Savannah Banana’s Chicago Dream Team

Celebrity guest we’d most like to see take the field in Chicago

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

Let me start off by saying these games don’t need anything extra and I have no inside information on if anyone will be a celebrity guest this weekend in Chicago, but a guy can dream. Savannah Bananas games are always filled with excitement and surprise, but maybe one of the most electric moments is when a celebrity makes a guest appearance. The Bananas have had countless surprise drop-ins, but some of the most notable “Banana for a Day” ballplayers include the rarely visible John Cena, gridiron standouts Greg Olsen and Luke Kuechly, and none other than “The Machine” himself—comedian Bert Kreischer.

With that roster in mind, I started thinking: Who in the public eye is prominently branded as a “Chicago guy” or “Chicago girl”? Let’s dream a bit about who we’d most like to see donning a yellow uniform with Chi-Town in the background.

Running through names for my honorable mentions, I landed on John Cusack, Jeremy Piven, and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. Then there’s Simone Biles, cousins Jenny and Melissa McCarthy, comedian John Mulaney, actress Keke Palmer, and artist Chance the Rapper. I didn’t even get into the sports stars we’d love to see—but honestly, if we just brought back the entire 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs, it would be a smash hit. My one “pie in the sky” pick that didn’t make the list? Seeing MJ himself step out in a Birmingham Barons No. 45 jersey.

Now, let’s get down to brass tacks. Here are my five picks—plus a special guest manager as my sixth.

    1.    Henry Rowengartner – Starting off with a bang, we’d enlist the superhuman arm talent of the one-time 12-year-old Cubs rookie, inviting Thomas Ian Nicholas back to the Second City to see if he still has the heat.

    2.    Sarah Spain – Like Henry, Sarah would be in the “wrong” stadium, since she’s most often spotted in a Cubs jersey. A long-time ESPN personality and journalist, she’s never been shy about her bias toward Chicago sports teams.

    3.    Blackjack McDowell & Andre “The Hawk” Dawson – This is a two-for-one: two of the best nicknames in sports history, covering both sides of town. For the South Siders, it’s Blackjack McDowell; for the North Siders, it’s The Hawk.

    4.    Vince Vaughn – “V Double” has already shown off his arm as fast-talking Wedding Crasher Jeremy Grey, who “made it rain out here” on Christopher Walken’s secondary (though he looked a little slow-footed against Bradley Cooper). He began his acting career in Rudy, where in the final scene he launched a bomb downfield for Notre Dame. Why not now, from atop the mound at Guaranteed Rate Field?

    5.    Steve Bartman – Yes, my Cubs bias is showing—but Sox fans might welcome Bartman with open arms. In Banana Ball, catching a ball in the stands can help the home team make an out. What better way for him to be celebrated in Chicago?

    6.    Bill Murray (Guest Manager) – Who doesn’t love Bill? His presence practically guarantees hijinks, and you know the clubhouse would be electric.

August 15–16, the Bananas will put on a show that won’t disappoint—whether Frank Thomas is standing on first, Oprah is throwing BP, or MJ is roaming the outfield. Chicago might just be America’s best sports town, and the Bananas are about to deliver a brand of baseball most fans haven’t seen before.

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