Baseball Gone Bananas

Interview with Jared Orton
Picture courtesy of The Savannah Bananas

Oknown for its high-energy capers and daring tackle the sport, the Savannah Bananas baseball crew has taken the sports activities world by storm.

Group president Jared Orton shares the story behind this upstart squad that grew to become a nationwide sensation.

For many who could also be unfamiliar, who’re the Savannah Bananas?
We began in 2016 as a part of a bit collegiate wooden-bat summer time league in Savannah, Georgia. After the earlier minor league crew on the town closed up store, our house owners thought it will be simple to begin one other baseball crew to take its place. We initially didn’t get a lot consideration, although. In conventional baseball, there are simply so many dwelling video games in a typical season, and it’s difficult to get folks to go to one thing that always.

On high of that, once we selected the title Savannah Bananas, folks flipped out—we heard suggestions that it was the dumbest title round and that we have been even making a joke of the game. However then we obtained the phrase out that we weren’t going to be skilled; we meant to be completely different and make baseball extra enjoyable. That’s been our mission since day one. And we had some successes: we performed in that school summer time league for seven years, throughout which we offered out a whole bunch of video games and gained three league championships.

How did you modify the sport?
In 2021, we examined a brand new kind of baseball referred to as Banana Ball with some new gamers. It modifications up all the principles of the game; for instance, batters can steal first base, and if somebody within the crowd catches a fly ball, it’s an out. We premiered the sport in Cellular, Alabama, throughout two nights, enjoying towards our main rival, the Social gathering Animals; about 7,000 folks confirmed as much as watch. Then in 2022, we took Banana Ball on a seven-city “world tour.”

As soon as our management seen the sport was turning into so common, we thought, What if we simply go all in with it and play it year-round? So we determined to depart our school summer time league on the finish of 2022 and went on a thirty-three-city tour the subsequent yr, enjoying Banana Ball in entrance of half 1,000,000 folks. In 2024, we adopted up with video games in six main league stadiums, which over a million folks attended.

Our recreation at Minute Maid Park (dwelling of the Houston Astros) utterly offered out months prematurely in a single day, and there have been 160,000 folks on our ready checklist for tickets. And now we’ve got tens of tens of millions of followers throughout our social media and play towards a two extra rivals within the Banana Ball league, the Firefighters and Texas Tailgaters. Seeing the sport develop in these methods has been tons of enjoyable.

What’s your recruiting course of like, given the distinctiveness of Banana Ball?
Our gamers are multitalented, to say the least. We all know that we’ve got to recruit stable athletes; our teaching and coaching staffs emphasize that the sport needs to be performed effectively as a result of it’s a actual recreation, even when the principles are completely different. If it doesn’t look clear, the gang will discover. So most of our gamers have a powerful baseball background, with some having performed in our school summer time league or for minor and even main league groups.

We aren’t simply searching for athletic expertise, although; the second prong of being a Savannah Bananas participant is being a formidable performer on and off the sector. For instance, we’ve got guys who can do backflip catches and have particular walk-ups the place they could sing or carry out a choreographed dance. Our gamers know that the sport isn’t really about them however about our followers. So that they make an enormous effort to entertain them, signal autographs, be participating on social media, and extra.

Our head coach, Tyler Gillum, has been with us since 2018. He has a implausible community of gamers he’s seen or labored with, together with those that match the mould of baseball participant and entertainer. Guys additionally attain out to him on a regular basis asking to play for us, so our recruiters must carry out an intense scouting and invitation-only tryout course of.

What recommendation would you give to somebody catching a Savannah Bananas recreation for the primary time?
Do your analysis, know the principles of the sport, and be mentally ready for a high-energy, high-stimulus occasion! And get there early; earlier than the gates even open, there’s loads of music, magic, and different enjoyable. Participant introductions begin at about 6:30 p.m. and the sport round 7:00, and it’s action-packed for hours afterward.

Past the sport itself, we’ve developed a full forged of leisure that features Jesse Cole—our proprietor, ringmaster, and Man within the Yellow Tux—in addition to a secondary announcer, often called the Younger Professor, who wears loopy fits and does wrestling-style intros. In the meantime, Jake the Magician performs methods within the crowd and even on the sector, so that you by no means know the place he’ll be. There are additionally educated dancers, a singing princess, the Banana Nanas (our aged dance crew), the Dad Bod Cheerleading Squad, and rather more. We hope that every one our viewers discover somebody and one thing to determine with right here.

What’s subsequent for the crew?
We wish to introduce extra groups to play towards and broaden the Banana Ball league, enhance our alternatives to tour, and get the sport in entrance of extra folks. We plan to maintain elevating the stakes and uncover the subsequent new cool factor that our followers will love.

For more information, go to thesavannahbananas.com