Savannah Bananas and the refreshing phenomenon of Banana Ball, explained

Cost 

In a 2025 world where everything seems to be getting irrationally more expensive, Banana Ball provides a phenomenal experience at prices that would’ve been deemed ‘too good to be true’ twenty years ago. The reason behind that is simple. The goal of Banana Ball is not to create massive profit margins. It’s to create fans. Banana Ball has no shareholders, no exclusive streaming rights, no gameday sponsorships. Those three factors carry with them revenue expectations. Any of those entities would strive to maximize profit margin. Maximizing profit margin leads to fans getting the short end of the stick. Every time. 

Stadium Experience 

Stadiums are grand structures designed specifically for the viewers and the participants to be noticeably separate. Banana Ball tears down those virtual walls and brings the fans down to field level. In no major league baseball game or stadium can a fan affect anything within the game from a rules standpoint. Every Banana Ball fan in attendance cannot help but feel like they are much more involved than any MLB game could provide. 

Fan inclusion and pace

There is no professional sport that suffers from a pacing problem more than professional baseball. From stepping out of the batters box, to meetings at the mound, to a runtime that has become so long MLB had to institute a pitch clock. Banana Ball takes the lulls in action and eliminates them or fills the gaps with entertainment. The pacing issue is not fixed by speeding the game up, they are fixed by adding and subtracting aspects to improve the fan experience. 

Direct fun for fans

You the fan/viewer can have fun just watching a baseball game at home if all you want is traditional baseball. If the pregame opportunity to meet the players and the owner/creator aren’t enough, the fans have a voice in the game. Banana Ball utilizes a ‘fan challenge’ of an umpire ruling as well as something called the fan catch. At multiple points throughout the game, the fans are not just spectators. They can affect the results of the game. 

Extending the Walkout Music

Walkout music is not a new idea. Edwin Diaz coming out to Timmy Trumpet was a viral sensation in the MLB. Banana Ball takes that idea and asks, what if we never stopped playing the walkout music? Music doesn’t play continuously, non stop. However, it is a significant aspect of the production and believe it or not, it's actually a great addition. 

Rules that differ from traditional baseball

• Inning based scoring. Instead of accumulating runs in each inning and adding them up to create a score based on runs scored, Banana Ball looks at each inning as its own game within the game and the winner of each inning is awarded a ‘point’. Every inning 1-8 is scored by points not runs, with each of those innings resulting in a 1-0 score. This slight rule change guarantees that no Banana Ball game will ever be a blowout with every game being competitive down to the final inning. By design. 
• The final Inning is scored completely different. In the final inning, every run counts as a point like it would in conventional baseball. The first 8 innings can only have a score total of 1. The final inning score will reflect all runs scored allowing each team to dramatically affect their ability to win. 
• Time limit. Banana Ball games are a race to 9 innings played or a two hour time limit, whichever comes first. If the game reaches one hour and fifty minutes, the next inning cannot be played. 
• Tiebreakers. If the game reaches a full 9 innings completed or the game crosses the two-hour mark and both teams are tied, a “showdown” is used. A pitcher faces a batter with one fielder. Can a player hit the ball and round the bases before the one fielder throws them out. Essentially creating a 1v1 scenario. Can a fielder cover all 110,000-125,000 square feet of a baseball field before the runner can run all 360 feet of the base path?  
• No stepping out of the batters box. Personal timeouts at the plate only add to the game’s runtime. Not allowed. 
• No bunting. Put simply, bunting is a strategic play in baseball but is wildly boring. Bunting removes the allure of thinking something special could happen after any pitch. A valued strategy in MLB but flies in the face of what Banana Ball is. 
• Stealing first is allowed and encouraged. A batter can attempt to steal first base on any pitch, including but not limited to wild pitches and passed balls. 
• No walks. In the event the pitcher throws four balls outside the strike zone, the batter does not walk slowly to first free and clear. If a pitcher throws 4 balls in one at bat, the runner sprints along the bases as if he hit the ball in play. That runner can either score or be called out. He can only be called out if every single fielder on the opposing team touches the ball before that runner reaches home. Those fielders all run from their positional location, and the ball exchanges typically happen in the infield like a professional game of hot potato. Even with that shift in logic, both the runner and fielders have almost an equal chance of winning that play. 
• Fan Catch. If a fan in the stands catches a foul ball, that runner is out. Not at specified times, at any point in the game. A batter watching the ball sail foul is not exactly a ‘live to see the next pitch’ situation in Banana Ball. 
• Golden Batter rule. At any one point in a game, each team can opt to use their best hitter in a given situation regardless of where they are in the batting order. When the Golden Batter is used, said batter will approach the batter’s box in a golden helmet and matching golden cape. 
• Trick plays. Players are encouraged to execute trick plays whenever possible to add to the entertainment value. These can be almost any action above and beyond the task at hand. The most popular of which seems to be the backflip catch or the behind the back no look catch. Teams don’t earn an advantage with trick plays, they simply add to the entertainment value. 

