Latest news with #exhibitionBaseball
CNET
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Watch TikTok Sensations Savannah Bananas Free on Your Roku Screen
There's a chance your TikTok feed has slipped in a few clips of the Savannah Bananas, an exhibition baseball team whose antics and gameplay style may remind you of the Harlem Globetrotters. In a league of their own, -- they play Banana Ball and no longer belong to other leagues -- the team can be seen dancing, singing and throwing curveballs on social media and your TV screen. This weekend, you can stream a game for free on the Roku Channel. If coordinated choreography for songs like the Cupid Shuffle or KJ Jackson leading a lip-synced rendition of Gracie Abrams' That's So True haven't been enough to draw you all the way in, maybe the upcoming game between the Savannah Bananas and The Firefighters at Fenway Park will get you. What's Banana Ball exactly, and what can you expect? Well, there's a dance squad made up of senior citizens, a breakdancing coach, and all the players hit the choreo during every game. The Savannah Bananas have a roster of 25 and The Firefighters have a team of 27. Their hitters hit the field in creative, spirited walk-ups while there are plenty of other entertaining moves happening on the pitcher's mound and beyond. Winners are determined by points instead of runs and games can end before the ninth inning if one team has the most points. Because new innings can't begin after the 1-hour, 50-minute mark, whatever inning the game is in will be the last. Banana Ball games operate on a "2-hour limit." If you haven't checked the teams out in person or on TV yet, here's how to tune in for free. How to watch the Savannah Bananas vs. The Firefighters for free Viewers in the US can watch the live game held at Fenway Park on Sunday, July 6, at 3:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. PT) by navigating to The Roku Channel's Sports Channel. The event is exclusive to the platform, and access is available via Roku TVs or devices, The Roku Channel website, iOS and Android devices, Fire TVs, Samsung TVs and Google TVs.
New York Times
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Savannah Bananas are a baseball fever dream, and they're on national TV this Saturday
There's always money in the banana stand, and there's always a good time in Banana Ball. The exhibition baseball circuit's premier humorists keep barnstorming Saturday at Nationals Park. Live from the nation's capital, it's … whatever this is! This game will also be available on ESPN+. Something called the 'Banana Ball World Tour' invites a round of questioning and clarification. This is our best effort to make sense of what we're about to see. Let's go wide to start off. Our peeled protagonists are independent and unaffiliated with MLB. They used to compete as members of the Coastal Plain League, a collegiate summer baseball collective based in the South Atlantic. By 2023, the Bananas split (yup) from that league and shifted into full-time exhibition ball. Why be the life of someone else's dreary luncheon when you can throw your own lampshade-on-head banger? Advertisement The Bananas face off with a short rotation of partners. Those teams have suitably awesome names like the Texas Tailgaters and Party Animals. Saturday's game is against the Firefighters. What's a goon to a goblin? What's an extinguisher to a plantain? We don't have that answer yet, but stay tuned as our research progresses. Kind of. The game itself is unscripted and (somewhat) competitive. The Bananas and their opponents do indeed keep score. Still, proceedings go off the rails right quick, and we'll find precious few fans stressed about bullpen matchups or bad base-running. Of course there are. For starters, no bunting. That's an automatic out. No mound visits, because that's a waste of time. And no games exceeding the two-hour mark, unless a tiebreaker is needed. Fair enough. Now, for the true loopiness. Here's a five-pack of extra-unique Banana bylaws: Existential dread wilts in Bananaland. This is the team that turns strikeouts to potassium. Trust that this action is informed by a strange, unshakable love for baseball. None of the current players achieved MLB fame, but several have established themselves as comic performers, internet personalities and delightful novelties. Dakota Albritton is the best known of the Banana bunch, because he charts at 10-foot-9 on his trademark stilts. Seeing is believing, and oh, how we will now believe: The stilts are just the tip of the iceberg, if that iceberg were a colossal frozen banana. Here is a limited list of Banana Ball occurrences: Come for the Bananas, stay for Ham Porter, or Travis Hunter, or the world's undisputed wrestling champion: As we can tell, the Bananas traffic in a unique chaos. Anything is on the table with these folks. One constant, though, is inviting former star athletes back to their old home fields. Shane Victorino and Joe Blanton popped out in Philadelphia. Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer came through in Kansas City. Former Tennessee Titan Jevon Kearse did the 'weigh-in dance' in Nashville. Expect to see some notable retired Nats at Nationals Park. Advertisement We absolutely can. Baseball fandom will always hold space for random roster recitation. This correspondent will go with Ian Desmond, Jayson Werth and Tanner Roark. Give us your stray Nationals guesses in the comments, or hit us with other novelty baseball modifications worthy of Banana Ball. Streaming and ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo by Sean Rayford / Getty Images)
