I used to be a huge baseball fan. Each year I would go to at least ten games. And I was the type of fan who did not drink beer while I was there because I did not want to miss any action because I was in the bathroom. I was SUPER into it. But over the past five years, I haven't even watched ten games let alone attended that many. The fact I am (or maybe it is was) a White Sox fan is a huge part of it. The all or nothing strikeout or homer nature of the game has also put me off. And replay put the final nail in the coffin of once was my love of baseball. But every once and a while, I wonder "What if baseball were fun again?" Well I may have found my answer...
BANANA BALL!!!!!!!
A couple of weeks ago The Savannah Bananas came to town to play against The Firefighters (which are apparently the home team when they play in Chicago). Just getting tickets was a minor miracle. Both my wife and I entered a lottery for these tickets at Wrigley Field back in the winter. I lost. But she won so we got to take our kids to the game. We were so happy we were able to experience this.
It seems the premise of this league is simple: in a world with instant dopamine boosts in everyone's pockets (I don't mean drugs, I mean phones) Major League Baseball has become incredibly boring... so let's make baseball fun!
They do this in a few ways. First there are some unique rules. Scoring is not based on total runs alone. It is based on winning an inning. You win an inning by getting my runs than the opponent in that inning. So if the visitors score 0 and the home team scores 1, they win the inning and the inning ends. All the home team needs to do is to score one more run that the visitors did and they get a point. If the visitors score more than the home team they get a point. So a score of 7 to 3 in an inning is still one point. A score of 6 to 7 (6 7!!!!) scores one point. This is true until the final inning. Each run counts as a point in the final inning. And speaking of final inning, it doesn't have to be 9 innings. The final inning is whatever inning begins when a clock its two hours. This means games are incredibly fast.
There is another way to earn a point: trick plays. Yep. A team keeps a tally of how many trick plays they make. Whoever has the most at the end of the game gets an extra point. This means that players are constantly trying to field a ball behind their back or throw the ball between their legs. Every routine play now has an added element of excitement. Sometimes the first baseman would catch a thrown ball behind his back to add to the fun. Routine flies were the best opportunity for trick plays. The outfielder could close his glove and kind of volleyball set the ball to himself before catching it. If another fielder were close, he could set it to them. They also would catch the ball behind their backs. One guy even did a flip as he caught a fly ball. There was never a reason to look away from the field.
There were also other rules that were quite interesting. First, there was something called a "golden batter". At any point in the game, you could send up your best guy to hit. I am guessing this is usually saved for the final inning but I guess you could also do this if you had bases loaded and two outs and you wanted tour best hitter up. They also had a designated runner who was a super fast guy that would run for the catcher if he reached base. Kind of like little league this allowed the catcher to get his equipment on for the next inning. Finally if a fan catches a foul fly ball... it is an out. Yep. fans catching a ball retired the batter. This actually happened three times during the game we saw. It actually happened to the golden batter for the Bananas and he was pissed!
These games are not Harlem Globetrotter games. Because of the nature of baseball, you can't really play a fake game. Guys had to hit, run, throw, catch, and pitch just like real baseball. And these players were legit talented. I'm guessing these guys are about as good if not better than minor league A ball. So there was fast action.
Speaking of action, it never stops. Banana Ball took the NBA's live game idea of making sure there is no dead time. There is non stop entertainment between innings. In fact, it was a tough choice of when to go to the bathroom. There were lots of fan contests. One involved little kid brother and sister teams. The little guys wore fireman hats and had to save and carry their little sisters back to home plate. Another one involved dads competing to catch their kids in the outfield. That was hilarious! My favorite was moms putting on a fitted sheet and running the bases as the sheet held them back like a parachute. There were too many to list.
There were also dance numbers.
Let me say that again. There were also dance numbers.
Both teams did at least one dance number in between innings. These were the actual players. It was hilarious!
The highlight of my night is when The Firefighters drum line performed. The stadium turned off all the lights and the drum light turned on their light up suits. they then proceeded to play Firestarter by The Prodigy while things exploded in the infield. It was incredible!!!
I don't know if I would go to another game this year, but I definitely would make this an annual tradition with my family.
Has anyone else been to these games?
