truTV And HBO Max To Air 19 Savannah Bananas Games This Summer And Fall
Banana Ball is coming to your sports television schedule courtesy of TNT Sports with a total of 19 games airing this summer and fall on truTV and HBO Max.
Starting Saturday, Aug 16, the always entertaining Savannah Bananas continue their tour of MLB ballparks as they play The Firefighters at Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, airing at 8 pm E.T. on truTV and simulcast on HBO Max.
For eight consecutive weekends, Banana Ball coverage will see stops at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Petco Park in San Diego, Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, T-Mobile Park in Seattle, and Daikin Park in Houston, along with a weekend series from Grayson Stadium, the Savannah Bananas' home stadium.
As part of the coverage, TNT Sports will air the first-ever Tour Championship in early October which highlights a multi-day tournament featuring four teams. The winner will be decided in the title game on Saturday, October 11.
The Savannah Bananas play a unique version of baseball called 'Banana Ball'. Similar to the Harlem Globetrotters, Banana Ball features over-the-top showmanship and fan participation, where players engage in dance routines, comedic sketches, and other performances between and often during the game.
Below is the TNT Sports broadcast schedule of the Savannah Bananas on truTV and HBO Max
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That's the actual name of Cole's company, which more than lives up to its namesake. Cole has turned down what he says are 'stupid numbers' from outside investors, as well as a seven-figure offer from a ticket broker. Instead, the Bananas use an internal system for everything from tickets to merchandise and pay all their own fees and taxes on those items, meaning a $35 ticket is actually $35. Yes, it costs Cole money, but he said the decision was a no-brainer. 'I'm not trying to make a billion dollars,' he said. 'I want a billion fans.' Advertisement In Banana Ball, the gates open two and a half hours before first pitch, and there's a steady stream of player and fan entertainment that encourages people to get to the ballpark hours before first pitch (and potentially buy food and merchandise, too). Most MLB teams open their gates 90 minutes before night games, though select games or groups may get in two hours early. Most of the time, the home team is done with batting practice by then, and there's very little if anything going on other than a video blaring on the JumboTron. Fans may catch the end of the road team's batting practice, but for young fans, there's virtually no chance of seeing their favorite players or having any pre-game interactions with them. In Banana Ball, players go into the stands during the game (Cole does, too). And while it would be borderline irresponsible to ask Bryce Harper to mingle in the upper deck between innings, why can't stadiums open early enough for home fans to watch batting practice? Why can't players on the injured list and with the team be required to spend a half-hour pregame signing baseballs? This is how you create meaningful fan interaction and ensure loyal customers for life, which leads us to our next lesson. I attended Saturday's game and was struck with how popular many of the players were. Fans were wearing jerseys with names on their back I had never heard of (despite 15 years covering MLB, I'm a Banana newbie). My 9-year-old nephew waited more than two hours at a local Dunkin Donuts Saturday morning just to meet two Bananas and two Firefighters. Impressed, I checked TikTok, where Banana Jackson Olson has 2 million followers (more than MLB stars Harper and Mike Trout combined), as well as deals with Reebok and Gatorade. The Bananas have 10.5 million followers on their TikTok account, which is more than MLB's official account (8.3 million). Advertisement They will play in more than a dozen MLB stadiums this year, and they are selling out NFL stadiums, too. All four Fans First teams — in addition to the Bananas and Firefighters, there are the Party Animals and Texas Tailgaters — are made up of players who are recruited and paid to play at salaries higher than the minor leagues. All players on Fans First teams are carefully selected for talent, playing ability and makeup. The latter is perhaps the most important. Everyone on the Bananas truly wants to be there, and they don't complain about making trick plays or signing autographs. Cole says dancing was initially met with trepidation by all but a handful of players — until they saw how wildly popular it was. Now, everyone dances. The Bananas don't play Monday through Wednesday — 'Does playing on a Monday night in April serve our fans?' Cole asked — so games are held Thursday through Sunday nights. On this world tour, Banana games were played in warm-weather cities like Peoria, Ariz., and Miami, Fla., until May. MLB doesn't have that luxury in a 162-game season (the Bananas will play 73 games this year), and whether the sport should cut down games is a subject for another day. Still, there has long been the idea among baseball people for a universal off day during the season, perhaps Mondays. The league can't only schedule the first half of April in domed/warm cities because it would delay other clubs' home openers by so much. But there are ways to mitigate that, too. How about more day games — when the temperatures are higher — in the first month of the season? (And in the playoffs, so young fans can watch games until the end.) MLB and its clubs have done a better job of pushing up game times when weather is an issue, but having every Monday off would also make rescheduling postponements a lot easier. Blowouts don't keep fans engaged, so Cole tweaked the rules to make sure the ninth inning would always matter (a team gets an individual point for winning each of innings one through eight, but in the ninth, runs are unlimited). It sounds crazy, but it works, providing more thrilling late-game heroics, like it did on Saturday. There's also a two-hour game clock, though contests are often done before then. 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