Savannah Bananas turn Charlotte yellow with a baseball show like no other

The Savannah Bananas turned Bank of America Stadium yellow Friday night, entertaining a sellout crowd of 74,000 fans with a nonstop show of dancing players, sketches, dancing umpires, fan participation, dancing senior citizens (the Banana Nanas), corny jokes, dancing dads, Luke Kuechly throwing out the first pitch, dancing children, fans catching foul balls for outs, Greg Olsen playing first base, trick plays, a pitcher on stilts who’s actually pretty good, a home-plate wedding proposal, fan singalongs to Garth Brooks, Queen, Taylor Swift — it was a lot.

The Bananas certainly believe in the “there’s no crying in baseball” theorem. They also believe there should be no silence and a whole lot of laughter. During the two-hour baseball game — and the pre-show, and the pre-pre-show, and the pre-pre-pre-show — the music and activity is constant. It’s sensory-overload baseball combined with an outdoor wedding reception at that exact moment where everyone has loosened up and the DJ is on a roll.

And while none of it will please a baseball purist, Banana Ball is working so well nowadays that it will sell Charlotte’s stadium out more completely than any Panthers game of the past five years.

I came Friday night to see what all the fuss was about. And I’m here to tell you that — especially if you have young children — you’re going to want to see a Banana Ball game in person at some point. I had watched most of one on ESPN previously, but it’s a far different feel when you’re inside this potassium-fueled surrealist dance party (which does have some surprisingly good baseball thrown into the mix, although that’s often secondary to the experience).

What the Bananas have done most successfully is capture the “parents with children” demographic. There were thousands of kids in the crowd Friday night. I saw merchandise lines that were sometimes 200 people deep.

On the other hand, I saw some of the shortest beer lines I’ve ever seen in the stadium. I saw a whole lot of yellow (expected) and a whole lot of pink (unexpected, but the Party Animals, who were the Bananas’ opponent, are well-known enough that they have their own following).

It was only two years ago that the Bananas were more of a regional phenomenon. They played two nights in Kannapolis in July 2023, for instance, and sold those out, too. But that was a relatively modest 5,000 tickets a night.

Now the Bananas — who could teach a class to other sports teams on how to make social media work for you — are very much national. Seeing them in Kannapolis two years ago must feel now a little like seeing a musical act right before it leaves the 5,000-seat venues and becomes a stadium show.

Jesse Cole, along with his wife Emily, owns the Bananas. They came up with a lot of these ideas when the two were running the Gastonia Grizzlies in a traditional baseball minor league about a decade ago (they still make their permanent home in Gaston County, along with their three children). Jesse Cole addressed the crowd before the game, wearing his signature yellow tux. Emily said he owns nine of them.

“It was 18 years ago that we started just down the road here in Gastonia, and it was here when we first dreamed big for the game of baseball,” Cole told the crowd. “It was here when we first believed that we could create a “fans first” experience. It was here where we believe we could make baseball fun and create moments fans would never forget. And now, tonight, you are making our dreams come true, because tonight you are kicking off the biggest Banana Ball weekend in history with 148,000 fans (total, over two nights).”

Quibbles with the night? Not many. It is true that a game with an advertised start time of 7 p.m. actually started at 7:18 p.m. If you’re advertising a two-hour baseball game (countdown clock and all), maybe you start closer to 7. The merchandise lines inside the stadium also need to be shortened, somehow (but I also notice this problem at every big-time concert, ever).

But there were far more terrific things. The players are inventive and talented. The Banana Nanas tickled me, as did the acrobatic umpires. Dimming the lights, having everyone light up their cell phones and then playing a singalong to the Coldplay song “Yellow” in the late innings was an inspired touch. The barrage of home runs didn’t hurt.

Even the jokes that were cringe-y were pretty fun. During one of the “pre-shows,” the emcee on the in-stadium PA said: “Sorry to have to do this, but could I have all the Michaels in the audience please stand up?”

When hundreds of them did, he said: “Thanks. I’ve now completed my mic check.”

The Bananas are a-peel-ing, as they undoubtedly say themselves. And the idea of going to one of their games? It’s not always that deep, as my teenage daughter might say.

Sometimes, you just need a good time, and the Bananas certainly are that.

As to who actually won the game, I can’t say I kept track.

Scott Fowler

The Charlotte Observer

704-358-5136

Columnist Scott Fowler has written for The Charlotte Observer since 1994 and has earned 26 APSE awards for his sportswriting. He hosted The Observer’s podcast “Carruth,” which Sports Illustrated once named “Podcast of the Year.” Fowler also conceived and hosted the online series and podcast “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” which featured 1-on-1 interviews with NC and SC sports icons and was turned into a book. He occasionally writes about non-sports subjects, such as the 5-part series “9/11/74,” which chronicled the forgotten plane crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 in Charlotte on Sept. 11, 1974. Support my work with a digital subscription