The Bananas, similar to the Harlem Globetrotters, are about entertainment, giving people who paid money to watch the action without trying to keep score as they’ve hit different ballparks around the country and across various weekends. Although they’ve only come around recently, since 2016, they’re unlike any average cap and glove team. They’ve got moves, talent, and even an owner, Jesse Cole, who’s always seen wearing a yellow tuxedo.
The Savannah Bananas have had multiple big stars put on the yellow uniform this year, and not only did they all step up to the plate, they performed! Big Time Rush, Hamilton’s Miguel Cervantes, Derek Hough, and even Pat Monahan from Train have performed.
There are many good reasons why you may love the Bananas more. You may not have a favorite regular baseball team, but you’re looking for a way to watch a game. Or, when it can be hard to keep track of your team every day, the Bananas games are only once a week, making it seem much more eventful for new content especially in our age when everything is digital, even baseball when some say it’s boring.
Not only that, the Bananas also bring back team legends when they play at big baseball stadiums, even if they’ve been out of the game for years. As their efforts are to make their home fans happy, giving them one of their franchise’s beloved players always delivers.
In their first stadium game in March 2024, at Houston’s Minute Maid Park, they brought back Roger Clemmens. In July at Citizen’s Bank Park, a familiar face from the Phillies 2008 championship took swings, and that was Shane Victorino. At Yankee Stadium a couple weeks ago, Joe Torre was the guest manager.
With the MLB starting to lack all the familiar faces from our childhood, it’s okay to watch players that aren’t known to be famous baseball players make us enjoy the game, and that’s how the Bananas make me feel as I’m still being introduced to them.
When the rules are different from regular baseball, it can lead to pretty exciting surprises with some spontaneous action. That’s what the Bananas also do to make sure the game is still exciting at the end, where the team who wins each inning gets a point, and they keep going until the two-hour clock runs out. And if you’re one of the fans who likes to catch foul balls like me, your catches would count as outs, another way that makes this type of baseball more fun for the fans.
The Bananas games get sold out, and when there’s a packed house of 40,000+ fans at a stadium, they get wild. There are times when the stadium goes completely dark, and all the lights of the phones make the atmosphere completely electric, more like a concert rather than a major league game.
But there’s still an argument to be made that regular baseball is better. Although with the regular baseball rules the game may not be as fun, and don’t get me started about the ghost runner in extra innings, it doesn’t mean the games aren’t important. We keep up with the standings of our favorite teams daily, especially if your team is like mine in a serious race for the AL East and the best record in the American League.
It’s great to watch both types, but I will always like regular baseball better. It’s just too nostalgic and classic to watch your favorite team play and how your rivals are doing as well. All of the great moments from our favorite teams are immortalized in the history of the sport, like for me it’s moments from my team like Derek Jeter’s walk-off hit in his final home game or Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run.
Plus, regular baseball is not just going against other teams, it’s going up against the former greats of the game as the best players chase history as they hit 400 foot bombs that we could only dream of making ourselves. No offense to the Bananas, or even their opponents the Firefighters, Party Animals, and Texas Tailgaters, but the Yankees-Red Sox, and Mets-Phillies rivalries are what have always made baseball the game it’s always been, even when the schedule says they only meet in four series a year.
But if you’re a fan of a cellar dweller like the Rockies, Nationals, or Athletics, the laughter and fun of the Bananas may be for you and you may somehow think that their best moments are immortalized in baseball history . But are they that appealing? That’s why the Bananas are there, and if this wasn’t your year for regular baseball, then the Bananas may have been undefeated in your record books.
