How the Savannah Bananas Revolutionized Baseball Entertainment

Baseball has officially gone bananas.

The Savannah Bananas went from a mere dream in an old, rundown stadium to being the most popular sports team in the country. But how does a couple who sold their house and slept at historic Greyson Stadium turn baseball into the most whimsical show in sports?

Exterior view of William L. Grayson Stadium with American flag and black flag flying, surrounded by greenery under a partly cloudy sky.

It all started on June 26th, 2020, when the Savannah Bananas split their team into the Yellow Squad and the Green Squad. They played the first Banana ballgame in history in front of 1000 fans at historic Grayson Stadium. This moment made the dream of a faster-than-light fan game of baseball a reality.

Embed from Getty Images

Last season, across a packed 113-game tour, the Savannah Bananas sold roughly 2.2 million total tickets, which outpaced the full-season ticket sales of multiple individual MLB franchises like the Miami Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Guardians. They regularly sell out massive MLB and NFL stadiums.

Embed from Getty Images

Banana Ball has 11 rules that made people fall in love with this version of America’s pastime. The biggest is the hard two-hour time limit. The game ends exactly two hours after it starts. Another is that every inning counts; the game isn’t decided by who scores more runs, but by who wins more innings.

Embed from Getty Images

More batting and pitching rules keep the game going, like how batters don’t get a walk but have ball 4 sprints, where the batter runs as long as they can, and every defensive player has to touch the ball before they can attempt to tag the runner. Runners can also steal first on a wild pitch, which keeps everyone on their toes because one pitch could change the game entirely. Fans can also catch foul balls, and if it’s in the air, the batter is out no matter the situation.

Embed from Getty Images

The Bananas are changing baseball; since their founding, the MLB’s total ticket sales have dropped, and the Bananas have started to outsell some major league teams. The Bananas started their own championship league and founded four teams outside the original two: the Firefighters, the Tailgaters, the Indianapolis Clowns, and the Loco Beach Coconuts. These six teams play in the BBCL (Banana Ball Championship League), and they hope to expand the league to an actual championship and turn their dream of fun on the field into a professional-level baseball league.