Williams: Ohio loves Savannah Bananas. Cincinnati Reds hope for 2025 Banana Ball tour stop
The greatest show in baseball won’t be visiting Ohio’s best baseball town next summer, but the Savannah Bananas have Cincinnati on their radar for a future tour stop.
The Bananas, known as the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, last week announced their 2024 Banana Ball World Tour. It includes three stops within 100 miles of Greater Cincinnati: Columbus, Indianapolis and Louisville.
The barnstorming tour is also scheduled for Cleveland’s Progressive Field, one of six big-league ballparks on the 2024 schedule. It will be the first Bananas tour to make stops at Major League Baseball stadiums.
Sit tight, Cincinnati. Your turn is likely coming to land one of the most coveted traveling entertainment shows, possibly as soon as 2025.
“Going back to Ohio is in the future for us,” Bananas world tour director Patrick Briody told me. “We absolutely want to go (to Cincinnati) at some point. We have ambitions of going to every major-league ballpark.”
Reds officials have been in contact with the Bananas since earlier this spring and are “pushing hard” to land a tour date, team executive Karen Forgus said.
“The Savannah Bananas are an entertainment phenomenon that we are excited to welcome into Reds Country at our AAA affiliate in Louisville for three dates in 2024. And we are working on dates for Great American Ball Park in 2025,” said Forgus, Reds senior vice president of business operations.
Bananas officials will begin putting the 2025 tour together next month, Briody said. He anticipates having discussions with the Reds about a 2025 tour stop, but added there are no guarantees it’ll happen then.
Ohio is one of the top states for Bananas’ ticket requests outside of the team’s home base in eastern Georgia, Briody said. The 2023 Banana Ball tour stopped for two nights in Akron, where it sold-out both events.
The Bananas’ popularity in Ohio could partly be attributed to how many Ohioans vacation in the Hilton Head-Savannah region, Briody said. That region is particularly popular among residents from the Cincinnati and Cleveland areas.
Why are these cities going bananas for a Bananas tour stop?
Simply put, it’s not like regular baseball. It’s a choreographed, interactive show with a side of baseball.
Games will abruptly stop for player dances and skits. There's fan-involved games and contests between innings. Players, coaches and umpires are involved in the entertainment. The "opposing team," known as the Party Animals, are part of the tour. A new "opposing team" known as the Firefighters will join the Party Animals as part of the upcoming tour.
Banana Ball has nine rules that make it different than regular baseball. Some of those rules are designed to speed up the game – or at least the baseball part of the game. There are no walks. There are no mound visits. My favorite rule: If a fan catches a foul ball on the fly, the batter is out.
The Bananas launched in 2016 as a collegiate summer-league team. From their unique name – which was chosen by the fans – to their funny antics, the Bananas quickly grew into a phenomenon. All their home games at Savannah’s historic, 4,000-seat Grayson Stadium sellout, and there’s always a waiting-list for tickets.
The demand sparked the idea for the Banana Ball tour, which started in 2021 when the Bananas played a few nights in Mobile, Alabama. Both shows/games sold out immediately. The tour has added more cities ever since. The Bananas use stadium plazas and nearby space for family-friendly entertainment.
“Everything is a Disney mindset,” Briody said.
Fans must enter online lotteries to get tickets. Every tour stop sells out immediately, typically leaving thousands of fans without tickets. It prompted Bananas officials to look beyond minor-league ballparks for the upcoming tour.
Some 25 cities will host the tour next year, also including stops at major-league ballparks in Boston, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The Bananas will also go out to sea on a cruise ship.
The Bananas love the fans, especially kids. My 10- and 7-year-old sons love the Bananas. We have lots of Banana gear at home. In July, we stopped by the team shop while visiting family in Savannah. The Bananas were taking batting practice, and we watched from the stands.
Outfielder Noah Bridges, a TikTok sensation because of his fan interactions, came over to my sons and two nephews and offered them to come onto the field to shag balls. My older son and nephew spent an hour with Bridges and his teammates in the outfield. The Bananas made the kids feel like part of the team.
Even if you’re not a traditional baseball fan, the Bananas are worth seeing. They don’t disappoint.
“We are very accessible,” Briody said. “We’re here to make the game fun. We’re here to grow the younger audience and help grow the sport.”
Contact columnist Jason Williams by email at jwilliams@enquirer.com.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio loves Savannah Bananas. Cincinnati Reds hope for 2025 tour stop
