How Red Sox World Series Champ Sparked Amazing Savannah Bananas Trend

The Savannah Bananas are changing baseball as we know it.

It started as an experiment to make the game as fun as possible, and it’s grown into a phenomenon that’s sweeping the nation.

Not only are the Bananas reimagining baseball, with flaming bats, players on stilts and other quirks not typically seen on the diamond. They’re also incorporating MLB legends, a trend largely spearheaded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Jake Peavy.

“It started with Jake Peavy, a Red Sox hero, obviously, in 2013,” Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole told Tom Caron and Alex Speier on the latest episode of NESN’s “310 to Left” podcast. “Our one-city world tour was in Mobile, Alabama. And he’s from Mobile and heard about it, wanted to join us and came to that game. We had him throw out the first banana. Because why would we do a first pitch? That’s too normal. He threw out the first banana, and afterwards, his nephew was there. His nephew had just quit baseball — great baseball player; he quit baseball, said it was too boring, it just wasn’t fun for him. His nephew watched the entire game, went to Jake after the game and said, ‘I’m back. I want to play because of this.’

“And from that moment, Jake was like, ‘I’ve seen it. I’ve felt it firsthand.’ So, Jake started connecting us with more guys. From there, I think we’ve had four or five Cy Young Award winners pitch for us, numerous All-Stars, World Series champions. And what’s crazy is they reach out to us. They just want to have fun. Obviously, many Red Sox guys — Johnny Damon, Jonny Gomes, (Jonathan) Papelbon in the past. They just want to have fun.”

The Bananas have grown so much in popularity over the last several years that they’re now playing in MLB ballparks, including Fenway Park. The sky really is the limit. And everyone wants a piece of the action.

“As I talk to every major leaguer that reaches out, I said, ‘If you have an opportunity to go out and it’s not so serious, it’s not so competitive, your kids can actually see you in front of a sold-out crowd, smiling and having fun the way the game was supposed to be played,’ and they get fired up,” Cole said. “I keep everybody a surprise, and it’s really special moments that we create. We’ve had a lot more reach out for future games and we’ll see where it goes.”

You never know what — or who — you’ll see at a Savannah Bananas game.