Savannah Party Animals | |
---|---|
Information | |
Location | Savannah, Georgia |
Ballpark | Grayson Stadium |
Founded | 2020 |
Colors | Pink, green, and black |
Mascot | Pharty the Party Animal |
Ownership | Fans First Entertainment (Jesse & Emily Cole) |
Coach | Tyler Gillum and Adam Virant |
Manager | Mike Vavasis |
Website | thesavannahbananas |
The Savannah Party Animals are an exhibition barnstorming baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia. The team was founded in 2020 and has played at Grayson Stadium since its inaugural season. The Party Animals play the Savannah Bananas in the "Banana Ball" format, with rivals being the Firefighters, and other "challenger" professional teams, similar to the decades-long format of basketball's Harlem Globetrotters and their partner touring team, the Washington Generals. [1] The team has been featured by ESPN, The Wall Street Journal , CNN 10, and Sports Illustrated because of its on-field hijinks and viral videos. [2] [3]
During the 2020 shortened Bananas CPL season, the organization debuted what would be the second of the current three teams, the Party Animals. Previously, the test Banana Ball games were played as scrimmage games of the CPL Bananas pre-season. The creation of the team gave the Bananas a true home or away opponent in its exhibition gamedays during most of the season.
In March 2021, the season kicked off at Grayson Stadium with the Bananas winning 5–2. Later that year, the Bananas would play in a "world tour" in Mobile, Alabama, and sold out both nights at Hank Aaron Stadium, with a combined crowd of over 7,000 fans. [4]
At the 2024 Banana Ball “world tour” draft, it was announced that the Party Animals would have their own “world tour”. The “world tour” kicked off at Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Georgia on June 13 and was scheduled to end a month later in Greenville, South Carolina. [5] On February 23, 2024, the Party Animals played their 100th game in Banana Ball. On June 8, 2024, the Party Animals beat the Bananas at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, 4–1. Before the world tour kicked off, they announced that they would have a mascot named "Pharty the Party Animal". On their “world tour” they played the Firefighters in Las Vegas and The Visitors at Grayson Stadium.
The Southern League is a Minor League Baseball league that has operated in the Southern United States since 1964. Along with the Eastern League and Texas League, it is one of three circuits playing at the Double-A level, which is two grades below Major League Baseball (MLB).
Stadium Australia, commercially known as Accor Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Sydney Olympic Park, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Olympic Stadium, Homebush Stadium or simply the Olympic Stadium, was completed in March 1999 at a cost of A$690 million to host the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Stadium was leased by a private company, the Stadium Australia Group, until the Stadium was sold back to the NSW Government on 1 June 2016 after NSW Premier Michael Baird announced the Stadium was to be redeveloped as a world-class rectangular stadium. The Stadium is owned by Venues NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. It is located about two miles (3 km) due east of the U.S. Capitol building, near the west bank of the Anacostia River and next to the D.C. Armory. Opened in 1961, it was owned by the federal government until 1986.
The Tennessee Smokies are a Minor League Baseball team based in Kodak, Tennessee, a suburb of Knoxville. The team, which plays in the Southern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. They play at Smokies Stadium, directly off Interstate 40 at Exit 407, which seats up to 8,000 fans. The team was based in Knoxville and called the Knoxville Smokies among other names for many years before moving to Kodak and changing its name prior to the 2000 season. The team's nickname refers to the Great Smoky Mountains mountain range which permeates the region; mountains in the chain are often clouded in a hazy mist that may appear as smoke rising from the forest. The team plans to move into a new facility in Knoxville beginning in the 2025 season when they will be renamed the Knoxville Smokies once again.
Canadian National Exhibition Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the grounds of Exhibition Place. Originally built for Canadian National Exhibition events, the stadium served as the home of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1959 to 1988, the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1977 to 1989, and the Toronto Blizzard of the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1979 to 1983. The stadium hosted the Grey Cup game 12 times over a 24-year period.
Rickwood Field, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the oldest existing professional baseball park in the United States. It was built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist and team-owner Rick Woodward and has served as the home park for the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues.
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William L. Grayson Stadium is a stadium in Savannah, Georgia. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Savannah Bananas, an exhibition baseball team. It was the part-time home of the Savannah State University college baseball team from 2009 to 2011. It was also used from 1927 until 1959 for the annual Thanksgiving Day game between Savannah High School and Benedictine Military School. Known as "Historic Grayson Stadium", it was built in 1926. It holds 5,000 people. It also served as the home of the Savannah Sand Gnats from 1984 to 2015.
The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal Plain League which operated in the area from 1937 to 1952.
In athletics terminology, barnstorming refers to sports teams or individual athletes who travel to various locations, usually small towns, to stage exhibition matches. The term is primarily used in the United States. Barnstorming teams differ from traveling teams in that they operate outside the framework of an established athletic league, while traveling teams are designated by a league, formally or informally, to be a designated visiting team.
Sports in Georgia include professional teams, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations, and active amateur teams and individual sports.
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The Southern League was a Class B and Class C minor league baseball league which operated intermittently in the Southern United States from 1885 to 1899. Financial problems plagued the league and its member teams throughout their existence. It was not unusual for teams to depart the league during the season or for the league to cease operations without completing the season. It was this lack of financial support which ultimately caused the league to permanently disband in 1889. In 1901, a new league, called the Southern Association, was created from its remnants.
Dunkin' Park is a 6,121-seat baseball park in Hartford, Connecticut. It is the home field of the Hartford Yard Goats of the Eastern League. The stadium has a total capacity of 6,850 people, including standing room, which was reached numerous times during its inaugural season of 2017. It was planned to open for the 2016 season on April 7, but numerous constructions delays postponed this opening and forced the Yard Goats to play the entire season on the road. The stadium opened in time for the team's 2017 home opener on April 13.
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The Savannah Bananas are an exhibition barnstorming baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia. The team was founded in 2016 and have played at Grayson Stadium since its inaugural season. Until 2022, the Bananas competed as a collegiate summer baseball team in the Coastal Plain League's (CPL) West division, where they won three Petitt Cup championships. However, after the growth of their alternate "Banana Ball" format, the team transitioned entirely to barnstorming exhibitions against their partner touring teams, the Party Animals, the Firefighters, and other "challenger" professional teams, similar to the decades-long format of basketball's Harlem Globetrotters and their partner touring team, the Washington Generals. The team has been featured by ESPN, The Wall Street Journal, CNN 10, and Sports Illustrated because of its sports entertainment and viral videos.
The Macon Bacon is a Georgia based wood-bat collegiate summer baseball team that began playing in the Coastal Plain League (CPL) in 2018. They have appeared in the league playoffs twice, and finished as the runner-up after a Championship appearance in their second season.
The Savannah Electrics were a minor league baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia.