The Yankees are in Boston this weekend for another crucial series as they look to take control of the top wild-card spot over the Red Sox in the American League (they beat the Bosox Friday night 4-1), and perhaps make one final charge at the Blue Jays in the division.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean Yankee Stadium will be quiet.<\/p>\n
In fact, plenty of baseball fans \u2014 nearly 100,000 \u2014 will be in The Bronx for a very different baseball experience.<\/p>\n
For the first time, the Savannah Bananas, the barnstorming, trick-filled team from Georgia, will play a pair of exhibition games in front of sold-out crowds at the Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been one of the most in-demand tickets we\u2019ve had,\u201d Tony Bruno, senior VP of Yankee Global Enterprises, said by phone this week. \u201cThey bring a different flair to the game. It\u2019s a phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n
One that\u2019s brought the collection of mostly former college and minor league players with other off-field skills around major league stadiums this season, as well as a handful a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the players have some unique skill sets, with trick plays,\u2019\u2019 Luke Weaver said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to watch. It provides a different perspective of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like others, Weaver compared the Bananas to the Harlem Globetrotters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a different way of doing things,\u201d Weaver said. \u201cI think it\u2019s good for baseball, putting twists on the game..\u201d<\/p>\n
The reviews have been good around the country so far.<\/p>\n
Dakota Albritton steps up to bat during a game against The Firefighters at Fenway Park on July 5, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n
And they\u2019ve played in traditional baseball hotbeds like Boston and St. Louis, but Saturday will be their New York debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a big deal,\u2019\u2019 the team\u2019s president, Jared Orton, said of playing in The Bronx. \u201cWe did this in Tampa [at Steinbrenner Field] in previous years and got a taste of working with the Yankees organization. This step is us growing up and proof that we can do it, hopefully, at the biggest stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the team\u2019s home park remains Grayson Stadium in Savannah, they\u2019ve been taking their game \u2014 which is notable for its fast pace and rule changes, such as stepping out of the batter\u2019s box results in a strike or if a fan catches a foul ball, it\u2019s an out \u2014 around the country for several years.<\/p>\n
And although there are also dances, antics and scripted routines throughout the game, the plays and results are not scripted, which is why there is some pushback Globetrotters comparisons.<\/p>\n
Members of the Man-Nana crew dance during a game between the Savannah Bananas and The Firefighters at Fenway Park. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to entertain the fans and give them something to talk about,\u201d Orton said of the team, which has been in existence for about a decade. \u201cThat was the mission on Day 1: Make baseball fun. And that\u2019s still the mission. To go from 4,000 [fans at Grayson Stadium] to 45,000 is pretty remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not a transition that was simple, especially as they tried to convince major league teams to first let them use their spring training ballparks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s scary to open your facility for anyone,\u2019\u2019 Orton said. \u201cThey play baseball there every night and we\u2019re gonna have this crazy brand of baseball, with a guy on stilts and a dancing first base coach. How was that gonna go?\u201d<\/p>\n
There were hiccups at first.<\/p>\n
The Savannah Bananas are playing at Yankee Stadium for the first time this weekend. Noah K. Murray \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had people ask if we needed to use the bullpens,\u2019\u2019 Orton said. \u201cWe had to tell them, \u2018Yes, we have pitchers and catchers. We have real baseball players.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But they still call their pregame preparations a \u201crehearsal\u201d instead of batting practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat blew their minds,\u2019\u2019 Orton said. \u201cBut once they saw it and how we operated and met the coaching staff and the players and team, the level of care we put into the game and performance, they were all on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
If all goes well this weekend, Orton hopes for more appearances both in The Bronx and at Citi Field.<\/p>\n
Last weekend in San Diego, Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman closed out a game at Petco Park and Orton promised other surprises in The Bronx.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what makes our brand more fun and unique,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cTruly every night is something different, from the field to the stands. We never want to get stale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Yankees are in Boston this weekend for another crucial series as they look to take control of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[10934,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-153903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bananas","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}