Banana Ball

[Dan Druff]

I assume a lot of you have heard about Banana Ball, which is essentially a modern Harlem Globetrotters in the baseball realm.

It started out small, but has grown huge, and now is operating in MLB stadiums, and completely selling out at very high prices. The founder of Banana Ball, Jesse Cole, still owns 100% of it, and is insanely rich now. He was approached by MLB who wanted to buy a piece of it, but he refused, fearing they would interfere in the product.




Each pitch takes a long time, as everyone (including the umpire) dances prior to the ball being thrown:





Often the will make trick plays and throws from the infield.

There's even a guy who plays on stilts.

It's usually the same two teams playing one another -- Savannah Bananas versus the Party Animals. The Bananas are in yellow, and the Animals are in pink.


The games are played semi-seriously, and all of the players have a baseball background -- presumably ones who couldn't make MLB, but otherwise have a lot of agility and dance talent.

To me the whole thing would be amusing for 5 minutes, at which point I'd get tired of it and just want them to pitch the damn ball.


It is not uncommon for 50,000 capacity stadiums to sell out, with the tickets going for $200 minimum.

I hope this sort of thing doesn't take over as baseball once Gen X and the boomers completely die off.

[Sheesfaced]

lol they don’t dance before every pitch. And the games are super fast in general.

[Dan Druff]

lol they don’t dance before every pitch. And the games are super fast in general.

Maybe it's just the highlights I've seen, then.

I assume you've gone to one of these? How many innings do they go? How long does an entire game take (in hours)?

[The Boz]

Went to a game in Tampa this year with 65000 fans, they have something going. Look at the non Banana games with the side teams in smaller cites, yea they are making huge money.

It’s a national phenomenon, no clue how long it lasts but they are printing money currently.

[Sheesfaced]

lol they don’t dance before every pitch. And the games are super fast in general.

Maybe it's just the highlights I've seen, then.

I assume you've gone to one of these? How many innings do they go? How long does an entire game take (in hours)?

Games have a two hour time limit (no new inning can start after 1hour 50 mins). Scoring is like
Golf skins in that you get a point for each inning you win. If a fan catches a foul ball it’s an out. There’s a bunch of other weird rules.

I’m a baseball fan and definitely prefer mlb but admittedly banana ball is a lot of fun for kids. It’s gimmicky as hell but it’s definitely insanely popular. Not sure how long its popularity lasts but definitely printing money right now.

[Smotorious]

Not 100000% sure, but I think if you’re lucky enough to buy tickets at face value, they're very affordable. The aftermarket rape job is when you see the 2/3/5 hundo a ticket.

[BetCheckBet]

Funny enough I just learned about this after a viral video of a woman who left a banana ball game and her and her male friends were knocked the fuck out by rival fans….

[The Boz]

Not 100000% sure, but I think if you’re lucky enough to buy tickets at face value, they're very affordable. The aftermarket rape job is when you see the 2/3/5 hundo a ticket.

Yea they are but reselling them is impossible on the usual markets. You can’t transfer them the usual ways so it’s meeting in person at the gate.

Congratulations to them for trying to avoid the resellers and using a lottery to get ticket reasonable prices l