Outside influences

Jesse Cole and his team did not simply add and subtract elements of baseball and fan experience just within the scope of baseball. They are innovators who are not above learning from other leagues and entertainment sources. 

UFC

UFC is not boxing. It’s not kickboxing. It’s not wrestling. It’s an inescapable octagon not a square ring. Yet, UFC has surpassed traditional boxing or martial arts in mass popularity. No one attends a UFC event and thinks, I wish this was more like traditional boxing. 

Golf Match Play

Match Play in golf is scored completely differently than playing a traditional 18. Each hole is scored as you won that hole or you didn’t. That was the inspiration behind how Banana Ball is scored, resulting in a situation that is completely blowout proof. Even if one team wins each inning going into the 9th with an 8-0 score, there needs to be a ‘comeback mechanic’. Which is created when in the last inning, every run counts as a point. Ensuring every game will be competitive and every game will be exciting at the end. 

WWE/Pro Wrestling

The important distinction here is Banana Ball is not scripted like the WWE. However, they have taken the idea of no offseason from the WWE. A 12-month calendar. Throughout the calendar they have PPV events. Summer Slam, the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania. All events at varying levels of importance all leading up to one massive event. 

IPL (The Indian Premier League-Cricket)

The IPL, despite the American perspective, is the most watched sports league in the world. At its core, it is primarily an entertainment league. These are games that are competing against tv programming aimed at reaching all demographics. The IPL competes in that space and wins. 

Banana Ball is something every American sports fan should go out of their way to experience. As it grows, every reason it should appeal to Americans are the same reasons it should appeal to non-American sports fans. With a world population approaching 9 billion, it’s not unreasonable to think the Banana Ball formula could eventually net the 1 billion fans Banana Ball aims to create. 

On a personal note, I have covered all levels of sports for two decades. Every media job I’ve ever had started between February and May. That means I have covered more than my fair share of baseball. Somewhere around 2010, I fell completely out of love with baseball. A game I played for the first third of my life became something I simply did not enjoy anymore.

Regardless of the why, I simply could not bring myself to love it anymore. The emergence of players like Shohei Ohtani and Elly De La Cruz helped reinvigorate some affection for it, but still from a distance. Witnessing what Banana Ball provides brought me right back to that feeling of being a wide eyed 10-year-old kid that believed baseball was America’s Pastime. The majesty of the game and why we fell in love with it so long ago is restored in the form of Banana Ball. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It isn’t in love with stats that other sports would laugh at. It’s nonstop entertainment on a level that can be enjoyed by fans of all walks of life. If Banana Ball can make a believer out of a 20 year sports media vet that had lost all love for the game, imagine how quickly you could become a fan.

Banana Ball is the summation of all of the best fan aspects of a sport. At times, it has a minor league baseball feel. Bright colors, fun mascots, and players that feel like real people in a genuine moment. It also capitalizes in areas other not quite mainstream sports never could. The short lived Slamball is a great example. Wonderful idea that just didn’t translate to a wider audience. Banana Ball is everything it aims to be. Inclusive, immersive, innovative and most importantly, the blueprint works. 

Jesse Cole and the entire Banana Ball operation have done the heavy lifting. Now it’s time for the fans to do their part. Don’t dismiss Banana Ball as some fad you don’t need to participate in. Like the Harlem Globetrotters decades before, it’s something everyone should experience at least once. The beauty of what Jesse Cole has created is if you give it a chance, there is an overwhelming possibility it won’t be the last time you attend a Banana Ball game. I certainly hope Sunday was not my only experience. 

Later this year, Banana Ball will reveal a player draft as well as officially adding two new teams to the league. If the fans continue to embrace Banana Ball at the level I witnessed on Sunday (The Coors Field event saw more than 100,000 people in two days), in short order we could see a league with double digit teams and a regional expansion that could put a team in every region of the country. 

If there is one sports-related concept that deserves your attention and consideration outside mainstream Baseball, Basketball, Football and Hockey, it’s Banana Ball. Don’t take my word for it. Go to a game and let them prove it to you.