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Sport | Baseball |
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Founded | 2023 |
Commissioner | Jesse Cole |
No. of teams | 4 |
Most recent champion(s) | Savannah Bananas |
Broadcaster(s) | |
Streaming partner(s) | |
Official website | bananaball |
Banana Ball, or the Banana Ball Championship League (BBCL) from 2026 onward, [1] [2] is a barnstorming exhibition baseball league based in Savannah, Georgia. [3] The league has played most of their games at Grayson Stadium since its inaugural season. The league has four teams: the Savannah Bananas, the Party Animals, the Firefighters, and the Texas Tailgaters. [4]
Experiments with the Banana Ball format began in 2018 when the Savannah Bananas played an exhibition game against Lander University. The first official Banana Ball game was played at Grayson Stadium in 2020 when the Savannah team split into two parts for the game. From 2020–2022 the Savannah team played both Banana Ball and their regular Coastal Plain League (CPL) schedule. The Savannah Bananas began playing Banana Ball full time and the league was formed in 2023. [5] [6]
The Bananas were a part of the Coastal Plain League (CPL) West division, [7] where they won three Petitt Cup championships (2016, 2021, and 2022). However, after the growth of Banana Ball, the team moved entirely to exhibition games against their partner touring teams.
During the 2020 shortened Bananas CPL season, the organization debuted a second squad for Banana Ball games at home: the Party Animals, wearing black or pink uniforms. Previously, the Banana Ball games were played as intrasquad scrimmage games of the CPL Bananas pre-season. The creation of the new team gave the Bananas a true home or away opponent in its exhibition gamedays during most of the season. In 2024, the Party Animals were fleshed out as a more permanent team with its own slate of games outside of the Bananas tour. [8]
Debuting on October 5, 2023, as part of the 2024 season launch night, the Firefighters wear firefighter themed uniforms, including firefighter helmets. [9]
Introduced in June 2024, the Visitors serve as opponents for the Party Animals or Bananas in games when the other team faces the Firefighters. [8] The Visitors wear generic gray uniforms with blue numbering (with no names in the back of jerseys) and constitute the minor league training wing of the Bananas organization.
The Texas Tailgaters were announced on October 3, 2024, during the 2025 season launch night, as the first non Savannah, Georgia based team, fourth in the league and fifth overall. The Tailgaters are the first semi-regional team to launch since the original Bananas, headlining their games in Texas, in addition to playing games across the country. [1] [10] [11]
In October 2025, the BBCL is expected to announce two new Banana Ball teams for the 2026 season. [12]
The rules of Banana Ball have developed. [13] As of 2023, the Banana Ball rules are: [14]
Other non-standard baseball activities are sometimes used for entertainment purposes. For example, an August 2023 game featured an at bat where the pitcher and batter played rock paper scissors before each pitch: each time the pitcher won, the batter had to bat from the opposite side of home plate as he normally would, and each time the batter won, the pitcher needed to announce what type of pitch he was about to throw. Other entertainment includes elaborate walk-ups starting from the stands, in-game dances, and run celebrations.
The league has been featured by ESPN, The Wall Street Journal , CNN 10 , Sports Illustrated , [16] and 60 Minutes [17] highlighting its sports entertainment and viral videos.
Banana Ball entered into a partnership deal for its inaugural broadcast on CW Sports on July 27, 2025. [18] Games are also aired live on YouTube and have aired on ESPN in the summer of 2025. [19]