SAVANNAH — Move over Atlanta Braves. The Savannah Bananas are peeling into Truist Park in 2025.
The barnstorming baseball team known for zany stunts, breakdancing base coaches and viral TikTok videos will play two games in Atlanta ahead of the start of the Braves’ season. The games on March 28 and 29 are part of a 73-game season for the Bananas, the flagship team of a growing league of franchises that play Banana Ball in stadiums across the country.
Bananas Ball is baseball with a twist, using an unorthodox version of playing and scoring rules and weaving dancing, skits and other forms of entertainment into what is more show than game.
Bananas owner Jesse Cole, the yellow-tux wearing master of ceremonies at most Bananas games, noted the team’s visit to metro Atlanta earlier this year was a highlight of the season. Fans claimed all the tickets for the three-game series at the home of the Gwinnett Stripers, a Triple-A team, 15 minutes after sales opened.
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
The interest prompted Cole to step up his pursuit of booking a larger Atlanta venue. He talked to the Braves about Truist Park as well as to Georgia State University officials about the Braves’ former home, Turner Field. That ballpark has been reconfigured for football and is now known as Center Parc Stadium.
When the Braves’ leadership showed interest, Cole made Truist a pillar of the 2025 schedule.
“Truist Park has been one of the stadiums that we’ve heard requested from our fans since we started,” Cole said Thursday. “Everyone has been like, when you gonna go to Truist? Well, we’re going to Truist.”
Cole shared the news as part of the Bananas’ annual schedule reveal event held at the team’s home ballpark, Savannah’s Grayson Stadium. Known as the Baseball World Tour City Draft and livestreamed on the Bananas’ popular YouTube channel, the show marks the opening of a ticket lottery for next season.
The Bananas’ sell tickets via lottery because the team has sold out every game the last two seasons, including those played at 40,000-plus seat Major League ballparks in 2024. Every ticket in the 2023 and 2024 seasons were claimed during the presale process.
Fans can enter the lottery for the Truist Park games and the rest of the 2025 season at thesavannahbananas.com/tickets.
“The chance to see the Bananas play on the biggest stage where the big leaguers play is exciting,” said Sam Watson, a Braves fan from Greenville, South Carolina, who attended the City Draft along with his wife Jenny and his children T.J. and Grace. “I hope we can get tickets.”
The Bananas and their sister teams — the Party Animals, Firefighters and Texas Tailgaters — will visit 40 cities in 2025 as they aim to draw more than 2 million fans. The schedule includes games at Truist Park, Yankee Stadium, Baltimore’s Camden Yards and 15 other Major League parks, up from six this year. Games will also be played at a storied college football venue, Clemson’s Death Valley, as well as NFL stadiums in Nashville and Charlotte.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
The Banana Ball teams also have 30 dates scheduled in Savannah in 2025, and Cole detailed plans to improve the home ballpark in an interview prior to Thursday’s event. Grayson Stadium, the historic venue located southeast of Savannah’s downtown, will get a new videoboard and an artificial turf playing surface as well as improved lighting ahead of the 2025 home opener in February.
“We’ve invested more every year as it keeps growing, and we want to offer the people of Savannah and the fans who travel here to see where Banana Ball started the same amenities found in the other places we play,” Cole said. “We are always trying to deliver the best experience for our fans.”
Cole said he plans to add seating to the 5,000-seat ballpark ahead of its centennial season in 2026. The Savannah City Council last week approved a resolution blessing the improvements to the municipal-owned stadium.
Also coming in 2026 is the launch of the Banana Ball Championship League, with teams based in locales across the country. Each team will play 60 games, and the Bananas have already started building rosters. The team has advertised tryouts in Philadelphia, Savannah, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Texas and received more than 6,000 responses, with 200 prospects getting invites to the workouts.
Cole did not reveal the locales for the six franchises, although he did say Savannah would remain the home of the Bananas and the Tailgaters are based in Texas. In addition, the Firefighters will play three weekend series in the Washington, D.C. area in 2025, hinting that the nation’s capital is a front-runner to become a hub as well.
“We’re opening new states and new cities to this brand new sport,” said Drake C. Toll, a member of the Party Animals, the Bananas’ on-field rivals.
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