THE SAVANNAH BANANAS AND THE BANANA BALL LEAGUE

JUMP TO EXTRA GOOD

Hello! Welcome back to the second round of Here's One Good Thing 😀! A warning: I went a little bananas with the links here – skip them for now if you hope to stick to your 10-minute mood-boost limit. And even with a focused approach, today's post will probably take you into extra innings.

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So, it's now mid-October, which — among other things — means Major League Baseball playoff season. Are you tuning in?  I had two “hometown” teams with early, uncommon playoff success: the Chicago Cubs of my WGN-radio childhood + deepest family loyalty and the Mariners of our two-decade Seattle stretch (and of Friday night's 15-inning miracle). Unfortunately, the Cubs faded out on Saturday night v. the Brewers, and so now we are sending all our good luck hopes back to the PNW.

Rick and older daughter E. are the mega-sports fans in our family, and so simply by sports-fan osmosis plus the frequency of games on our TV, I stay surprisingly current on various rankings (professional and collegiate), injury reports, coaching changes, extended family Fantasy Football standings, and more. I'll gladly root for any underdog and am happy to see the people I love happy re final scores. However, am I — Libby K. Hanaway — particularly invested in any sporting-event outcome??  Personally?  Independently?  Nah, not really. But I do love the festivity of sports traditions, so you can still pass the CrackerJacks my way. (Actually you cannot because I am an “older adult” currently wearing BRACES to fix some structural issues, and I remain in solemn solidarity with my fellow pre–to-early teen ortho buddies in our sticky-foods avoidance).

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So I can’t eat CrackerJacks or Milk Duds, but you know what I CAN eat?  A (pre-cut) banana.  And you know what OTHER baseball league is now wrapping up its season?  That’s right: THE BANANA BALL LEAGUE.

If you know, you know; if you don’t yet know, you are in for a good time 😁.  (And if you actually do know, feel free to jump ahead to the 2025 SUMMER/FALL BANANA BALL section because that's where the action begins.)

The easiest SAT-style explanation: the Savannah Bananas are now to baseball as the Harlem Globetrotters have long been to basketball — all smooth and casual finesse; a very loose, funny, comfortably-chaotic atmosphere; and non-stop, everywhere-you-look, 96%-wholesome entertainment.  Is there some level of competition?  Yes, I think so.  Is anyone paying attention to the score?  Honestly, that’s not the point. 

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A BRIEF BANANA BALL PRIMER: 

The Banana League currently fields four teams* 

*The Savannah Bananas (2020)

*The Party Animals (2020)

*The Houston Firefighters (2024)

*The Texas Tailgaters (2025)

*this list is expanding with hot-off-the-presses league news below 💥⬇️💥

So what IS the Banana Ball League? It's a very goofy, amped-up, off-script travel team version of traditional MLB-style baseball. It leans heavily on a bright yellow banana theme, and its teams are selling out huge professional stadiums everywhere they go.

If you think of traditional baseball as a straight-arrow, rule-following, high-achiever first-born child, Banana Ball is the non-conforming, youngest-child class clown who smiles impishly and gets away with a lot. Depending on the extent of your devotion to baseball in its purest form, you might view these differences as lighthearted, funny, and refreshing OR possibly as dumbed-down, depressing, and just plain disrespectful to the sport. Though I have a lot of first-born tendencies in real life (despite being third-born!), I do lack any deep, true fidelity to baseball itself; thus, it's not entirely surprising that I'm in the It's! All! Just! Fun! camp.

Banana Ball splits from regulation baseball with 11 unique rules and countless other distinctions, the most notable — and maybe most appreciated — being a counting-down clock that keeps each Banana Ball game capped at a clean two hours, ensuring an ever-engaging and hustle-fast pace.  BB also emphasizes entertaining trick plays and a continuously over-the-top fan experience v. traditional baseball's frequently fun fan experience (the baby cam, the wave, the 7th inning stretch) and binary competitive outcomes. And the BB teams are ever-so-slightly coed, too! If you're an all-about-the-rules sports fan (in which case, BB might not really appeal to you 😅), you can read more about Banana Ball regulations here.

