💧 Banana Ball Came to Boston

[It was bananas - B-A-N-A-N-A-S.]
Four years ago, I first wrote about the Savannah Bananas, who:

…play Banana Ball, a variant of baseball where fans can catch foul balls for outs, walks are now sprints, and there’s a strict two-hour time limit.
…

Banana Ball is unlikely to replace baseball any time soon, but I’d love to take in at least one game. While I won’t be able to catch their 2021 one city world tour, tickets are still available if you’re going to be in Mobile, Alabama on March 27.

Since then, Banana Ball has exploded in popularity. In 2023, the former collegiate summer league team switched to an exhibition team that exclusively plays Banana Ball. Their “world tours” now visit dozens of cities, with many games in MLB ballparks, and even a few in NFL stadiums. I enjoyed a televised game in early 2024, and last weekend, I finally got to see the show in person at Fenway Park.

The evening featured an absolute onslaught of entertainment, including…
A played on stilts (named “Stilts”), who came in to pinch-hit:

Alas, Stilts struck out on three pitches, so we did not get to see him run the bases.

An outrageously non-competitive mid-inning baby race:

I booed these terrible babies loudly, and they deserved it.

Red Sox World Series champions as guest Bananas, including Keith Foulke in relief:

Keith Foulke did not, in fact, close out the game.

This completely perfect charity name:

It is, of course, a charitable organization for foster care.

And finally, when it was over, a loosely choreographed victory dance by the Bananas:

The Bananas’ mascot fired that streamer cannon. The players then cleaned up the streamers.

The entire event was packed with activities, with something happening constantly. Aside from that frenzy, what stood out to me most is the way that recent changes in Major League Baseball mirror some of the best parts of Banana Ball. Foul balls caught by fans don’t count as outs at MLB games yet, but other things have gotten closer. Perhaps most notably, Banana Ball bans mound visits and batters stepping out, and those things are now strictly limited in MLB. Those rule changes, as well as the introduction of the pitch clock, have made MLB games much faster.

In 2021, the average MLB game clocked in at three hours and ten minutes, which made Banana Ball’s two-hour time limit particularly apeeling appealing. Since then, MLB’s pace-of-play improvements have brought the average game length down to just over two and a half hours. That’s brisk, baby, and it’s a fantastic improvement. Banana Ball can’t claim all the credit for that, but it certainly didn’t hurt the cause.

As far as actually attending a Banana Ball game, once was probably enough for me. By design, the sporting event was secondary to the entertainment. It’s aimed much more at children, and I found it frenetic to the point of being overstuffed. Still, I’m glad I got to see it, and I’m glad it exists.