by by James Gumina, special to Gotham Baseball
This weekend I watched the Savannah Bananas bring “Banana Ball” to a sold out crowd at Fenway Park. The game started at 3:30, but the show began on Jersey street well over an hour before first pitch, with music, dancing, and a parade of players and characters. Once inside the stadium, on-field festivities began around 3, and nearly every seat was already occupied, a rarity for October Red Sox games, let alone a game in early July. Not only was it a packed house, it was chalk full of yellow Bananas jerseys. The lines outside the stadium for merch stretched and snaked all over the concourse, and nearly every fan in the building under the age of 16 was wearing a jersey; the majority of which were sporting autographs from the players, a testament to the “Fans First” ethos behind the Bananas’ brand.
Once the game started a raucous crowd was treated to two hours of entertainment, including local Boston legends, like Doug Flutie and Bill Lee. “Banana Ball” is more of an event than a game, with action happening nonstop, both on the field and in the stands. From the dancing umpires and coaches, to the “Man-ana” cheerleading squad, there was not a moment of dead air from when I sat down at 3 to when it was over around 5:30. As a veteran of many Red Sox games, I cannot remember a crowd as engaged in a game since some of the playoff contests I have been to, especially given the brutal 90+ degree temperature. While it is easy to compare the product to that of Major League Baseball, “Banana Ball” is a fundamentally different experience. The Bananas make baseball the backdrop for unique, fun, and innovative ideas, and from the size of the crowd it is obviously working. I was also at the Red Sox game the following day, and it could not have been a more different experience. While the crowd was solid for a weeknight game, it still paled in comparison to the Bananas’ crowd in both size and energy. Based on my experience in the stadium I would almost describe the two as separate sports, the experience was that different. From the constant musical cues, to the dancing, to the backflips on the field, the Bananas drew your attention to a million different places at once, while MLB funnels your attention directly to the battle between the pitcher and the hitter.
If you have heard of the Bananas, and at this point most people have, chances are you first encountered them on social media. Their meteoric rise in recent years has been, in large part, due to constant viral attention on social platforms like TikTok, both from the team and from individual players (The Bananas have 2 million more followers on TikTok than MLB). This growth strategy is clearly at the forefront of the games, with camera crews all over the field. While some of the made for social media moments fell a little flat in-person, the vast majority still played well to the in-stadium experience, and clearly work very well for the social media and TV audience. These videos, and their focus on specific players like Jackson Olson, have allowed the Banana’s to not only turn the team into a must see event, they have also grown many of the players’ individual brands. For instance, Jackson Olson, the star of the Bananas, has more followers on Instagram than Red Sox star players Alex Bregman and Jarren Duran, let alone Tik Tok followers. With reach that large, it is no wonder that the Bananas are able to sell out some of the largest football stadiums in the world.
While I do not think the Savannah Bananas’ version of baseball is going to dethrone that of Major League Baseball anytime soon, it has clearly established itself as more than a gimmick offshoot of MLB. With a recently added fourth team, and no signs of that growth slowing down, the Bananas are looking to form their own style of independent league, one that could attract far more attention and fans than any traditional baseball independent league ever could. Often compared to the Globetrotters, through expansion and their social media dominance, the Bananas have a road map to even more growth than the Globetrotters. It is not clear exactly where that map will take them, but it is clear that the Savannah Bananas are here to stay.
James Gumina is a student at Yale University