In another twist on traditional baseball, the owner/founder of the Banana League — Jesse Cole — does not reign on high from a luxe stadium suite, but rather — ever-uniformed in bright yellow, custom-painted sneakers, a yellow tux, and a yellow bowler hat — he dashes about the field each game, microphone in hand, as an evangelistic Banana Ball emcee and master of ceremonies (and is often joined by his wife, Emily, who on our game day was active on the field in a flowing yellow 1970s prom-style gown). Jesse Cole is the human embodiment of the buzzy, friendly, irreverent spirit of Banana Ball. Click here for more BB history and background scoop!

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2025 SUMMER/FALL BANANA BALL:

With Taylor Swift no longer touring, the Savannah Bananas quickly became this summer’s hottest ticket.  We had vaguely set our sights on seeing the SBs after they crossed our radar a few years ago, but when we heard they would be playing at Denver’s Coors Field this past August, it became a very specific mission to be in the stands — no, actually a manatee-like QUEST (see previous post) because by then the word was out: the Savannah Bananas were the must-see sporting/entertainment event of the summer, and I – like many others – was in need of some all-out fun.  

Fortunately, Rick is one very lucky and determined face-value ticket-finder.  He was able to clear the initial waitlist hurdle months in advance followed by the luck-of-the-draw lottery system, finally securing the maximum of five randomly-assigned-but-together tickets that landed the two of us, our nephew, our niece-in-law, and our then-6- and 3-year-old grand-nephews under the only-partly-sunny sun (PTL) and alongside the first-base line (hence the netting layered over most photos below. Also, you might be doing the seating math — children three-and-under could be ticketless on a lap 🥳).  

None of our family six-some had any Savannah Bananas gear, so most of us (and many in the crowd) wore bright gold Denver Nuggets shirts; I still lack a Nuggets shirt and, it turned out, any yellow summer-wear at all, so I urgently ordered a banana-colored tank top with palms tree and a setting sun from Amazon two nights prior and embellished it with a tiny Dole banana grocery store sticker.  Sunscreened up and settled in with an early round of drinks and snacks, we were ready for a highly-anticipated afternoon of banana-themed FUN.

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SOME COORS FIELD FRAMING: 

You may have heard that our Coors Field home team, the Colorado Rockies, had their losing-est season ever, so bad that it now ranks among the worst MLB records of all time. This is true. They ended regular-season play 43-119.  We could pile on here, but you know, we all have our down years/decades.  Let’s just say that when Rick, E + I attended a Rockies game a few weeks prior and our group-ticketed seats grew hot under the sun, we had our pick of entire cool, shady sections for the remaining innings.  Also, as a somewhat sad, deflated symbol of the Rockies’ demise, the frozen lemonade stand had no line at all.  However, just a few weeks later, Coors Field was a very different — very, very banana-yellow — scene.  

On our Sunday afternoon game day, the stadium was wall-to-wall bright and buzzing humanity, such that filling my water bottle became a strategic excursion to cross the deep yellow-gold sea of fans to reach the filling station on the far wall.  In fact, it was a record-setting, sold-out crowd -- over 50,000 fans at both the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon game (an SB record for MLB stadiums!).  Ticket scalpers were ecstatic, as were the hot dog, beer, and previously-lonely frozen lemonade vendors.  For that weekend, the Bananas became our Denver home team and the visiting Houston Firefighters were our very friendly — and some might say — quite smoldering guests.

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Sitting together tightly in our row, here’s an incomplete list of the action we spotted during the game:

• An SB player with a gorgeous sheet of shiny long hair, casually batting and pitching up high ON STILTS.  The stilts were impressive but his hair even more so: “Sir, what is your secret? Your hair is incredible.”

  
  

• A baby + parents escorted by a golden mass of players to the pitcher's mound; the baby is seen on the Jumbotron dressed like a banana.  Mom holds the beautiful banana-baby up high as the players ceremoniously kneel, encircling the scene while “Circle of Life” from The Lion King blasts through the sound system. I LOL hard, then tear up, and then the tears actually spill over.

• Several impressive-for-ball-players dance routines throughout the game by the Bananas, the Firefighters, and a merry band of Man-Nanas, the SBs’ so-called “Dad-Bod Cheerleading Squad.”  The dancing involves some fairly sophisticated choreography that requires genuine concentration by all players and Man-Nanas.

• A race from the outfield wall to home plate between a horse-costumed human version of the demon-eyed Denver International Airport blue mustang and an SB player (the player, unencumbered by a head-to-hoof equine ensemble, easily won the race).  It was a quick nod to a highly visible, somewhat disturbing local quirk!

