Banana Ball Swings for Fun: How Jesse Cole Turned MLB Fans into Dance Fanatics

Banana Ball isn’t just breaking the rules of baseball, it’s rewriting them with jazz hands.

The Savannah Bananas played the Texas Tailgaters at Great American Ballpark on Friday June 13, 2025. The game included music, dancing, non-baseball games, backflips and featured Reds players like Todd Frazier, Bronson Arroyo and Sean Casey. The Bananas will play the Texas Tailgaters again on Saturday to a packed Great American Ballpark. / Phil Didion/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jesse Cole, the flamboyant, always-yellow-suit-wearing owner of the Savannah Bananas, has taken a wild idea and turned it into a full-blown movement. What started as a scrappy college summer league team in Savannah, Georgia, has become a viral, sold-out spectacle that’s drawing more eyeballs than some Major League ballclubs and making fans fall in love with the game all over again.

Banana Ball has become a chaotic, joyful mashup of America's pastime and pure performance  with players dancing mid-inning, umpires busting moves, and even the occasional at-bat on stilts. Picture the Harlem Globetrotters with bats and cleats.

Clemson Hall of Fame running back and current running back coach CJ Spiller dances with Savannah Bananas players during the game with the Party Animals at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C. Saturday, April 26, 2025. / Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Cole’s vision didn’t come easy. Getting players to dance on the field let alone hit backflips or break into choreographed routines required buy-in. But once the team embraced the fun, the fans followed. Today, a typical Bananas game features breakdancing coaches, the senior citizen "Banana Nanas" dance squad, and the internet-famous “Dancing Ump.”

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Posted by Jesse Cole on Thursday, July 24, 2025

Behind the laughs is a mission to reinvent the way fans experience baseball. Cole knew that if he could make the game fun, fast-paced, and interactive, he could bring in new audiences, especially younger generations bored with the slow pace of traditional baseball. That’s why Banana Ball comes with a two-hour time limit, no bunting, and a rule that fans can actually catch foul balls for outs.

Whether you're a diehard fan or someone who’s never sat through nine innings, Banana Ball is swinging for your attention and chances are, they’ll win you over with a dance move before the final pitch.

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