Starting in 2016 as a small-town experiment by Jesse Cole and his company, Fans First Entertainment, Banana Ball — a name chosen by a 62-year-old woman in a naming contest — was once widely mocked.
After only a decade, the league has reached a level of notoriety that allowed it to sell over 60,000 tickets at Florida State University’s Doak S. Campbell Stadium on Feb. 28 — the first non-football event to be hosted post-renovations — after two smaller games at Dick Howser Stadium.
FSU was the first stop to showcase the new six-team Banana Ball Championship League (BBCL), which will tour the country for the next 8 months.
A league of their own
In 2016, Savannah, Georgia, locals did not yet understand how monumental the concept of eliminating every “boring” part of baseball would become. The team slowly began to grow in notoriety, regularly and quickly selling out games at the historic Grayson Stadium.
The Savannah Bananas formally introduced their 2026 World Tour schedule in October 2025. Students, Tallahassee locals, and hard-core Banana Ball fans were ecstatic. The unique lottery-style method of ticket selling backfired on many fans, making a regular $35 ticket inflate on resell sites for as much as $500.
“I really liked it, as it was entertaining the whole way through. A standout moment was every moment,” nursing major Cole Lefere said to the FSView. “I would say it was like 20% baseball.”
The Texas Tailgaters debuted in 2025 as the fourth team to join the Banana Ball roster, following the Party Animals in 2021 and the Firefighters in 2024. This year, the BBCL introduced two new teams: the Loco Beach Coconuts and the Indianapolis Clowns. After the Coconuts cracked the Firefighters and the Clowns squashed the Party Animals, the Bananas split the Tailgaters at the historic grand finale in a packed Doak Campbell Stadium.
“It was incredible, I loved the baby race. I wish the Tailgaters won, but it was a fun experience anyway,” history major Jimmie Wellborn said to the FSView. “[I] saw them for the first time on social media 2 or 3 years ago, always wanted to go to a game, so I was ecstatic when I saw they were opening their season here at FSU.”
The baseball-themed traveling circus
Banana Ball games are known for their unseriousness; they host hip hop dancing, Savannah Banana Nanas, a “dad bod” cheerleading squad, a pitcher on 10-foot-high stilts, and, of course, the infamous baby race. Instead of feeling like interruptions, these performances are integrated into an overall chaotic game experience.
The Banana Ball rules aim to eliminate all the normal downtime in baseball. If a player bunts, they are immediately tossed out of the game because bunting is slow, and Banana Ball is very fast. The players complete as many innings as they can during a never-pausing 2-hour clock. There is constant dancing, music, fan interaction, and whimsical side shows during these short games, but not all FSU students enjoyed the circus show.
“There were a few instances of both baseball and theatrical performance for sure. However, the non-stop music was the largest failing,” information technologies student Jason Burrow said to the FSView. “It felt like someone was scrolling on TikTok and couldn’t have the attention span for an entire song; brain rot incarnate.”
Despite this, the draw to the unconventional performance was that many Banana Ball players have strong ties to Florida. Before joining the Bananas, outfielder Ty Jackson played at FAMU, left-handed pitcher Austin Drury played at UNF, and Dan Oberst (AKA “Danny Bananas”) grew up in Key Largo and became a Bananas power-hitter.
Founder Jesse Cole combined America’s favorite pastime, theatrical performance and social media trends into a massively successful experience enjoyed by families and students alike.
“It was awesome! Totally worth the wait,” freshman criminology major Jake Wood said to the FSView.
Grace Myatt is a Senior Staff Writer for the FSView & Florida Flambeau, the student-run, independent online news service for the FSU community. Email our staff at contact@fsview.com.
This article originally appeared on FSU News: The Savannah Bananas 2026 World Tour: Baseball has never been better
Reporting by Grace Myatt, Senior Staff Writer, FSView / FSU News
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