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<\/p>\nANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 On a Friday night this summer, the New York Yankees packed Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in a rematch of last year\u2019s World Series. An hour south that same evening in Anaheim, another major-league stadium hosted a sold-out ballgame, but the contest had nothing to do with the nation\u2019s most venerated sports league, Major League Baseball. It was between a troop of dancing ballplayers called the Savannah Bananas and a rival of their own creation, the Firefighters.<\/p>\n
MLB officials say they view the independent Bananas not as competition but as a complement, an aid to the number of baseball and softball fans everywhere. To MLB, the Bananas are an entertainment product \u2014 not competitive with an established sport and closer to a stadium-filling concert, or a sport-adjacent show like the Harlem Globetrotters of basketball.<\/p>\n
But Jesse Cole, the Bananas\u2019 owner, sees what he\u2019s creating as much more than just baseball vaudeville.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t the Globetrotters. We\u2019re building a sport,\u201d Cole said. \u201cI have Little Leagues reaching out every day that they say they want to do Banana Ball League. They don\u2019t want to play regular baseball, their kids want to play Banana Ball. They want to have a yellow banana ball, the first ball that they pick up. It\u2019s different. My seven-year-old kid, that\u2019s all he does is trick plays now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole, too, says the Bananas should not be seen as rivals to MLB\u2019s 30 owners. But his own stated ambitions \u2014 he says he wants to amass one billion fans \u2014 belie that stance. He likens the Bananas\u2019 trajectory to that of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the mixed-martial arts competition that grew alongside the old stalwart of combat sports, boxing.<\/p>\n
After Cole made that comparison, UFC netted a $7.7 billion deal with Paramount.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gotta see the whole board. Zoom out,\u201d Cole said. \u201cBaseball\u2019s always going to be a great sport. I have a lot of love for it. But UFC came along and it started creating a new base of fans. I believe Banana Ball will do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Bananas\u2019 high-energy act continues to draw young fans and dominate TikTok algorithms, two questions linger: how big can the phenomenon grow, and are the Bananas on a collision course with MLB?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s great. \u2026 I don\u2019t view it at all competitive to what we\u2019re doing,\u201d said Noah Garden, MLB\u2019s deputy commissioner for business and media. \u201cI don\u2019t view it any different than if you were in New York, and tonight you went to a Yankee game, and you had Post Malone playing at Citi Field. Everybody that owns a stadium is looking to program all their off days with something that\u2019s going to fill the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerts, however, aren\u2019t so similar a product.<\/p>\n
The Bananas aren\u2019t a threat to MLB\u2019s existence, but they nonetheless represent something novel: in modern times, MLB owners have rarely had reason to consider whether another U.S. league might be doing some things better, nor have they had cause to wonder whether one dollar out of 100 might go to someone else\u2019s pockets. The Bananas are selling out every major-league ballpark they walk into, not to mention college-football stadiums.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s fine, MLB officials say.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, one\u2019s a league and one\u2019s an exhibition,\u201d Garden said. The Bananas came to Southern California for one night and moved on, while the Yankees and Dodgers played three games over that same weekend.<\/p>\n
Next year, Cole plans to add two more teams to the Bananas\u2019 traveling circuit, upping the total to six as part of the inaugural season of what he\u2019s named the \u201cBanana Ball Championship League,\u201d or BBCL. But scarcity will remain part of the Bananas\u2019 formula, Cole acknowledged. The club\u2019s season in 2025 is roughly one quarter the length of MLB\u2019s 162-game marathon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anybody tries to put us against (them), it\u2019s wrong,\u201d Cole said of MLB. \u201cIt may happen, but what I always say is, we can exist together and create fans together. \u2026 It\u2019s a new, emerging brand that people can see as competition. But I literally don\u2019t see it as competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is perhaps most striking in a comparison between MLB and the Bananas is the formula of fun the Bananas have unlocked. Ex-major league players often make surprise cameos. Even at a time when MLB has ridden the pitch clock and a slew of other changes to renewed success, Savannah makes attracting young viewers look easy.<\/p>\n
To MLB, some things are simpler to achieve in Bananaland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re an entertainment product,\u201d Garden said. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to do a music concert, you can decide what song you\u2019re singing every single night, and you can make it different. Every single day. What I\u2019d say about baseball is, I think our commissioner has done an outstanding job over the last few years of making some significant changes to the game that you\u2019re seeing the results of.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the decade MLB has spent under commissioner Rob Manfred, MLB\u2019s owners have shown an ambition to buy up the sport of baseball broadly through an initiative dubbed \u201cOne Baseball.\u201d In 2018, the league bought into the ball and glove manufacturer Rawlings. Just this May, MLB announced its stake in the new Athletes Unlimited Softball League.<\/p>\n
Today, however, MLB doesn\u2019t appear to be pursuing an investment in the Bananas.<\/p>\n
\u201cInteresting thought. \u2026 We haven\u2019t really thought of that,\u201d Garden said. \u201cI think you\u2019ll see investments from us longer term over things that are a little closer, or probably more closely aligned, with what our product is on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s no problem for Cole, who said that his operation isn\u2019t for sale and that he has no investors other than himself and his wife. Cole, who wears an eccentric yellow suit and tophat to every Bananas game, fancies himself an entertainment innovator in the mold of Walt Disney or P.T. Barnum.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will do this until the day I die, and then I want to make sure my family keeps it going,\u201d Cole said. \u201cIf I wanted to make a lot of money, yes, we could sell. There\u2019s been some crazy numbers thrown at us. Crazy numbers. The thing is, if we wanted to build this to make money, we would have all the fees (on tickets). \u2026 We would have sponsors everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In addition to his duties as owner of the Bananas, Jesse Cole takes an active role in the show. (Sean Rayford \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Instead, Cole says he subscribes only to the slogan, \u201cfans first.\u201d Cole declined to share revenues, but said they double every year.<\/p>\n
MLB and the Bananas already have a working relationship, in no small part because of all the MLB stadiums the Bananas book. The two leagues have even discussed folding the Bananas into MLB\u2019s annual All-Star Game festivities, on one of the July days preceding the Midsummer Classic itself. But logistics have held up the collaboration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is, look at the All-Star Game weekend,\u201d Garden said. \u201cThere\u2019s just no room for it. I talk to those guys all the time, and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll find more stuff to do over time together.\u201d<\/p>\n
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