cities playing 60-game season schedules, Cole said building interest in the flagship team, the Savannah Bananas is not the end goal.
“We are building a sport,” he said.
Unlike other startup leagues, Banana Ball already has proof of concept. This year marked the third season the Bananas and their foil, the Party Animals, barnstormed across the country, and the first in which they played in ballparks with more than 15,000 seats, with six games in MLB stadiums.
All 84 games sold out, and every venue had a ticket waitlist, including the 40,000-plus seat big league parks.
In 2025, the Banana Ball teams will play two-game series at 18 MLB stadiums, including Atlanta’s Truist Park, as well as in three football venues. Cole projects a crowd of 80,000 for the game at Clemson’s Death Valley.
“They ain’t slipping on appeal,” said Savannah resident and Bananas fan Catfish Stagg, who shows off his deep affinity for the team through a logo tattoo on his arm.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
An intentional approach
Cole considers 2025 the year to cement Banana Ball as more than a curiosity and set the stage for the Banana Ball Championship League’s debut.
His teams will venture into new markets, such as Seattle, Denver, New York City and the state of Michigan. Playing two games instead of one in the MLB parks is meant to expose Banana Ball to more spectators in high population centers.
The Bananas also will use 2025 to gauge fan interest in regionally based teams. A new franchise, the Texas Tailgaters, will debut late next year and be the first since the Bananas in their pre-barnstorming days to play most of their games in one locale — albeit in cities spread across America’s third largest state.
The Tailgaters will play in San Antonio, Houston and in cities near Dallas and Austin in 2025.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Cole and his staff will take the lessons learned from the Tailgaters experiment to create a model for the other two new franchises that will fill out the Banana Ball Championship League.
The 2025 season will close with a four-team playoff, played in Savannah, as a dress rehearsal for the BBCL postseason.
“Everyone looks at the next chess move, but we’re focused on seeing the whole chessboard,” Cole said. “If you look closely enough, you can see where we’re going with Banana Ball.”
Looking for six-tool talent
Starting the Banana Ball Championship League in 2026 also gives Cole and his staff time to build out the infrastructure, with the focus on the talent pipeline.
Tryouts already are in the planning stages and will be held in Savannah, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Texas. A casting call drew 6,000 responses, and the Bananas have invited about 200 potential players thus far.
Baseball skill is a must, but the BBCL also puts a premium on players with more than the traditional five-tool talents. Other valuable attributes include the ability to play a musical instrument or dance or ride a unicycle. Already the Banana Ball teams include a stilt walker, a rodeo clown, breakdancers and a guitar-strumming crooner.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Cole noted his staff also looks for personalities with social-media followings.
“We’re seeing things we’ve never seen before from applicants, and they can play ball at a high level,” Cole said.
Building the youth pipeline is another priority. Several of the clinics and tournaments, to be known as Banana Ball University, will be played next year. Cole said the Bananas are “just getting started” on talent development.
Back in Savannah, where Cole unveiled his future plans in a raucous World Tour City Draft attended by more than 3,000 bananiacs at Grayson Stadium, the locals are reveling in the popularity of their namesake team. The leader of Visit Savannah, the local convention and visitors bureau, attended the event decked out in Bananas gear and labeled the teams as ambassadors for the city.
“We couldn’t be more trilled about the ongoing success of Jesse and the entire Bananas’ organization,” Joe Marinelli said. “We are extremely grateful for how they promote and uplift our city across the country.”
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