Why fans are going bananas for Banana Ball
PBS News Hour - Segments
PBS NewsHour
4.1 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 July 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Millions are going bananas over a new take on baseball called banana ball to show us what it's all about our Dima Zane took in a banana ball game between the Savannah bananas and the firefighters. |
| 0:15.0 | If a fan catches a foul ball, it's an out, a pitch in the dirt. The batter steals first, and if you draw a walk, you better |
| 0:22.1 | run as fast as you can. This is anything but traditional baseball. They're called the Savannah |
| 0:28.4 | bananas. And they're playing what they call banana ball. It's a fast-paced take on baseball, |
| 0:35.0 | with 11 rules you wouldn't see at a major league game filled with constant |
| 0:39.3 | entertainment. Hey, hey, baby. Ooh, I want to know. There was spun around a chair like that before. |
| 0:46.9 | It was all started in 2016 by Savannah Banana CEO Jesse Cole, who had a vision of a fan's first |
| 0:53.2 | approach to baseball. Bring energy, bring fun, |
| 0:56.0 | and lift people up. It was a tradition-busting idea. I realized that there's a fundamental |
| 1:00.7 | problem with a game if you leave the game in the middle of the game. And so we said, |
| 1:05.5 | all right, well, what if we need our own rules? With new rules in the game also came new antics on the |
| 1:10.2 | field, including a twerking empire, acrobatic trick plays, a batter on stilts, trending choreographed dances, and much more. |
| 1:19.6 | It feels like a party. |
| 1:20.6 | Yeah. It's like I'm in a baseball party and not a game. |
| 1:23.1 | Circus meets the Olympics. Like, it's just amazing. |
| 1:25.9 | And Cole himself is the circus's ringleader, rocking a signature banana yellow suit and top hat. |
| 1:32.3 | It gives permission to not to people to have fun, to not take themselves too seriously. |
| 1:36.3 | When your owner is running around, you know, throwing out Dolce and banana underwear into the crowd and having fun, |
| 1:42.3 | I think it says, you know what, we can loosen up. |
| 1:44.7 | Banana Ball's popularity has grown exponentially in the past few years, racking up more than 30 million |
| 1:50.7 | followers on social media and outpacing some Major League Baseball teams. And with a growing social media |
| 1:56.8 | presence, came an expanding Banana Ball League that welcomed the party animals. And in |
... |
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