We scored tickets to the hottest show in baseball and saw the Savannah Bananas play on Friday night at Target Field in Minneapolis; the first of three sold-out games at the 39,000 seat stadium, which opened in 2010. Fun fact: The ballpark site—the third home of the Minnesota Twins, after Metropolitan Stadium and the Metrodome, was previously a surface lot where I used to park when I worked in Downtown Minneapolis. Map link: Target Field, Minneapolis
Tickets for the game were requested months ago, and demand was so high that we only got lucky in a second-chance lottery and were delighted to get five tickets together, even in the upper deck and third-to-last row. Even better, the team’s owners, Fans First Entertainment, manage all of their own ticketing and merchandising, so you buy tickets directly, without paying annoying fees to a third-party marketplace. Take that, Ticketmaster!
Based in Savannah, Georgia, the Bananas is an exhibition baseball team founded in 2016 as a collegiate summer organization. They began playing exhibition games in 2018 under the Banana Ball format (see below), and switched to an exhibition-only schedule in 2023. This year, the six-team Banana Ball Championship League is scheduled to play 190 games in 75 different stadiums in 45 states; all to sold-out crowds. The teams operate outside of other mainstream leagues and are aimed at entertainment rather than competition—the Bananas are often referred to as the “Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.” Although unlike the Globetrotters, who never lose to the Washington Generals, games are unscripted and competitive.
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| Source: Wikipedia |
Kathleen, Lars, Lish, Caroline and I met in St. Paul and took the Green Line light rail to Target Field, a pleasant 40-minute trip, and the train stops right outside Gate 6 near the stadium’s left field. We were early, but the place was already buzzing with pre-game entertainment, concessions and merchandise sales. The Bananas’ opponent was the Coconuts of Loco Beach, which is not a real place. Throwing out the first pitch (which counted as a ball or strike to the leadoff hitter) was six-time All Star, three-time Golden Glove winner, 2009 American League MVP, Hall of Famer, Minnesota Twins legend and St. Paul native Joe Mauer. His toss from the mound just missed the strike zone for ball one. Appearing later in a guest at-bat for the Bananas was Twins’ veteran and former All Star Brian Dozier, the first AL second baseman to hit 40 home runs in a single season. He struck out.
Banana Ball is popular because it’s fun to watch, with a focus on high-energy showmanship and zaniness. Players, umpires and crew performed dance routines, acrobatics, comedy, and other theatrics, both on and off the field. The music never stopped, even while the ball is in play, and there was always something to watch besides the game, from Split, the Bananas’ mascot, Coco, his Coconuts counterpart, a pep band, Princess Pottasia, Vinny the Dancing Umpire and the Man-Nanas, an all-male, dad-bod shaped cheerleading squad. One Bananas batter came to the plate on stilts, scoring celebrations involved choreographed dance numbers and backflips were popular, including a centerfielder who caught a fly ball while executing a perfect flip and landing on his feet.
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| The Savannah Bananas and entourage take the field with a lively dance number |
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| The Coconuts are introduced via a Slip ‘N Slide |
There are 11 main rules in Banana Ball that are different from traditional baseball:
1. Every inning except the last is worth one point. Win the inning, win a point. There is also a bonus point given to the team with the most trick plays. In the last inning, every run scored counts as a point.
2. There is a time limit. After two hours, no new inning may begin.
3 & 4. Hitters may not step out of the batter’s box and no player or coach may visit the pitcher’s mound. This keeps the game fast-paced and addresses a common spectator complaint that baseball games are slow and boring.
5. There is no bunting and players even attempting it are ejected. As the announcer explained, “bunting sucks!”
6. Batters may steal first base. This is usually only done on a wild pitch or passed ball.
7. There are no walks. In its place is the Ball Four Sprint, where batters run as far as they can before all nine players in the field touch the ball. Most hitters that we saw stopped at first base, but a couple made it to second. And it got interesting with runners on base, who may also advance, and several runs were scored on walks without the bases being loaded.
8. A batter is out if a spectator cleanly catches a foul ball. This happened once in our game, to thunderous applause. On Saturday night, Target Field fans caught ten foul balls, shattering the previous Banana Ball record of six.
9. If the score is tied after two hours, a Showdown Tiebreaker occurs, where teams play only a pitcher, catcher and one fielder against each hitter. Any home run over the outfield wall immediately wins the game.
10. Each team is allowed one challenge to a call on the field, plus a designated spectator in the stands is allowed an additional challenge.
11. The Golden Batter: Once per game, each team may send any player up to bat in any spot.
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| The Man-Nanas cheerleading squad |
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| The world’s tallest batter |
In the actual game, an early pitcher’s duel turned into a rout after a defensive collapse by the Coconuts, and the Bananas cruised to a 7-2 win. The game ended on a bizarre double play, where a line drive ricocheted off the Bananas’ pitcher, was caught in the air by the shortstop, who threw to first to catch a Coconut’s runner off base. On Saturday night, the Bananas won again, 3-2, in a game that went two rounds into a Showdown Tiebreaker, after the record 10th fan-caught foul ball ended regulation play. The Coconuts avoided a sweep by taking the Sunday afternoon finale, 4-3. Web link: https://thesavannahbananas.com/
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| Target Field and the Minneapolis skyline at sunset… |
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| …and at night |
Bonus Question: What mammal is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most names? (answer at end of post).
Last month, in another exhibition baseball game, four of us (minus Kathleen) saw the Tri-City Chili Peppers from Petersburg, VA, play the Glow Mojis as part of the Cosmic Baseball Takeover Tour at CHS Field, home of the St. Paul Saints minor league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. Fun fact: Kathleen and I coincidentally drove past the home field of the Chili Peppers last month when returning to Virginia Beach from Petersburg National Battlefield. Post link: Virginia Beach, VA. July 3, 2026
The Chili Peppers and Glow Mojis are currently the only teams in Cosmic Baseball. Games are divided roughly in half—the first in daylight and the second after dark under black lights, with neon uniforms and glow-in-the-dark balls. Additionally, Cosmic play has a few quirky rules of its own: There are home run derbies in the second half, and every dinger counts as a run. Twice in each game there are Three Minutes of Chaos, when the entire stadium is in-play, including foul balls and home runs that are not hit out of the park, and fans become part of the defensive team. And, as in Banana Ball, there are no walks—Cosmic games use a Ball 4 Fungo, where the batter tosses the ball in the air and hits it into play and runs the bases.
Like the Bananas game, the antics and music were non-stop, although our seats were underneath a loudspeaker and it was uncomfortably noisy. Watching baseball under black lights was pretty cool, and I was impressed that hitters and fielders seemed to easily see the glowing baseball on a dark night. The daylight portion was dull by comparison, although the sideline entertainment was fun to watch, and the scoring didn’t get interesting until after dark, when the Glow Mojis broke open a close game by outperforming in the home run derbies. They won easily, although I don’t remember the score (and couldn’t find it online). Web link: https://chilipeppersbaseball.com/
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| CHS Field by day… |
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| …and under black light. |
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| An impromptu pickleball game broke out in left field |
Bonus Question Answer: The Puma concolor, known as the cougar, puma, catamount, panther, mountain lion and more than 35 other regional names in English alone, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having more names than any other animal.