• SB players roaming the stands, delivering yellow roses to fans:

• A black grease-crayon-drawn smiley-face on the cheek of an SB player (be still my heart). So cheerfully subversive 😃!

• The crowd singing along loudly the entire game to an exceptionally-curated fun-happy-classics playlist (see below 🎶).  Dancing-concert vibes all around.

  
  

• A batting lineup of Houston Firefighters quietly positioning their bats near home plate in a pyramidal campfire-shape, fake-warming their hands, blowing invisible embers, and pretending to roast marshmallows.  For some reason, this easily-missed schtick became one of my favorites of all.

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ALSO!  

Girls, boys, babies, seniors, and families were the focus everywhere you looked with wacky on-field competitions and funny, non-humiliating comedy bits.  The most riveting fan scene on our game day went like this: between innings, a small boy with a big helmet steps up to bat; he misses the gently-pitched ball several times as the entire Coors Field stadium crowd nervously WILLS him to succeed.  When he finally — blessedly — makes contact, the crowd roars as he drops his bat to run his little legs towards 1st, then around 2nd, over to 3rd, and finally breaking for home as the Firefighters in the outfield haplessly fumble and bobble and error.  IT’S A HOME RUN!!!  His little ego should be boosted for LIFE!

YOU MUST TAKE 15 SECONDS FOR THIS VIDEO:

(The little cheer he gives himself rounding third 🥹)

AND THERE'S MORE!

At every game, the SBs pause to spotlight and raise funds for the foster care community through their nonprofit called — get this — Bananas Foster.  Text-to-donate graphics shine brightly from the stadium screens (and also here 😃), and at each game a local foster family is rushed onto the field for player high-fives and a stadium of cheering fans.  This is exactly what you do when you have captivated huge crowds week after week: you use your enormous-and-still-growing capital to make other peoples’ lives better and brighter ✨.

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I can see how baseball purists might see Banana Ball as the ridiculous ruination of our National Pastime. And you could argue that the whole circus-like set-up of the Savannah Bananas caters to our fractured, needy attention spans and reinforces expectations for nonstop amusement.  (And relatedly, you just know the MLB execs are all like, “Geez, thanks, guys 🙄” as they plan for 2026 fan retention.)  So yes, you could argue these points, and you might not be wrong.  But I would counter-argue that an MLB ball field filled with the goofiest, fan-centric, banana-themed fun is exactly what many of us need right now.  On our game day, the Houston Firefighters prevailed (and were the SBs' entertainment equal throughout), but the W/L was irrelevant.  An entire stadium packed tightly on a hot August day was rooting in unison for something bigger and better: the energizing, exhilarating, EXTRA-ordinary PHENOMENON OF FUNNY FUN.  All hail the Bananas — I’m a fan for life!

LATE-BREAKING NEWS!!

Last Thursday (10/09/25), news articles popped up everywhere announcing the 2026 Banana Ball schedule and the addition of two new teams to the Banana League:

*The Loco Beach Coconuts — Loosely based in Orlando, FL

*The Indianapolis Clowns — Now at first I was like, hmmmm, I think they could have gone in different branding direction, but then I learned the Indianapolis Clowns were an actual Negro American League team beginning in the 1930s (some baseball trivia: Hank Aaron was briefly on the team in 1951), and the Banana Ball Indianapolis Clowns version 2.0 will carry on its historic barnstorming tradition.  Btw, Rick and I learned lots about the history of Negro League baseball at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City a few years ago (which, it turns out, is where Jesse Cole first learned about the Indianapolis Clowns). Read more about the NLBM in the EXTRA GOOD links below ⬇️.

ACTION ALERT!! 

Start trying to secure your 2026 tickets NOW!  (Like really, right now – our Coors Field ticket opportunity for the August 2026 games closes on 10/31/2025.)  And in case you’re wondering if you should include the 6-and-under crowd in your own coveted ticket quest … our local grand-nephews (we’ll call them L1 + L2 going forward) seemed contentedly (with ballpark food) non-committal much of the game, but then L1 went home to immediately practice “trick plays” with his dad in their back yard and later wrote that it was the “‘bets’ day of his life.”  So take that as you will!

