Playing for Savannah Bananas ‘special’ for former Davidson, South Meck catcher
Eric Jones Jr. was a bullpen catcher for the Seattle Mariners in 2022. It was a great job, he said — one that was an incredible experience with amazing people. He even had a return offer to maintain the position for another year.
Then, the former South Meck and Davidson player decided to play six weeks with the Savannah Bananas on their 2022 Banana Ball World Tour, and everything changed.
“I decided to come play with the Bananas instead of being in the major leagues,” Jones said. “I knew that this was gonna be really something special, something that I wanted to be a part of. I just liked the way they care about people, care about people in the organization and try to be a net positive on society.”
The front page of the team’s website reads “We make baseball fun … Fans first. Entertain always.”
That motto has seemed to work. Just ask the Bananas’ 7.1 million TikTok followers and the thousands who sold out their 2023 Banana Ball World Tour.
The self-proclaimed “greatest show in sports,” the Savannah Bananas combine sports and entertainment for what tends to be a nine-inning bonanza, complete with a dancing umpire, frequent in-game dance breaks and a pep band, among other in-game promotions, skits and special guests.
This week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Bananas visit Kannapolis as part of their World Tour — the first time the team has visited the Charlotte area.
For two players including Jones, this stop is a trip home. Former UNC Charlotte outfielder and Charlotte Christian graduate Reece Hampton hasn’t played here since 2018 at the end of his collegiate career. He’s a member of the Party Animals, a team created by the Savannah Bananas to be the team’s common opponent.
“It’s good to get back and show this organization what Charlotte’s about, get to see the city,” Hampton said. “It’s a great baseball city. And hopefully (the fans) enjoy the new perspective of baseball and entertainment.”
Ironically, the story of the Savannah Bananas begins in Gastonia — not Savannah, Georgia — where team owner Jesse Cole began his official baseball career as manager, at 23 years old, of the collegiate summer league Gastonia Grizzlies.
He transformed the ballpark experience at Gastonia on a measly budget, relying on theater classes he had taken at Wofford College to create entertaining promotions and game themes. He even proposed to his wife, Emily, on the field at the team’s Sims Legion Park.
In 2016, Jesse Cole’s wife took him on a trip to visit Historic Grayson Stadium in Savannah. It wasn’t long before they learned the professional team that inhabited it was leaving, and the Coles quickly bought an expansion team in the Coastal Plain League — a college baseball summer league.
Ten years after Jesse Cole joined the Gastonia Grizzlies, the Savannah Bananas were born.
Due to its growing fame and fanbase, the team departed the Coastal Plain league in 2022 and adopted a year-round, independent schedule to accommodate the vast number of supporters it developed through in-person attendance and social media.
The original $25 flat-rate tickets sold by the Bananas for the 2023 World Tour sold out in minutes, and resale tickets for Game 2 in Kannapolis on Wednesday cost upward of $129 on StubHub. The team is taking the nation by storm and changing the way spectators view the sport of baseball.
“It’s really about how you can entertain. Some of that is obviously with your baseball play, but it’s also what you do without your baseball play,” Jones said. “It’s been a fun opportunity to grow and develop different skill sets for myself and do some of this artistic or theatrical side that doesn’t come out in regular baseball.”
Atrium Health Ballpark was packed to the brim on Tuesday, and it will be on Wednesday as well — both Jones and Hampton have family members coming to watch the Bananas and Party Animals clash this week. Jones mentioned his parents and family often watch games from home, but he says the live experience they and many others will have in Kannapolis is truly unparalleled.
“It’s great to be able to share what the Bananas are doing with them and for people to be able to see it firsthand,” Jones said. “People just see what we do online, which is cool and fun, and it catches eyes, but the in-person experience is what really makes the Bananas special to me.”
“The best way to explain it is it’s just a nonstop party. From the moment that you get in the gates, even before you line up to get in the game. ... Then music starts and it doesn’t ever stop.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
