Banana Ball

I got a call early Saturday morning that my brother's friend was giving away tickets for the Savannah Bananas at Yankee Stadium. We didn't have any plans, so we decided to seize the opportunity and accept.

I've been to a good number of Yankee games in my life, but my girlfriend has never been. I figured this would be a fun way to introduce a non-baseball fan to the over-all Yankee Stadium experience.

I read online that the game had sold out, but for some reason I thought it wouldn't be as crowded as a "normal" game. I was wrong. We arrived 10 minutes before the game started and found that parking had been shut down for three blocks out in each direction since all the stadium lots were full. The crowd size became even more obvious as we made the walk to the stadium and started to hear how loud it was.

Turns out people really like the Savannah Bananas' particular brand of baseball. The place was packed with families and way more kids than I've ever seen at a Yankee game. It felt like a postseason game, with the same level of excitement in the air, but just with way less drunk people.

We got to our seats around the 3rd/4th inning. I can only imagine what we missed, because by the time we sat down, the pitcher was on stilts and there was a dog that was pinch running.

We must have missed the explanation of how the scoring works, but in addition to all of the normal stats on the scoreboard, they were keeping track of "trick plays" too: behind the back catches, flips, under-the-leg throws, stuff like that. Some players wore super-hero capes, some wore full face motorcycle helmets, and some wore their jersey's open and with the sleeves cut off. While there was definitely a bit more flair than your average ball game, there was plenty of "normal" baseball action to keep old-school fans entertained as well.

The rest of the crowd was kept entertained with some sing-a-longs and other classic bits of entertainment you might find at any other minor league game in between innings, although there were some moments that resonated on a slightly larger scale. There was a blind-folded pillow fight...

A performance of the Broadway hit "My Shot" by Hamilton's Miguel Cervantes, featuring choreographed dancing from the Bananas, of course...

Some sexy shirtless fire-fighting hunks dancing on top of the dugouts...

And even an appearance from an old Yankee skipper.

So, a little something for everyone. Also, I can't not mention the fact that I'm pretty sure this event featured one of the cleanest, most disciplined "waves" I have ever been a part of.

Another cool moment when at one point the stadium lights were dropped for a sing-a-long to Coldplay's "Yellow" that made Yankee Stadium look like the night sky.

"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you"

As the game clock expired*, we found ourselves in sudden-death overtime. A number of things happened (*I actually just looked up all the rules to try to make sense of what happened here, and have decided that I will not be attempting to explain it), and after some questionably challenged plays, the game ended in a slightly awkward run-off situation that seemed to heavily favor the home team. But, you don't go to a Globetrotters game and expect to see the Generals win, so we can suspend our disbelief here.

So in the end the Bananas won, and we all cheered and celebrated as we made our way towards the exits to go battle the traffic.

Shout out to Jon for the tickets!