Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
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Editor's note: Tickets for the Savannah Bananas in Salt Lake City went on sale a year ago. To watch their games live in Salt Lake City without a ticket, visit their YouTube page.
SALT LAKE CITY — It's a sporting event like you've never seen before.
Think beach party meets baseball game meets circus — and even that doesn't do it justice. It's an all-consuming event, and one that is definitely overstimulating to the senses. In a very good way.
The Savannah Bananas are a party — an experience — that will leave even the most curmudgeon among us smiling throughout it all. Yes, even you!
Is it oftentimes chaotic? Oh, most definitely. Can it feel like too much? Possibly. But do you leave having a great time? Absolutely.
Even if you've seen snippets on social media — which likely attracted to you to the Savannah Bananas in the first place — it pales in comparison to the real thing. It's an event you just have to witness in person to get the full effect.
I recently got the opportunity to experience everything the Savannah Bananas had to share in a partial behind the scenes look in Louisville, Kentucky. You can see the project we did here.
I got to see all that goes into Banana Ball on the road over a three-day period in Kentucky, and I was left more impressed by the enormity and effectiveness of it all than I was expecting. In short, I was expecting something akin to the Harlem Globetrotters — an impressive display of talent that doesn't have much similarity to a real basketball game.
Instead, it was the best of baseball — and the mechanics of a real game played — mixed with uplifting entertainment that suits all ages. And most importantly, it was fun.
As a sports writer, I've trained myself to mostly dull the senses to sports fandom. For me, games have become a job, where my biggest worry is about what I'm going to write — the storyline — and not to care about winners and losers. Sure, it helps when the team I cover wins, because more people will be interested, but the results don't matter.
The Savannah Bananas allowed me to enjoy a game again.
No, I'm not waxing poetic here, but I was impressed by all the people that put in numerous hours of work in a day to make each game — each show — different and special. It's not a carbon-copy script that the players are tired of running through at each stop of the tour. No, it's a genuine attempt to make every fan that comes to a game feel special and different for at least one night.
Take the team's DJ and announcer, who goes by the name Shark and wears a T-shirt that features a banana that is made to look like a shark — clever, I know. Shark takes four to five hours each morning before he gets to the ballpark to prep a new game plan for the night.
Once at the ballpark, he's working with the entertainment staff to ensure the walk-up songs and the in-game antics all come together well so there's no mistakes. And then when the game starts, it's a never-ending vibe filled with music, quips and antics to keep the crowd engaged.
The days are long — often 12-13 hours as a regular shift — but he says "I can't believe I get paid to do this."
"I can't believe I get to help bring smiles," Shark said. "Like, if you ever have a chance to get a job where you can make an impact on people on an everyday basis, do it because there's nothing better than coming here to the ballpark every day, different city, and just knowing that you're going to impact so many different people. And that's what we as the organization believe that we're doing."
Shark is one of many to embody the organizations mission of "fans first, entertain always."
Each person in the organization genuinely cares about the fans and about putting on a good show for those in attendance. The Bananas' director of entertainment, Zack Frongillo, choreographs new elements for each game to keep it fresh.
"We're doing 15 to 20 brand new ideas every single game, so no two games are going to be the same," Frongillo said. "I mean, there's very rare instances where we'll pull what we call our greatest hits. ... But again, 15 to 20 brand new things — new run celebrations, new hitter walk-ups, new over-the-top moments, different ways to pitch, different ways to take the field, different promotions between innings, pregame. Every show is gonna be a little bit different."
Hours before the games are played, he's fine tuning each piece, while allowing the talent — the athletes who have embraced an unusual role as an entertainer, as well — to make changes to suit their individualized personality.
The end result is a genuine display of entertainment surrounding one of the oldest sports in America. It may share some characteristics in entertainment value — loosely — but the Savannah Bananas are not the Harlem Globetrotters.
"The Globetrotters revolutionized basketball, like they invented the dunk," Frongillo said. "And now you can't watch a SportsCenter Top 10 without seeing a dunk. The game was revolutionized by the Harlem Globetrotters. ... But the show from the Harlem Globetrotters has relatively stayed the same. Of course, they've made changes, and it's changed a little bit, but you kind of know what you're going to get. That's what makes Banana Ball so great, and that's what makes it different, it's not scripted.
"We always just say, one fan at a time, just treat the person in front of you like they're the most important person in the world and make their day," he added. "Figure out what's gonna make them the happiest, and building on those and having those moments. That's what it's all about at the end of the day."
The Savannah Bananas have also shown that more access to a team — the players, coaches and personnel — can be a good thing. More access makes the athletes relatable and human.
"When I was 10 going to a Major League Baseball game, I knew there was no chance unless I was crazy and was, like, up against the fence," Savannah Bananas second baseman Jackson Olson said. "Like, please, please, Derek Jeter, please sign this sign. Unless you're like that at a Major League Baseball game, you're probably not getting attention; you're probably not even getting a look — no one's even gonna look at you.
"Here, we are literally delivering roses to little girls in the crowd. We're dancing with fans. For an hour after the game, we're signing autographs, having fun, and it's just breaking down that barrier."
It all comes together in an imperfectly perfect symphony of entertainment that has the power to revolutionize how sports entertainment operates in a world in which fans' attention is being pulled in several directions.
And it's a strategy that is winning over people.
