The Party Animals beat the Savannah Bananas by a score of 3-2 at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday.
Based in Savannah, Ga., the Bananas aren’t your grandmother’s baseball team. Founded in 2015 with their on-field debut in 2020, the team’s mission is to make baseball fun with a fans first approach. As of this year, three teams — the Savannah Bananas, the Party Animals, and the Firefighters — play Banana Ball, not baseball, and it comes with its own set of rules.
Banana Ball’s modified rules are meant to speed up the game and keep fans entertained. No new innings can start after the two hour mark. Games are scored by points, which are acquired each inning by the team that scores more runs. There are no walks: when a player receives four balls at bat, the baseball game turns into a game of tag, where each member of the defending team must touch the ball before they can try to tag the batter out. If a fan in the stands is lucky enough to catch a foul ball, it’s an out, giving the crowd a chance to join in on the game.
“We’re all about making the best fan experience possible,” said Allentown native and Party Animals pitcher Connor Higgins, who celebrates every strikeout by twerking. Higgins grew up playing “underestimated” Pennsylvania little league ball, and was asked to try out for the Bananas after he was let go by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“I was hooked from the second I got there,” Higgins said.
Fellow Pennsylvanians Ryan Cox and Alex Ziegler have similar stories. Cox was invited to Banana Ball tryouts after his educational fielding videos gained traction online. Ziegler, who grew up in Butler Pa., discovered the Bananas through TikTok and was asked to try out in Savannah after one of his bat trick videos blew up on the platform.
“Did some crazy bat tricks walking up to the plate and I ripped a single up the middle and they were like, ‘You’re here for life,’” Ziegler said.
The Bananas have become wildly popular, racking up millions of likes on TikTok clips of players lip-syncing to “I’m Just Ken” or “Dirty Dancing.” They’ve sold out every game since their first season, and Saturday was no exception. 2024 marks their third World Tour, which has grown from stops in seven cities in 2022 to 96 games across 29 cities this year. The Bananas have played at some of the most famous baseball stadiums in the country, including the Red Sox’ Fenway Park. Demand for these games has gotten so high that hopeful fans have to enter a lottery just to get the chance to buy tickets.
It takes a lot to fill Citizens Bank Park with anything but the Phillies’ red and light blue, but the Bananas managed it. Two hours before first pitch, the stands were already full of Savannah Banana yellow and splashes of Party Animal pink. The 45,000 fan crowd constituted the largest crowd in Banana Ball history.
Fans who arrived early were treated to a performance by the Man-nanas, the team’s official cheer squad, and got to watch Alex “Ziggy” Ziegler balance increasing heavy objects on his chin. Players Bill Leroy and Tanner Thomas sprinted up to the third deck to throw bananas for fans on the field to catch in their pants.
The shenanigans didn’t end when the game started, either. Bananas center fielder D.R. Meadows did a back flip while making a catch in the first inning, while a Party Animals fielder did the worm after making a catch of his own. Trick plays don’t give score bonuses, but are rewarded with roaring cheers from the crowd. Players were carried through the stands by fans and danced while on their way to the plate. The umpires — usually the most hated people on a major league field — joined in on the fun too. The transitions between innings consisted of dance battles and baby races.
While the teams spend plenty of time rehearsing each night’s entertainment, the games aren’t scripted.
“All the trick plays that we do is [sic] unbelievable, ‘cause everyone thinks this is all scripted game play and then they see these trick plays. That’s not something you learn overnight. We put in so much time learning these trick plays… These guys are incredible athletes, some of the best baseball players I’ve ever seen in my life,” Ziegler said.
The game also paid homage to Philadelphia Phillies history. The loudest cheers of the night took place when the Savannah Bananas brought out Phillies legends Shane Victorino, Joe Blanton, Jamie Moyer, and Ryan Howard. When Victorino grounded out to the second baseman, the crowd broke out the famous Philadelphia boos. After the seventh inning, Malachai “Flash tha Kid” Mitchell lip-synced to “Dancing On My Own,” the Phillies’ postseason theme song of the past two years. Going into the eighth inning, the Bananas imitated the Eagles’ football formation.
Each team’s OTT moments — Banana Ball slang for the dances and tricks that would never happen in a normal baseball game — take on slightly different hues. The players joke that “the Bananas are for the kids and the Party Animals are for the moms.”
“We’re more champagne and fireworks,” Party Animal Higgins said. Hopefully they got to celebrate with some after their Saturday victory.
