We first arrived in Savannah in October of 2015 with a goal to make baseball fun and bring back fans to Historic Grayson Stadium.
For the first time, minor league baseball had left the city, after calling Savannah home for 90 years. Now because of this, we realized that getting fans excited for a college summer team was harder than we could have ever imagined.
In our first few months, we only sold a handful of tickets. By January of 2016, just months before our first game, the team had over-drafted our account. Owners, Jesse and Emily Cole were forced to sell their home to keep the team going.
Then everything changed on February 25, 2016, when we named the team the Savannah Bananas.
This announcement created massive attention locally and nationally, being covered by CBS, NBC, and Sports Illustrated, even being featured as SportsCenters’s Logo of the Year.
But the name was not liked or appreciated by most people in Savannah. We heard comments like whoever came up with the team should be fired. The owner should be thrown out of town. “You’ll never sell a ticket”. We even did a mean tweet video a year later to share some of the “love” we received.
But even with mixed reviews we were finally on the map and people knew who we were.
With all the attention, we were able to sell out Opening Night. Our fans were met with a completely unique experience featuring all-inclusive food, our senior citizen dance team, the first Banana Baby, and dancing players.
Since the first season, we’ve sold out every single game – over 200 and counting
The Bananas were part of the Coastal Plain League, a summer collegiate league, for seven seasons.
The team won three Petitt Cup Championships while part of the CPL and had over 35 players drafted across the seven years of play.
In 2022, the Bananas announced that they were leaving the Coastal Plain League to play Banana Ball year-round. Banana Ball was born out of the idea of making baseball more fast-paced, entertaining, and FUN.
Fans First Entertainment now field four independent professional teams – The Savannah Bananas, The Party Animals, The Firefighters, and The Texas Tailgaters. All teams are made up of players who are recruited and paid for their play.
Current and former MLB stars such as Jonny Gomes, Bill Lee, and local Savannahian, Josh Reddick, have all played with the Bananas professional team.
You can find out more about the Bananas teams here.
“Bananas Foster is an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to Bringing Families Together. Our organization is committed to helping the whole foster care community. Advocating for everyone involved, Bananas Foster celebrates those already making a difference while inviting others to get involved so we can all help make this world a better place.” – Emily Cole
