Pitch, please

The 2023 Major League Baseball season opened this week, and my beloved Detroit Tigers lost to Tampa Bay, 4-0. One game in, they are in the AL Central Division’s basement, tied with Kansas City. Just 161 more games to go.

It’s a little early for panic mode, so I’m going to take a beat and not shame-blog about my Boys of Summer. Yet.

Instead, I’ll highlight an unusually fun aspect of baseball, still known as “America’s pastime” in this digital age of tiks, toks and twits.

I know, I know. Using “baseball” and “fun” in the same sentence may elicit some eye rolls.

“It’s sooo boring,” you say. Or, “I’d rather be forced to watch ‘The Masked Singer’ while eating stale potato chips and drinking flat beer. (Guilty.)

As somewhat of a baseball purist, I’ll never understand it. But with the average nine-inning MLB game lasting three hours, you naysayers may have a point.

Despite the league’s new 2023 rules, time clocks and other attempts to speed up the game, it hasn’t done a whole lot to change minds. What to do?

Well, to those in the boring baseball camp, I have two words for you: “Banana Ball.”

Don’t stop reading. It’s a real thing. I’m here to tell you that the Savannah Bananas are here to make baseball fun again. Heck, their mascot is even named Split. And players perform choreographed dances, have elaborate walkup routines and sometimes play in kilts. Yes, kilts!

As a former wood-bat collegiate summer team based in Georgia’s beautiful coastal city of the same name, the Savannah Bananas’ franchise has begun a new era.

No longer a bunch of top players from across the country, they are strictly a full-time barnstorming team with a roster made up exclusively of professionals playing – you guessed it – “Banana Ball.”

Sort of like the Harlem Globetrotters in skirts.

This “World Famous Baseball Circus,” as it is known, has become the hottest ticket in America. By the way, every ticket is the same price: $25. Naturally, resellers jack it up.

Aside: We visited Savannah on our drive to Florida in January. The riverfront was lovely.

Founded in 2016 by Jesse Cole, a baseball player himself, the Savannah Bananas previously competed in the Coastal Plain League’s West division and played home games at Grayson Stadium. In 2020, the team debuted “Banana Ball,” a set of nine rules designed for maximum entertainment.

Their 2023 World Tour started in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 17. From there, they stopped in Daytona and then head Montgomery, Kansas City and Birmingham. All told, they will visit 33 cities and 20 states.

The tour wraps up on Sept. 16 in Cooperstown, N.Y., at Abner Doubleday Field next to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

“The response has been absolutely bananas for this World Tour,” said owner Cole. (I did not make up that quote.)

It sounds crazy, and it is. Here’s how Banana Ball works:

• First and foremost, it’s all about the fans.
• It’s baseball with nine rule changes, all aimed at speeding up play.
• There’s a two-hour time limit. Period.
• Whichever team scores more in a given inning, wins a point. First to reach five points wins.
• If a batter steps out of the box, it’s a called strike.
• On ball four, batters sprint around the bases until every defensive player touches the ball.
• No bunting.
• No mound visits by the manager.
• If a fan catches a foul ball, it’s an out. (And the crowd goes wild!)

To learn more about the rules, click this short video:

OK, Banana Ball isn’t the big leagues. It’s not even the minor leagues. But it’s still baseball – and the epitome of fan engagement. The MLB could take a page or two from these folks.

I almost forgot to mention their pre-game tradition. Before every game, a baby dressed in a banana suit is lifted up like Simba from “The Lion King.”

Broadway meets baseball.

I’d pay to see that. Wouldn’t you?

“Hakuna Banana.”