How to Watch (and Get Really, Really Into) Banana Ball

Need them vs. Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
Photo: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

It’s a banana, it’s a ball, it’s banana ball! Have you ever scrolled TikTok and seen men in baseball uniforms shaking their hips to “Diva,” by Beyoncé? Of course you have. The Savannah Bananas and their proprietary sport, Banana Ball, are both fun and confusing, like Blernsball from Futurama but without the giant spider … yet. Below, everything you need to know about Banana Ball to become a fan, including how to watch.

Banana Ball is basically the answer to the age-old complaint that baseball is boring. There are funky rules, a strict two-hour game-time limit, and players doing various stunts like stilt walking or unicycle pitching. It started in 2016 in Georgia, when Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole turned his summer-league team into an exhibition team. He replaced the walk-on song with fully choreographed lip syncs and threw in trick shots. The result is straight out of a Kenny Ortega production.

The differences between regular baseball rules and Banana Ball rules are designed to streamline the game. Games are won by points instead of runs. Scoring the most runs in an inning counts as one point, until the final inning, where each run gets one point. There’s a two-hour time limit; there are no mound visits, no walks, no bunts, and every foul ball caught by a fan is an immediate out.

The members of the Savannah Bananas all had dreams of playing in the MLB. Doing these exhibition games is more fun than the minors. Some players are actually former pros, like former Toronto Blue Jay Ryan Kellogg and former Washington National RobertAnthony Cruz. Dakota Albritton plays the game on stilts and is advertised as the “World’s Tallest Baseball Player.” In 2023, Jocelyn Alo became the first woman to play for the Bananas. There’s also an unlimited numv of banana puns. Their multiple official dance teams consist of the Banana Nanas (senior-citizen dancers), Man-nanas (“dad bod dancers”), and the Banana Splitz (kids’ dance team).

Their biggest rivals are the Party Animals, who tour with the Bananas for exhibition games. Other Banana Ball teams include the Firefighters, the Texas Tailgaters, and the Visitors (essentially the Minor Banana Ball League. Unripe League?).

There are six more Banana Ball games playing on ESPN or ESPN2 through August. ESPN itself will air a game for the first time this season on July 5. (Previous seasons went on channel-within-a-channel ESPN8: The Ocho.) The games are also simulcast on Disney+ and ESPN+. And if that’s not enough content for you, ESPN+ has a five-part docuseries about the game called Bananaland. 

The Roku Channel will exclusively air the July 6 game, the first chance to watch a full game without a subscription coming between you and stilts. And it’ll be at Fenway Park! This is the second year the game has come to Major League stadiums, selling out every single game so far. On June 3, the CW got the rights for the July 27 matchup, which will mark their broadcast-television debut.

Below, the upcoming Bananas broadcasting schedule and where to watch:

July 5: Savannah Bananas vs. The Firefighters at 7 p.m. on ESPN

July 6: Savannah Bananas vs. The Firefighters at 3:30 p.m. on Roku

July 26: Savannah Bananas vs. Texas Tailgaters at 7 p.m. on ESPN2

July 27: Savannah Bananas vs. Texas Tailgaters at 3 p.m. on the CW

August 1: Savannah Bananas vs. The Firefighters at 7 p.m. on ESPN

August 2: Savannah Bananas vs. The Firefighters at 7 p.m. on ESPN2

August. 9: Savannah Bananas vs. The Firefighters at 9 p.m. on ESPN2

August 15: Savannah Bananas vs. The Firefighters 8 p.m. on ESPN2