Blog Blender

Banana Ball growth pushing up against MLB

As Banana Ball grows, where does it fit in the sports landscape with Major League Baseball?

On a Friday night this summer, the New York Yankees packed Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in a rematch of last year’s World Series. An hour south that same evening in Anaheim, another major-league stadium hosted a sold-out ballgame, but the contest had nothing to do with the nation’s most venerated sports league, Major League Baseball. It was between a troop of dancing ballplayers called the Savannah Bananas and a rival of their own creation, the Firefighters.

MLB officials say they view the independent Bananas not as competition but as a complement, an aid to the number of baseball and softball fans everywhere. To MLB, the Bananas are an entertainment product — not competitive with an established sport and closer to a stadium-filling concert, or a sport-adjacent show like the Harlem Globetrotters of basketball.

But Jesse Cole, the Bananas’ owner, sees what he’s creating as much more than just baseball vaudeville.

PJH Studios artwork, Portrait of a sun

PJH Studios

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  • Banana Ball growth pushing up against MLB

    As Banana Ball grows, where does it fit in the sports landscape with Major League Baseball? On a Friday night this summer, the New York Yankees packed Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in a rematch of last year’s World Series. An hour south that same evening in Anaheim, another major-league stadium hosted a sold-out ballgame,…

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