ESPN Teams Up with the Savannah Bananas for a National Baseball Extravaganza
If you thought baseball was just about strikes and home runs, you haven’t caught a Savannah Bananas game. Their mix of on-field chaos, wild dances, and jaw-dropping stunts has taken social media by storm. Now, in an industry-shaking move, the Bananas have inked a major 10-game deal with ESPN for 2025—a first for any team that started as an indie baseball side-show and turned into a must-see spectacle.
ESPN isn’t just stopping with standard TV. The Bananas’ high-energy matchups will beam out to ESPN and ESPN2, plus simulcasts on Disney+ and ESPN+, putting America’s quirkiest baseball team in front of a huge, diverse crowd. With this deal, the Bananas are no longer a viral curiosity; they’re a centerpiece in mainstream sports entertainment.
Big Stadiums, Big Crowds, and Even Bigger Antics
This isn’t your average hometown field tour. The opening pitch flies at Clemson University’s Memorial Stadium on April 26, where a packed house of 80,000 fans is expected—think college football crowd, but all in for Banana Ball. That’s just the start. The Bananas will take their wild show on the road to iconic parks: Fenway Park in Boston, Camden Yards in Baltimore, Nationals Park in D.C., and even massive NFL stadiums like Nissan Stadium (home of the Tennessee Titans) and Bank of America Stadium (home of the Carolina Panthers).
Founder Jesse Cole, always dressed in his signature yellow tuxedo, announced the ESPN partnership in a lively video joined by ESPN hosts Randy Scott and Gary Striewski. He called these matchups “the biggest games of the year” for the Bananas—and for good reason. Instead of following old-school baseball scripts, these games tilt the rules, stoke the party spirit, and draw big crowds who want to be part of the mayhem.
Last season’s numbers back it up: Banana Ball broadcasts on ESPN drew an average of over 200,000 viewers, with a spike past 460,000 for one July game—pretty remarkable for a team that regularly features players in kilts or mid-inning dance-offs. The buzz isn’t fading, and fresh access across ESPN’s massive network could send those numbers soaring even higher in 2025.
The financial details have yet to surface, but one thing is clear—the Bananas’ ticket into ESPN’s primetime brings a shot at lasting, big-league visibility. And if these 10 games perform, there’s talk of the partnership stretching past August, hinting at even more Banana Ball to come.
With the Bananas now in the spotlight on America’s biggest sports broadcaster, traditional baseball might be in for a shakeup. Don’t be surprised if trick plays, breakdancing umps, and rule-breaking hijinks start feeling a little more mainstream by the time summer rolls around.