The Savannah Bananas are an exhibitionbarnstorming baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia.[1] The team was founded in 2016 and has played at Grayson Stadium since its inaugural season. Until 2022, the Bananas competed as a collegiate summer baseball team in the Coastal Plain League's (CPL) West division,[2] where they won three Petitt Cup championships (2016, 2021, and 2022).[1] However, after the growth of their alternate "Banana Ball" format, the team transitioned entirely to exhibition games against their partner touring teams, the Party Animals, the Firefighters, and other "challenger" professional teams, similar to the decades-long format of basketball's Harlem Globetrotters and their partner touring team, the Washington Generals.[3] The team has been featured by ESPN, The Wall Street Journal, and Sports Illustrated because of its on-field hijinks and viral videos.[4]
History
Following the departure of the South Atlantic League's Savannah Sand Gnats for Columbia, South Carolina, on September 22, 2015, the Coastal Plain League (CPL) announced Savannah as its newest team to begin play for 2016. On February 25, following a name-the-team contest, the Bananas name, logo and colors were officially revealed by the team.[5][6]
In 2016, the Bananas ended their inaugural season as the first seed in the CPL West Division, earning home-field advantage for the first two games of the playoffs. In game one, the Bananas beat the Asheboro Copperheads, 3–2, with the first walk-off in franchise history. The Bananas then defeated the Forest City Owls, 2–0, to win the CPL West Division championship and advance to the Petitt Cup Championship. Game one of the championship was played at Grayson Stadium, where the Bananas defeated the Peninsula Pilots, 8–4. The team traveled to Hampton, Virginia, where the Pilots' 4–3 win in game two forced an all-or-nothing game three. The Bananas took home the Petitt Cup after a 9–7 win in game three.[7] The Bananas were named the league's organization of the year in both 2016 and 2017.
Following the 2022 summer league season, the Bananas announced they were folding their collegiate amateur team and only playing "Banana Ball."[1] An ESPN+ miniseries about the team, called Bananaland, was released in August 2022.[8][9] As of 2023, the team has over six million followers on TikTok, more than any MLB team.[3]
Banana Ball World Tours
"Split", mascot of the Bananas
In 2021 the Bananas announced their first "world tour" where they traveled to Mobile, Alabama, and sold out both nights in Hank Aaron Stadium, with a combined crowd of over 7000 fans.[10]
In 2022, the Bananas added six more cities across four different states to the tour, creating a 14 game "world tour" in which all games were sellouts.[11] While the majority of Banana Ball games feature the Bananas versus the rival Party Animals (similar to the relationship between the Harlem Globetrotters and the Washington Generals), the Bananas introduced a "Challenger Series" in which they play against a different opponent. The first such series was played May 5–6 against the Kansas City Monarchs of the American Association of Professional Baseball and saw each team win one game.[12]
In 2023, the "world tour" was expanded to over 80 games,[13] with the team implementing their new exhibition-only status. The tour was scheduled to start at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in Florida on February 17 and end seven months later at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York.[14] The tour also includes numerous challenger games against teams such as the Charleston Dirty Birds, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Florence Y'alls, and a rematch with the Kansas City Monarchs. Additionally, the Bananas played their first international opponent, the Aussie Drop Bears, a team from Australia featuring professional and collegiate players.[15]
Bananas Premier/Pro Team
The 2021 exhibition series in Mobile was the debut of what was then called the Premier Team, the exhibition Banana Ball team under the Bananas umbrella to differentiate from the collegiate team that played in the CPL. This team was a mix of both alumni of the CPL squad and new hires from independent leagues, colleges and Minor League Baseball. Following the disbandment of the CPL team in 2022, the Premier Team became the basis of the barnstorming and exhibition Bananas team, more known by their yellow uniforms carried on from the former CPL team. They are the flagship team of the wider organization.
The Party Animals
During the 2020 shortened Bananas CPL season, the organization debuted what would be the second of the current three teams during the test Banana Ball games at home - the Party Animals, more known today by their black or pink uniforms. Previously, the test Banana Ball games were played as scrimmage games of the CPL Bananas pre-season. The creation of the team gave the Bananas a true home or away opponent in its exhibition gamedays during most of the season.
The Firefighters
Debuting on October 5, 2023, as part of the 2024 season launch night, the Firefighters - with their bright red uniforms - are the newest and youngest Banana Ball club under the wider Bananas umbrella, slated to make their official debut in the 2024 season.[16]
"Banana Ball" rules
The Bananas have deviated from standard baseball rules in creating the "banana ball" format.[17] This format has been used since June 2020 at home and for most touring exhibition games. Refinements have been made over time—the challenge rule was introduced in 2023. The current "banana ball" rules are, as amended:[18]
Games are won by points, instead of runs: the team that scores the most runs in an inning gets one point, except in the final inning when every run counts as one point. The final inning may be earlier than the 9th inning, due to the below noted time limit. When the home team has scored enough runs to "win" any inning other than the final inning, the inning immediately ends.
There is a "two-hour" time limit; no new inning may start after 1 hour and 50 minutes have elapsed. Once an inning starts, it is played to completion.
Batters cannot step out of the batters box. Doing so results in an automatic strike.
Batters cannot bunt. Doing so results in an automatic ejection.
Walks are called "sprints". After ball four, the batter is allowed to advance as far around the bases as he can while the ball is sequentially thrown to all of the fielders other than the pitcher, starting with the catcher. The ball remains dead, with the batter-runner not liable to be put out, until the four infielders and three outfielders have each touched the ball. This often results in the batter-runner advancing to second base on the sprint.
Ties are broken by a "showdown tiebreaker", an abbreviated extra innings format. Each team's half-inning during the showdown ends with any out or with any run scored by the batter—if the batter puts the ball in play, he must attempt to score. A batter who draws a walk advances to second base, with the hitting team allowed to send a new batter to the plate. At any point during the showdown, a home run hit over the outfield wall immediately ends the game in favor of the batting team. If the game is still tied after a showdown round, another showdown round is played, until there is a winner. Scenarios differ by showdown round:[18] In showdown round 1, each team selects a pitcher and hitter to face off, with the defense fielding only their pitcher, catcher, and a single fielder. In showdown round 2, the fielder is eliminated. In showdown round 3 (and later), the fielder returns, but each half-inning starts with the bases loaded, and each run scored counts as a point.
Each team is allowed to challenge certain calls by the umpires: whether a ball was fair or foul, whether or not a runner was tagged out (at home plate or on the basepaths), and whether a ball was caught or not. A team retains its right to challenge until they lose a challenge, after which they may not challenge any calls for the remainder of the game. The fans can also challenge one play per game, as determined by a fan who is chosen to initiate the challenge. Challenged plays are reviewed by the broadcast team, who relay their ruling to the umpire.
“The Golden Batter Rule” - One time in a game, a team may send any hitter in the lineup to bat in any spot. The goal of this rule is so a team can have their best hitter hit when the game is on the line.
Other non-standard baseball activities are sometimes used for entertainment purposes. For example, an August 2023 game featured an at bat where the pitcher and batter played rock paper scissors before each pitch: each time the pitcher won, the batter had to bat from the opposite side of home plate as he normally would, and each time the batter won, the pitcher needed to announce what type of pitch he was about to throw.[19]
Attendance
The Bananas recorded over 500,000 total fans in attendance on their Banana Ball World Tour in 2023.[20] The 2023 Banana Ball World Tour had 87 games in 33 different cities across the country.
