“Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story
of the Savannah Bananas”
The author:
Jesse Cole
With Don Yaeger
The publishing info:
Dutton/Penguin/Random House
272 pages; $29
Released May 16, 2023
The links:
The publishers website
The authors website
At Bookshop.org
At Powells.com
At Vromans.com
At TheLastBookStoreLA
At Skylight Books
At BarnesAndNoble.com
At Amazon.com
The review in 90 feet or less
We didn’t go bananas when the email arrived May 17 informing us that we’d been aced out on getting in on any lottery tickets that would have provided access to the upcoming Savannah Bananas’ visit to the once-named Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga for appearances on July 21 and 22.
It’s part of this year’s 33 cities in 22 states tour. The place holds about 6,500 and everything is sold.
Wait’ll next year, it advised.
There’s no appeal process. Pun intended.
In the meantime, we have read that if we try to go into the secondary market and secure a ticket from someone on the downlow who is considered to be a “booger eater,” which in banana slang must be something awful, then that makes us just as corrupt.
The Savannah Banana Republic is a real thing.
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum just announced it was taking pre-orders for four different Savannah Bananas bobbleheads that will be scheduled to be released in August or September, with each limited to 2,023. Here is how to order for $30 each with the ability to get a 10 percent discount on the first order.
Baseballism has already got its new caps lined up for sale as Fathers Day approaches. The best may be the one intentionally turned inside out – the Rally Cap – with the logo exposed. This, after the site already sold out on its two style of Bananas T-shirts.
How did this all happen?
That’s where this reading assignment gets everyone up to speed.
Cole owns the team and started the Fans First Entertainment company. The North Carolina resident proudly owns seven yellow tuxedos.
“People see the craziness of our games, the sellout crowds, the over-the-top social media,” Cole writes on page 242. “There’s a deeper picture to all of this. We’re on a mission to bring people together and create unbelievable joy.”
What’s not to like about that?
It’s about the value of showmanship, something Cole says he learned from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. It’s about family, which Cole gets into very deeply about his own unit of support, which includes a Foster care daughter they eventually adopted with the biological mother’s wishes.
It’s also about the idea that, someday, maybe Major League Baseball can learn from what the Bananas are doing.
“I think MLB executives are some of the brightest people in sports,” Cole writes. “We’re playing a different game. If MLB ultimately takes some things from our game and our experiences, I think that’s a win for everyone.”
Something that started with a blank slate in 2016 is now … this.
The book is actually the third in a Cole-related trillogy. It started with a 2017 book that Cole wrote called “Find Your Yellow Tux: How to Be Successful by Standing Out,” which includes its own website, and it continues with his 2022 book, “Fans First: Change The Game, Break the Rules & Create an Unforgettable Experience.”
He does know how to promote himself as well as his creation.
Without much reference to the Harlem Globetrotters, Cole compares the Bananas existence and future as a mix of WWE, a Grateful Dead tour and Cirque du Soleil.
“They all stayed relevant by doing what their fans wanted,” Cole writes. “The Bananas try to do the same thing. My biggest fear is becoming irrelevant.”
Even if that evolves into an amusement park somewhere.
Something to be experienced.
Rules keep changing. Fans’ input is heard.
While waiting for tickets, read up on whatever you can. There’s a lot to offer now.
Or catch up on the news.
How it goes in the scorebook
If you don’t get it by now, you’re somehow immune to Yellow Fever. It behooves you to believe in the Savannah Bananas.
More to ponder
== Ever heard of the 1995 book “Banana Bats & Ding-dong Balls: A Century of Unique Baseball Inventions,” by Dan Guttman? Neither had we. Now we are intrigued. We just ordered it.
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