BALTIMORE – The sellout crowd of more than 45,000 fans at Oriole Park at Camden Yards stood on their feet, screaming and celebrating Saturday’s walk-off home run.

There had been a palpable buzz at the stadium all night long. It started hours before first pitch, as fans packed merchandise booths and waited in food lines — the kinds of lines typically only seen on Opening Day and in October — as soon as the gates opened.

Saturday’s game was closely contested, with the crowd hovering near full capacity the entire night. When it was over, fans reluctantly headed to their car.

They weren’t there to see an Orioles game (the O’s had trouble selling out their two home playoff games last year), or even a Major League Baseball game. They were there to see the Savannah Bananas, an independent barnstorming group of professionals who have, in founder Jesse Cole’s words, “removed the friction in baseball” and play a fast-paced, backflipping brand of “Banana Ball” that’s taken the sports world by storm, generating millions of fans and seemingly growing at warp speed.

“I get it now,” said former Baltimore manager Buck Showalter after the old-school baseball man served as an honorary coach during Friday’s game against an opposing team called the Firefighters. “(The Bananas) are doing a lot of things right. My son said it was like a Caribbean World Series game on steroids.”

While some of Banana Ball’s 11 rules would be tough to envision implementing in MLB — like foul balls caught by fans counting as outs — there are a host of other lessons about the fan experience and growing the game that the Commissioner’s Office (and MLB’s 30 teams) might want to consider.

Lesson 1: Fans First

That’s the actual name of Cole’s company, which more than lives up to its namesake. Cole has turned down what he says are “stupid numbers” from outside investors, as well as a seven-figure offer from a ticket broker. Instead, the Bananas use an internal system for everything from tickets to merchandise and pay all their own fees and taxes on those items, meaning a $35 ticket is actually $35.

Yes, it costs Cole money, but he said the decision was a no-brainer. “I’m not trying to make a billion dollars,” he said. “I want a billion fans.”

Lesson 2: Make pregame an event

In Banana Ball, the gates open two and a half hours before first pitch, and there’s a steady stream of player and fan entertainment that encourages people to get to the ballpark hours before first pitch (and potentially buy food and merchandise, too).

Most MLB teams open their gates 90 minutes before night games, though select games or groups may get in two hours early. Most of the time, the home team is done with batting practice by then, and there’s very little if anything going on other than a video blaring on the JumboTron. Fans may catch the end of the road team’s batting practice, but for young fans, there’s virtually no chance of seeing their favorite players or having any pre-game interactions with them.

In Banana Ball, players go into the stands during the game (Cole does, too). And while it would be borderline irresponsible to ask Bryce Harper to mingle in the upper deck between innings, why can’t stadiums open early enough for home fans to watch batting practice? Why can’t players on the injured list and with the team be required to spend a half-hour pregame signing baseballs? This is how you create meaningful fan interaction and ensure loyal customers for life, which leads us to our next lesson.

Lesson 3: Market players better

I attended Saturday’s game and was struck with how popular many of the players were. Fans were wearing jerseys with names on their back I had never heard of (despite 15 years covering MLB, I’m a Banana newbie).

My 9-year-old nephew waited more than two hours at a local Dunkin Donuts Saturday morning just to meet two Bananas and two Firefighters. Impressed, I checked TikTok, where Banana Jackson Olson has 2 million followers (more than MLB stars Harper and Mike Trout combined), as well as deals with Reebok and Gatorade. The Bananas have 10.5 million followers on their TikTok account, which is more than MLB’s official account (8.3 million).

They will play in more than a dozen MLB stadiums this year, and they are selling out NFL stadiums, too. All four Fans First teams — in addition to the Bananas and Firefighters, there are the Party Animals and Texas Tailgaters — are made up of players who are recruited and paid to play at salaries higher than the minor leagues. All players on Fans First teams are carefully selected for talent, playing ability and makeup. The latter is perhaps the most important.

Everyone on the Bananas truly wants to be there, and they don’t complain about making trick plays or signing autographs. Cole says dancing was initially met with trepidation by all but a handful of players — until they saw how wildly popular it was. Now, everyone dances.

Lesson 4: Rethink the schedule

The Bananas don’t play Monday through Wednesday — “Does playing on a Monday night in April serve our fans?” Cole asked — so games are held Thursday through Sunday nights. On this world tour, Banana games were played in warm-weather cities like Peoria, Ariz., and Miami, Fla., until May.

MLB doesn’t have that luxury in a 162-game season (the Bananas will play 73 games this year), and whether the sport should cut down games is a subject for another day. Still, there has long been the idea among baseball people for a universal off day during the season, perhaps Mondays.

The league can’t only schedule the first half of April in domed/warm cities because it would delay other clubs’ home openers by so much. But there are ways to mitigate that, too. How about more day games — when the temperatures are higher — in the first month of the season? (And in the playoffs, so young fans can watch games until the end.) MLB and its clubs have done a better job of pushing up game times when weather is an issue, but having every Monday off would also make rescheduling postponements a lot easier.

Lesson 5: Get creative with rules

Blowouts don’t keep fans engaged, so Cole tweaked the rules to make sure the ninth inning would always matter (a team gets an individual point for winning each of innings one through eight, but in the ninth, runs are unlimited). It sounds crazy, but it works, providing more thrilling late-game heroics, like it did on Saturday. There’s also a two-hour game clock, though contests are often done before then.

Under Commissioner Rob Manfred, MLB implemented the pitch clock to cut out the sport’s dead time, a move that has received almost universal praise. Last year, Manfred noted that the sport is considering more rule changes, including the “Golden at-bat,” which got some buzz at the owners meetings. That’s a page right out of Cole’s playbook. In Banana Ball, the Golden Batter rule allows a team to send any hitter to the plate in any spot once per game.

The pitch clock was just the beginning. MLB has been open to many rule changes and adjustments, and they should be. In an era of three true outcomes (walk, strikeout, home run), getting the ball in play and showcasing the players’ athleticism, speed and defense is exciting.

Lesson 6: Remember why you started

Some readers who have made it this far probably view the Bananas as the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. (That comparison irks Cole, who points out that his players are very competitive on the field and that every night is a different show.) But the Bananas have more than 3 million fans who have submitted information to the team’s ticket waitlist, so MLB should be paying attention.

Some of what the Bananas are doing is impossible to replicate. Everyone wants to see the show when it’s only in town one or two nights a year.

But baseball may be barrelling toward another lockout. MLB’s current collective bargaining agreement with its players expires after the 2026 season. Manfred has been meeting with players about a potential salary cap, and the relations between players and the league are already contentious. If it’s not careful, MLB may find that fans have moved on, perhaps in favor of another brand of the game that’s a little lighter on the wallet.

Banana Ball is wacky, but it’s also a competitive brand of baseball that prioritizes fun and fan experience. Isn’t that what professional sports were supposed to be about in the first place?

(Photo: Sean Rayford / Getty Images)