The Savannah Bananas Experience Is Even Better Than I Imagined: OutKick Field Report
My mission this weekend was simple: Go to Savannah, Georgia to see if the Savannah Bananas Baseball Experience is as spectacular as it appears on social media.
The results: It's even better than I could've imagined.
It's not hyperbole to say that the Savannah Bananas have revolutionized baseball entertainment for sports fans who've become disheartened by rising prices, lack of entertainment, and the fun being ripped out of sports by television networks who need to stuff two hours of commercials into one hour of action.
It's baseball entertainment on steroids. It's like attending the circus while mixing in all the hottest hits being played by club DJs. There's a guy on stilts. There's a rodeo clown pitcher throwing smoke who's even better in person than on the viral TikTok videos. It's like a college frat party that grandparents feel comfortable enough to attend.
Three-time MLB All-Star Heath Bell got off the bus and immediately let the Bananas know he was ready to play some Banana Ball. / Joe Kinsey
It's like going to a movie where you cannot get up to go take a leak because you're worried you'll miss a moment of the show.
Now it's just a matter of the Bananas spreading the gospel on their 2023 world tour that is going to turn the Bananas into rock stars.
Saturday, I was lucky enough to get the full Nanners experience thanks to my neighborhood buddy former MLB pitcher Collin Balester, who was playing that night for the MLB Alumni Association team against the Bananas. Late last year, the MLBAA was presented with an opportunity to face the Bananas in a three-game test series the Bananas are calling a Challenger Series. Saturday it was time to see what would happen when you take former MLB guys who've barely swung a bat or thrown a ball in years against a team that practices bare-handed fly ball catches for a living.
The premise for the Challenger Series is simple: the former MLB guys want to get back on the field to see if they still got it, but they must play by the Banana Ball rules, which are the most fan-friendly rules in sports history, but rules the MLB guys have never experienced.
The Nanners Baseball Experience: Is this the Harlem Globetrotters of Baseball?
That's the question I hear over and over when it comes to the Bananas like it's some sort of insult to be compared to a basketball organization founded in 1926 and has played in front of 148 million fans in 123 countries.
Yes, there are undeniable similarities, but there are huge differences that are evident in the win-loss column. While the Globetrotters never lose to the Washington Generals -- last time the Generals won was January 5, 1971 -- the Savannah Party Animals, the arch nemesis of the Bananas, win games. In fact, the Party Animals just won 5-4 on March 2.
Things I learned from one night of Banana Ball:
Quick hitters:
• I lost count of the bits run by the Bananas' promotion team. There are babies racing, dancing grandmas (the Nanas), dads doing dizzy bat competitions, the raising of the baby, the rotten or ripe banana tasting, the boys dancing shirtless with the Party Animals on the visitors' dugout, Jesse Cole throwing t-shirts in the crowd, baseballs being hit into the stands so people can practice the 'Catch a foul ball and it's an out' rule, etc.
• The Party Animals actually live the Party Animal lifestyle. We ended up at the Party Animals' post-game party hotspot in downtown Savannah and these guys go hard. The rule is pretty much if you see a wild mullet on a guy who works out, he plays for the Animals.
• Yes, the Bananas have their own yellow game balls.
• While talking to Bananas' coach Adam "Viro" Virant, he couldn't stop talking about how this is the best job he's ever had and it's like living a dream. I thought he might shed a tear.
• Bananas umpire Vincent Chapman is a treasure. I spoke to him for a few minutes before Saturday's game and all he kept saying is how much fun he's having as the most electric umpire in baseball. We're talking about the happiest umpire in baseball.
• It feels like the Bananas employ 50% of the community. There must be 500 people or more working during a Bananas game. There are people recording everything. There are entertainment production people running around.
• Yes, there's a considerable amount of rehearsal time before first pitch. The MLB alumni bus got to the stadium around 3:30 for a 7 p.m. first pitch and it was non-stop action the entire time. There are bats being lit on fire, mic checks, batting practice and guys practicing dances on the pitchers' mound before fans ever get into the stadium.
• I had a great time talking to Orestes Destrade about baseball, the new pitch clock rules, and his life in the game, especially that 1993 season when he was tearing it up for the Marlins. The guy is a baseball encyclopedia who can also answer just about anything you want to know about life playing baseball in Japan.
• I'm told the MLB alumni escaped Saturday without any injuries, which is a great sign heading into a rematch against the Bananas in late April at George M. Steinbrenner Field. These guys need to keep the hamstrings attached so they can get through the three-game series.
• You have to keep your head on a swivel or you'll miss things like bananas in a gun holster:
• Heath Bell working on one of those Banana beers while talking to the modern-day Bill Veeck:
• Stilts turning kids into life-long Banana fans:
• That's my neighbor Balester with the heaviest barrel I've ever tried to lift. Seriously, it's insane to think of what a bull can do to a barrel when it's so incredibly heavy. Rodeo clown pitcher Mat Wolfe is just a different animal in the sports world when you think he's willing to get in there to be hit by bulls and to be rolled out to the mound in this thing:
Conclusion:
Find a stop on the Banana Ball tour and get tickets. Get your buddies together. Get your family together. Get your frat together. There's plenty of action here for the sorority girls. Take grandpa. Grandma will enjoy it.
You won't be disappointed. Trust me.