THIS SH*T IS (SAVANNAH) BANANAS!

THIS SH*T IS (SAVANNAH) BANANAS!

Why the Savannah Bananas are the greatest show in sports and why more teams should take notes

Everything you knew about baseball has turned on its head with the Savannah Bananas, and as their digital marketing coordinator Savanah Alaniz put it, “Baseball purists hate these games because they are totally different.” But the fans — and the internet — love them.

Words by Carmen Macri

If you’ve been out of the loop or living under a rock for the past few years, you might have missed the rise of a former Coastal Plains League (CPL) that’s become a nationwide sensation with 8.7 million followers on TikTok. This baseball team does more than just play the game — they engage and entertain their audience with more than just the sport. Composed of recently graduated college athletes and former minor and Major League Baseball (MLB) players, they bring a unique flair to the sport — though they are not an MLB team themselves, minor or major.

During their collegiate off-season, the Bananas began playing exhibition games, which is where they began to implement some of the many rules and regulations that ultimately led to their internet success. The list is too far and wide to fully explain (though it is worth checking out), but the games played under these new rules were coined as Banana Ball.

NO BUNTING. According to a Savannah Bananas video, “Bunting sucks. We’re eliminating it. Swing the bat.” Bunters will be thrown out of the game.

THE BATTER CAN STEAL FIRST BASE. If the pitcher throws a wild ball, the batter can either hit the ball or take off.

FANS CAN MAKE AN OUT. If a spectator catches a foul ball, it’s an out.

SHOWDOWN TIEBREAKER. If a game is tied after nine innings or two hours, it goes to a one-on-one showdown with just the pitcher, batter, and one fielder. Only one out is allowed. If the batter is retired, the other team gets to hit. If the ball is in play, the fielder must stop the batter from scoring. The showdown continues until one team scores more than the other.

BANANA BALL CHALLENGE RULE:

Any spectator can challenge a ruling on the field.

The reasons behind the Bananas’ online success are clear. Their in-game clips — featuring players swinging flaming baseball bats, pitching from atop stilts, shooting confetti and executing choreographed dance routines — are perfectly crafted for social media. But don’t minimize the team’s popularity to strictly their online presence. The team previously had a 500,000-person waitlist for their 2023 season because of the infectious environment that is their games.

After Banana Ball was introduced, the Savannah Bananas played as two separate teams under one name — one following the traditional CPL rules and another focused solely on Banana Ball. This dual setup sometimes led to confusion, as fans would show up expecting the wild Banana Ball they’d seen online, only to find themselves at a standard CPL game instead. That led to the disbanding of their CPL team at the end of the 2022 season to focus fully on Banana Ball — and we see how well that turned out for them.

Since 2022, the Bananas have consistently sold out games nationwide. While their main focus is on Banana Ball, featuring teams like the Party Animals (who bring stilts, flaming bats, and choreographed dances), they also host more traditional challenger games against other professional teams but still keep their flair which entices the other teams to play along. In a recent interview with “The Guardian,” the Florence Y’alls’ thirdbase coach Michael Morris said, “I love it, man. Getting to be a part of this environment is a really cool thing.”

It’s a bit surprising that more teams aren’t riding the Bananas’ coattail considering the massive success the team has found. Just last season, the Bananas’ owners turned down a million-dollar ticket purchase. They believed it would be a disservice to the fans, benefiting only ticket scalpers. And the reason they are able to play this type of baseball is because of the devotion the fans have to the game.

Seeing how widely successful the Bananas have become raises the question (maybe only for me), why can’t the Jumbo Shrimp follow in their footsteps? Imagine how electric the games would become if they implemented a few fan-service rules and learned a few choreographed dances. No harm no foul (ball).