Even diehard baseball fans will admit a game can drag: Three hours in and the score is only 2-1? That’s a big reason the Savannah Bananas have exploded in popularity. The professional exhibition team has turned America’s ordinarily sluggish pastime into a fast-paced spectacle.
Their version of the sport, Banana Ball, keeps things moving—the rules forbid traditional walks and mound visits, for example—and downtime is strategically filled with choreographed dances, comedy bits and crowd participation. The Bananas are often referred to as the “Harlem Globetrotters of baseball,” but there’s at least one major difference between the troupes: Banana games aren’t scripted; the competition is real.
Keep reading to learn more about the Savannah Bananas, including how they got started, what the team gets paid and more.
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Are the Savannah Bananas real players?
Yes! The Savannah Bananas are competitive players who run, pitch, catch, slide and swing like any other baseball players, only they also entertain the crowd by dancing, backflipping, walking on stilts and more.
Why are the Savannah Bananas such a big deal?
Blame it on shorter attention spans if you must, but the Bananas built a fanbase by making baseball, which traditionally moves at a glacial pace, into a quick-moving, high-energy sport that combines athleticism and showmanship. Their on-field antics are tailor-made for TikTok and Instagram, where clips of behind-the-back catches and mid-inning dance numbers rack up millions of views.
In fact, according to Forbes, the Bananas have a bigger social footprint than any MLB franchise, with more than 21 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.
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Who started the Savannah Bananas?
The Savannah Bananas were co-founded by husband-and-wife duo Jesse and Emily Cole in 2016, but the grain of the idea actually came nearly 10 years prior, when Jesse—a college pitcher who initially went into coaching—was sitting in a dugout, bored to tears. “I remember vividly being in the dugout and saying, ‘I wish the game was fun for everyone, and not just the people playing the game,’” he told Acquired.
He went on to become the General Manager of a college summer league, the Gastonia Grizzlies, in North Carolina, by age 23, but the team couldn’t pull a crowd. So he started reading books about P.T. Barnum, Walt Disney and the WWE for inspiration on how to put on an irresistible show. “I just said, ‘Let’s go crazy,’” he recalled.
After a decade spent “experimenting” with the team, he and his then fiancé, Emily (who had been the “director of fun” with the Grizzlies), jumped at the chance to lease Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Ga., after its minor league team left for South Carolina.
The idea was to bring sports-u-tainment to Savannah, but locals saw the newly installed college summer baseball team as a downgrade from the minor leagues (which, technically, it was). “We had a launch event where we gave out free food, free alcohol … about a hundred people showed up,” Jesse recalled. “It was so bad, how we started.”
By January 2016, he and Emily were out of money. They sold their house back in North Carolina, rented a roach-infested “dump” in Savannah, and beared down on a strategy. “We need to name the team something completely different and wild to get attention,” Jesse remembered saying.
They had a “name the team” contest, during which a 62-year-old nurse suggested Bananas, and a spark went off.
“We started thinking of everything,” he said. A senior citizen dance team called The Banana Nanas, a male cheerleading team called the Man-Nanas, a Mascot named Split.
And so the Savannah Bananas were born.
For the first couple of years, the team continued to play traditional baseball, just with fun shenanigans in the mix. Then in 2018, they added exhibition games using Banana Ball rules only. Finally, in 2022, they retired their collegiate amateur team and took their Banana Ball show on the road as a barnstorming team.
These days, you can easily spot Jesse at a game: He’s the man in the yellow tuxedo and top hat.
What are the rules of Banana Ball?
Banana Ball is a reimagining of traditional baseball with rules like:
- Every inning is worth one point.
- Games have a strict two-hour time limit.
- No bunting or mound visits.
- No traditional walks (ball four becomes an immediate run to first with a chase).
- If a fan catches a foul ball, it’s an out.
- Batters can steal first base.
- Special tiebreaker showdowns decide tied games.
Do the Savannah Bananas get paid to play baseball?
Yes, the players are professionals who work for money. Unlike in their early years as a collegiate summer team, today the Bananas play year-round in their own touring league and therefore earn year-long contracts. How much those contracts are worth is unknown, but according to a 2025 article published in Forbes, players make two, sometimes three, times more than what minor leaguers typically make while playing almost 100 fewer games. To put that into perspective, the minimum annual salary for a minor leaguer in Triple-A—the highest level in the minors—is around $40,000 for a 150-game season.
“Obviously we’re not on big league contracts,” Bananas shortstop Ryan Cox told Forbes, “but they’re taking care of us better than any minor league guys.”
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Who is on the Savannah Bananas?
The Bananas’ roster changes each season, but some key names include athletes like Jackson Olson, Ty Jackson and the towering Dakota “Stilts” Albritton, who really does play on stilts. You’ll also find a mix of college standouts and viral social media stars. Check out the current Savannah Bananas lineup.
Who do the Savannah Bananas play against?
The Bananas don’t play in MLB, they tour the country playing against other teams in their own Banana Ball league. Opponents include teams like the Party Animals, Firefighters and Texas Tailgaters (all owned and operated by Cole).
Is Banana Ball scripted?
No. While the entertainment is planned and choreographed, the baseball outcomes themselves are not predetermined. That’s part of the fun!
How can I buy tickets to a Savannah Bananas game?
Tickets start at $35 when purchased directly through the team’s site, but the 2026 season sold out almost immediately in October 2025. You can still find tickets for sale on third-party sites like StubHub and Ticketmaster, but they’re marked up quite a bit.
What are the Savannah Bananas worth?
According to Forbes, the Bananas are now worth half a billion dollars. That’s a whole bunch of money.
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