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EXTRA GOOD

ALSO LINKED THROUGH THE EXTRA GOOD PAGE HERE

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2025

THIS WEEK, ALL EXTRA GOOD LINKS ARE DEDICATED TO BASEBALL, BANANAS, AND BANANA BALL:

1..GOOD SPORTS: Much like the manatee webcams in Extra Good last week, you don’t have to score actual Banana Ball tickets to get in on all the fun.  The at-home TV version excels in some ways with its funny commentary, player/coach interviews, and a close-up view of all the action.  The SBs just signed a deal with ESPN, so you’ll be able to catch future games there. In the meantime, you have plenty of current options: YouTube offers many full-length, previous-season games; 60 Minutes ran a story on the Savannah Bananas a few months ago; and ESPN produced this 16-minute segment in April. You can read a short, very enjoyable SB Fact sheet here, and for more direct-from-the-source Savannah Banana content, deep-dive the Savannah Bananas website here.

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2..GOOD MUSIC: Click open Bananaland Classics, one of the official Banana Ball playlists on Spotify. It's ideal for a party — and for motivating yourself to clean for the party. You probably already know every single word to every single song.

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3..GOOD LEARNING + INFORMATION:  Mentioned above in reference to the Indianapolis Clowns, Rick + I visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City a couple years ago.  The exhibits very effectively tell the story of the Negro Leagues and the slow journey toward baseball integration. The museum is located in KC's historic 18th & Vine Jazz District and shares space with the American Jazz Museum. Definitely worth any sport/music/history fan's time. 

As a semi-related FYI, the black plastic fork pic of me on the About Libby page (and below) was taken at Arthur Bryant’s BBQ, our lunch stop after the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  Get in line for an old-school plate of onion rings and brisket!

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4..GOOD FOOD:  I have not tried any of the many, many Savannah Bananas-related recipes that tumble from a simple Google search, but I do know this non-SB one is a winner: Magnolia After-School Banana Bread (I recommend pecans AND chocolate chips, and personally I would file this under Cake instead of Bread). Banana recipes tend to be easily adapted to gluten-free — have not made this one as gf yet, but it should still be great!

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5..GOOD ENTERTAINMENT: There are also many, MANY quick-bit (and also longer form) Insta reels and YouTube videos featuring the Savannah Bananas — just Google some up and be entertained!

My deeply-Swiftie E. sent me this one-minute video marking the recent release of The Life of a Showgirl.  I have watched it 27 times so far and will keep coming back for more 😂:

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MANATEE POSTSCRIPT: 

(I am keeping you so long after the game; apologies, and to recognize the value of your time, next week’s post will be very short.) 

So last Sunday, Rick and I celebrated the at-long-last web publishing of Here’s One Good Thing at a favorite dinner spot the next town over.  He ordered us two glasses of Prosecco straight away, prompting our lovely server to ask, “What are we celebrating?”  I paused, then launched into the briefest possible explanation of this site, giving manatees as an example of the sort of hard-hitting topics I’d be covering.  She immediately put her hand on her heart and told us about the time she went swimming with manatees with her grandmother at Crystal Springs in Florida; swimmers could not touch the manatees, but the manatees could swim right up and gently investigate them.  We smiled wide and chatted some more, genuinely charmed by her story.  A few minutes later, another staff member came by and simply, proudly declared/asked, “Manatees?!”  Then she presented us with her water bottle featuring a World Oceans Day manatee sticker:

THEN, after we ordered a slice of Apple Almond Cake for dessert, our swimming-with-manatees server came by carrying an extra candle-lit dessert with an accompanying hand-signed card.  Now, we've celebrated small events — a birthday, an anniversary — at this restaurant before and I've always loved their festive tradition of a delivering a signed card for special occasions, but NEVER BEFORE have we received one that includes A HAND-DRAWN IMAGE OF A SMILING, HEART-HOLDING MANATEE.

It’s going on my office wall behind a frame.  I love it so.  You have an awesome staff, 24 Carrot Bistro!!

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Our other manatee postscript is a glittering example of the endless riffs one can take on any given subject when it’s effectively connected to any other given subject.  Creative synergy, I think it’s called.  Save the Manatees (the conservation org highlighted in the manatee post) introduced this "SLOWGIRL" image last week after Taylor Swift released her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl.  I cackled:

SEE YOU AGAIN NEXT WEEK FOR ANOTHER BATCH OF GOOD

😀