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<\/p>\nBALTIMORE \u2013 The sellout crowd of more than 45,000 fans at Oriole Park at Camden Yards stood on their feet, screaming and celebrating Saturday\u2019s walk-off home run.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 the kinds of lines typically only seen on Opening Day and in October \u2014 as soon as the gates opened.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s game was closely contested, with the crowd hovering near full capacity the entire night. When it was over, fans reluctantly headed to their car.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t there to see an Orioles game (the O\u2019s 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\u2019s words, \u201cremoved the friction in baseball\u201d and play a fast-paced, backflipping brand of \u201cBanana Ball\u201d that\u2019s taken the sports world by storm, generating millions of fans and seemingly growing at warp speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get it now,\u201d said former Baltimore manager Buck Showalter after the old-school baseball man served as an honorary coach during Friday\u2019s game against an opposing team called the Firefighters. \u201c(The Bananas) are doing a lot of things right. My son said it was like a Caribbean World Series game on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some of Banana Ball\u2019s 11 rules would be tough to envision implementing in MLB \u2014 like foul balls caught by fans counting as outs \u2014 there are a host of other lessons about the fan experience and growing the game that the Commissioner\u2019s Office (and MLB\u2019s 30 teams) might want to consider.<\/p>\n
Lesson 1: Fans First<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the actual name of Cole\u2019s company, which more than lives up to its namesake. Cole has turned down what he says are \u201cstupid numbers\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Yes, it costs Cole money, but he said the decision was a no-brainer. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to make a billion dollars,\u201d he said. \u201cI want a billion fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lesson 2: Make pregame an event<\/p>\n
In Banana Ball, the gates open two and a half hours before first pitch, and there\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n
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\u2019s very little if anything going on other than a video blaring on the JumboTron. Fans may catch the end of the road team\u2019s batting practice, but for young fans, there\u2019s virtually no chance of seeing their favorite players or having any pre-game interactions with them.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t stadiums open early enough for home fans to watch batting practice? Why can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Lesson 3: Market players better<\/p>\n
I attended Saturday\u2019s 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\u2019m a Banana newbie).<\/p>\n
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\u2019s official account (8.3 million).<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 in addition to the Bananas and Firefighters, there are the Party Animals and Texas Tailgaters \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
Everyone on the Bananas truly wants to be there, and they don\u2019t complain about making trick plays or signing autographs. Cole says dancing was initially met with trepidation by all but a handful of players \u2014 until they saw how wildly popular it was. Now, everyone dances.<\/p>\n
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80,000 people reportedly attended the Bananas\u2019 first game at Clemson\u2019s Memorial Stadium in April. (Sean Rayford \/ Getty Images)Lesson 4: Rethink the schedule<\/p>\n
The Bananas don\u2019t play Monday through Wednesday \u2014 \u201cDoes playing on a Monday night in April serve our fans?\u201d Cole asked \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
MLB doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
The league can\u2019t only schedule the first half of April in domed\/warm cities because it would delay other clubs\u2019 home openers by so much. But there are ways to mitigate that, too. How about more day games \u2014 when the temperatures are higher \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
Lesson 5: Get creative with rules<\/p>\n
Blowouts don\u2019t 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\u2019s also a two-hour game clock, though contests are often done before then.<\/p>\n