Courtesy of: Ben Brengman
The MLB has added new rules for this season as a way to speed up the games and keep the fans engaged. There has always been a typical tradition that baseball games are too long and boring, with not a lot of fan engagement. Even though these new rules are being put in place by the league, the Savannah Bananas are taking it a step further, trying to make the game more enjoyable for fans and players.
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The Savannah Bananas are considered the baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters. Banana Ball was first tested in secret at Lander University on November 2, 2018. Banana Ball was available for everyone to see on June 26, 2020. It is considered one of the most fast-paced and exciting baseball games to see. They based Banana Ball after an actual baseball game but with a few changes and quite a few dance breaks thrown into the mix.
The Rules of Banana Ball
Courtesy of Savannah Bananas website
Crazy, am I right? All though there are some crazy, not-so-normal rules for Banana Ball. there is still some overlap with the basic fundamentals. The whole point of Banana Ball is to keep the fans involved and make it entertaining, where people don't want to leave the game early because it's boring or too long.
Courtesy of: Jackson Olson/Twitter
Team and Player Shticks
Courtesy of: Savannah Bananas
The Bananas are very much invested in making sure the fans enjoy the game and that there is no room for them to become bored with the game and want to leave. One of the coolest things that are allowed is, the batters are able to express themselves and give the crowd a sense of their personality based on the walk-up intros they do as they go up to bat. Most players will pick a song and dance to the song as they walk up, there will even be times when the whole team will follow the batter up dancing with them as they go.
Jackson Olson, one of the infielders for the Bananas, is well known for walking up to the “The Greatest Show” song and doing the dance that is in the movie. He is also known for doing food reviews while playing on the field.
Courtesy of: Savannah Bananas
There is a man who is known as “Stilts” who is a right-handed pitcher for the Bananas. His real name is Dakota Albritton and he tends to play every game on stilts. It is pretty comical watching him try and run to beat out a throw when he hits. Just imagine how difficult it must be for him to hit, not to mention how hard it would be to pitch to him.
Schedule
Now you may be wondering who the Bananas play seeing as how they aren't your normal major league or even minor league team. Well, the founders of the Bananas made a second team called the Party Animals. This is the team that the Bananas usually play against, but as the Bananas continue to grow their followers, other places have noticed and decided to hop on the trend, so there are some other teams for the Animals and the Bananas to play against.
After playing in just Savannah for a while the Bananas decided to take Banana Ball all over the world. They have made stops in Texas, Oklahoma, Milwaukee, and many other states. But their season isn't over just yet they still have two whole months left to play Banana Ball.
Courtesy of: Savannah Bananas