The ever-popular and rapidly growing Banana Ball Championship League took the city of New Orleans and the Caesars Superdome by storm over the past weekend. The wild, entertaining, and “fan-first” spin on the classic national pastime that is baseball drew in more than 140,000 from across the world as the tour stop sold out both games played on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
The weekend series pit the Savannah Bananas against the Party Animals in a fun, fast-paced event that featured pies to the face,
dancing, music, singing, an 80-year old ballplayer, twerking contests, trick plays, lots of vibrant yellow and hot neon pink apparel, and so much more… including a couple of special guests.
On Saturday, the game was stopped at the midway point for the halftime show celebration. Although the athletes on the field were in the midst of a banana ball game, they swapped out the yellow-tinted leather for the pigskin football, lining up in formations as founder of the BBCL, Jesse Cole, announced current Saints starting quarterback and reigning Pepsi Zero Rookie of the Year, Tyler Shough.
The NFL QB was greeted with loud applause and cheers as he trotted onto the field where he would throw a long touchdown pass on his third attempt to a Savannah Bananas player. Shough celebrated with the team, dancing and filming videos before exiting the field. Tyler continues to embrace the city he calls home now and is winning the community over more and more.
Sunday afternoon, Cole once more had a little bayou flare up his brightly-colored suit sleeve. In the top of the fifth inning with two outs and the Savannah Bananas leading 1-0, he announced a New Orleans legend coming up to the plate as a “Super Bowl champion” and “Hall of Famer” before the crowd erupted to Drew Brees’ presence.
The longtime New Orleans Saint QB is familiar with the baseball diamond as he played at high school in Texas before transitioning to football full-time. Brees took an official at-bat with the team drawing a 2-2 count before unfortunately grounding out to end the half-inning.
The BBCL made Superdome history as the first ever sporting event to sell out the capacity of the stadium on back-to-back days. They also joined a select few acts to ever accomplish the feat of selling out the venue including Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, Beyonce, U2, and more.
Say and think what you want about the Savannah Bananas, Jesse Cole, or the BBCL, but if anything, they know how to entertain and play to the interests of their audiences. Did any of you get to watch Shough and Brees in action? What do you think of the Superdome being sold out for the sport? Let us know in the comments!
