Indy crowd is largest ever for Savannah Bananas game. And they were treated to a show.

INDIANAPOLIS — The party starts right as you walk in the door.

Baseball fans flooded into the stands as streamers rained down at Victory Field promptly at 5:30 p.m. Friday night — the first of two Savannah Bananas games in Indianapolis this weekend. Seats are first come, first serve, and the lower concourse quickly filled in five minutes.

After all, the barnstorming Savannah Bananas sold out both days. The 15,000-person crowd at Victory Field overflowed, as fans were standing two-deep on the concourse to get a glimpse of the action. It marked the largest crowd in Savannah Bananas history.

“The support is unbelievable,” team owner Jesse Cole said. “We started by just selling a handful of tickets and struggling. Now, to see every game sold out, the waitlist over 800,000 right now, it’s unbelievable.”

Before the game, Cole milled around the concourse in an all-yellow suit — hat, shoes, and all — taking pictures with fans and autographing baseballs.

The entertainment started as fans were taking their seats. The team's two mascots, The Man-nanas, stood on top of the dugout to hype up fans. From the gates opening at 5:30 p.m. to the start of the actual game at 7 p.m., there was never a dull moment and never a lapse in pregame activities.

“We think about every second,” Cole said. “How do we entertain the fans, how do we put on a show they’ll never forget, and I think our team is bought in and everyone’s all about it. You’ll see in Indy, the largest crowd in Bananas history, it’s going to be a special night.”

There are a bevy of pregame festivities, including a dance contest on the dugout, players trying to catch bananas in their pants over a foul ball net, a live tryout for the Bananas team, and an homage to the "Lion King" — replacing the lion cub with a human baby in a banana suit.

At the same time, players from the Bananas and the Party Animals are warming up, talking to fans, and signing autographs.

When the game started — promptly at 7 p.m. — the excitement kept going.

“It’s nonstop electricity, nonstop entertainment,” Cole said. “I want it to be like if a fan blinks, they missed something. So, really, we just want nonstop, so when they leave tonight, they’re like, ‘Wow, they threw a heck of a show.’”

Between innings, the Savannah Bananas team crowdsourced babies ahead of the game and put on the World’s Slowest Race — babies on one end, beckoning parents on the other.

One baby moved about two feet toward the finish line, while another went the other way.

In another between-inning entertainment piece, the Bananas and Party Animals teamed up to do a synchronized dance behind the pitcher’s mound.

But the entertainment wasn’t limited to mid-inning gimmicks. Music is constantly playing — even during at-bats — for fans to sing along.

One player was rolled out to bat in a banana barrel, another came out in an Indianapolis Colts jersey and helmet, and a third came out to pitch in stilts.

And when one player hits a home run, everyone on the team gets involved in the trot.

The most exciting part of the night came with fan involvement. One of the core rules of Banana Ball — the nine differentiated rules from MLB games — is that if a fan catches a foul ball, the batter is out.

It didn’t just happen once, but twice. The first time, a boy named Kyle from Brownsburg caught the ball in the left field stands. Bananas players immediately ran out to find him, and he was honored on the field.

The second time, someone on top of the Victory Field press box made the lucky catch.

Including fans was something paramount to Cole and the rest of the Savannah Bananas operation — they wanted to make baseball more fun to watch than a typical game.

“I just wanted to put myself in the fans’ shoes,” Cole said. “I realized I loved playing the game, but how can we make it so much fun to watch, even if you’re not a baseball fan? When you put yourself in the fans’ shoes, you start creating a lot of things that are hopefully more exciting and more fun for every fan.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Savannah Bananas baseball: The best of night one in Indianapolis