Sam breaks down the Savannah Bananas, a minor league baseball team in Savannah, Georgia that transformed itself from near-empty stands into a viral entertainment juggernaut by making baseball fun. Founder Jesse Cole, an injured amateur baseball player, applied Walt Disney and P.T. Barnum principles — ripping out ads, going all-inclusive on food and drink, adding male cheerleaders and a grandma dance team, and inventing a ruleset called Banana Ball — to build a sellout crowd of 4,000 fans per game and a thriving business reportedly doing $6-7 million in revenue.
Speakers: Sam Parr (host), Shaan Puri (host)
The Harlem Globetrotters of Baseball [00:00:00]
Sam: The best way I can describe this thing is it’s like the Harlem Globetrotters, but for baseball.
So the story behind this: there’s a guy named Jesse Cole. He was an amateur baseball player, he got hurt, and he was like, “Well, what the heck am I gonna do now?”
There’s actually a minor league baseball league — I think it’s called the Coastal Plains League. Is that what it is?
Shaan: That’s right.
Sam: I actually don’t know entirely what that is. Is it like a minor minor league, or a proper minor league?
Shaan: I don’t know.
Sam: Anyway. So it has quote-unquote professional baseball players, but I don’t think they make a lot of money. And he bought this team — Savannah, Georgia had a minor league team and it wasn’t doing well. They said, “Jesse, do you just want this? Figure out how to make it work. Pay us back when you start making a little money.”
Jesse Cole Goes All In [00:01:30]
Sam: So he bought it, but it was for so little money that he overdrafted his bank account by like a couple thousand dollars. He had no startup money. His wife helped him do it. And then he asked the team, “How many people come to the games?” They said, “I don’t know, like a hundred or two hundred sometimes. It’s picking up.” And he’s like, “Oh, what did I get myself into?”
They hand him this stadium and it’s completely empty. He’s like, “What do I do with this? How do I get people to come?” He didn’t know anything.
So he goes, “You know what? Screw it. We’re gonna do one thing: make baseball fun.”
They have this naming ceremony, and they’re like, “What are you gonna name it? Like, the Savannah Trojans or something?” And he’s like, “No, no, no. Everyone — I want to introduce you to the Savannah Bananas.” And it’s like a hilarious banana mascot. They’re like, “Wait, what’s going on?” He’s like, “No, no — we’re gonna have fun.”
What the Games Actually Look Like [00:03:00]
Sam: So what they do is they have normal games in the league where they’re actually trying to win, doing real stuff. But even at those games, what they do is completely different.
The players introduce themselves. The umpire, when he goes down to sweep the batter’s box, drops down low and they play “Get Low” by Lil Jon. It’s hilarious. They have male cheerleaders. They do trick plays. The players have choreographed dances between innings. And instead of a normal dance team, they have a grandma dance team — all the dancers are really old and move really slow.
Shaan: Yeah.
Sam: He said, “I’m just a baseball player. I don’t know anything about how to make this work, but I put it all on the line. We basically sold our home, overdrafted our accounts, and went all in.”
And then he goes, “So I read every Walt Disney book and every P.T. Barnum book for inspiration. And I realized: it’s not about baseball. It’s about entertainment.”
He’s like, “We’re not here to be the most winning minor league baseball team. We’re here to have the most fun and create an environment that people feel like they belong to.”
The Anti-Baseball Philosophy [00:05:00]
Sam: So he asked himself: what are all the things I hate about a baseball game? And he did the exact opposite.
“I hate that there are just ads everywhere in the stadium.” Okay — he ripped all the ads down and put funny things up instead.
“I hate that buying a beer costs fourteen dollars and you feel like you’re getting gouged.” So they switched to all-inclusive tickets — you buy a ticket and food and drink are unlimited. I don’t know how they do that with alcohol, but that’s what he says.
Baseball is really slow. So they put in a two-hour limit on games. No walking up to the mound to talk to the pitcher for five minutes. No bunts. All these rules to speed the game up and make it more entertaining.
And then coincidentally — in the actual league — they won the championship. They went from being the worst team to the most winning team.
Shaan: Ted Lasso. Yeah, so it worked.
Banana Ball: The Touring Spectacle [00:06:30]
Sam: And then they do this other thing called Banana Ball. So in between the normal games, they keep hiring the team throughout the offseason. They travel from city to city, and they also host it at their own stadium. And the rules in Banana Ball are totally different.
No bunts. No visits to the mound. Two-hour limit. And — if someone in the stands catches a foul ball, the batter is still out.
There’s a video where someone comes to bat on stilts. They throw out the first pitch and some kid comes out and throws a banana. Everything is a gimmick.
Shaan: And they have four thousand people at every game?
Sam: Four thousand people at every game. Look at the TikToks I posted up there — did you watch them? They’re hilarious.
Shaan: I’ve been seeing these over the last year or so.
Sam: The pitcher does this funny dance before he throws the pitch. It’s just so likable. That’s the best way I can describe it — it’s so likable. You see it and you’re like, “I wish I was there. I wish I was having as much fun as those guys are having.”
And I love that they don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s so counter to everything else you see in sports.
Shaan: Yeah. The discipline bar isn’t exactly sky-high — you know, with wrestling you have to diet and take it seriously. Baseball, not so much.
The Business Case [00:08:30]
Sam: This team is hilarious. And I think it’s a good business. I read somewhere it’s doing like six or seven million in revenue. I could actually see this becoming something much bigger. I don’t know if it’ll ever be multi-billion, but I think this would be a sick thing to own.