Behind the Lens: Baseball fans went ‘Bananas’ with back-to-back sellouts at PNC Park

“The Greatest Show on Earth” was a phrase coined by P.T. Barnum in 1872. Barnum was a famous showman and used the saying to promote his traveling circus after it merged with a competitor. He used the phrase to advertise his extravagant shows, which became known for their innovative marketing and massive audiences. Eventually it would become the tagline for the combined Barnum & Bailey Circus.

In the year 2025, Barnum’s catch phrase would adequately describe the Savannah Bananas baseball team. Extravagant shows viewed by massive audiences in person, on network television and streaming services are pretty much the norm.

Last Friday and Saturday, excitement reached a fever pitch on the city’s North Shore inside PNC Park. No, the Pirates didn’t have a homestand hosting a division-leading team. You guessed it —  the Bananas brought their major league ballpark tour to Pittsburgh.

If your desire was to attend one of the two nights, you had to enter a lottery for tickets on the Bananas website. There was no public sale or walkup sales the day of the game. Lucky lottery winners were notified via email prior to the event dates. The response was overwhelming, same as it was in every other MLB city, as both games in “The Burgh” were sellouts with 40,000 people filling every seat each night.

The Savanah Bananas sold out PNC Park on consecutive nights as they continued their tour of MLB ballparks across the country.

This barnstorming team has over 10 million followers on social media’s TikTok and has amassed more than 1 billion views on YouTube. 

In the event you were expecting a traditional baseball game, you were highly disappointed. Games in Banana land are labeled “Banana Ball” and are as far from traditional baseball as you can get. “Banana Ball” is a modified form of baseball with the emphasis on fun and fan interaction. Games come complete with trick plays, backflip catches, wild dances, singing, baby races and more. Attendees were strongly encouraged to bring their baseball gloves with them as they might come in handy given the rules of “Banana Ball.”

“Banana Ball” rule No. 1 — Win the inning, get the point. Every inning is worth one point. No. 2 —  Two-hour game time limit. No. 3 — No stepping out of the batter’s box. No. 4 — No bunting. No. 5 — Batters can steal first. No. 6 — No walks allowed. No. 7 — No mound visits allowed. No. 8 — If a fan catches a foul ball, it’s an out. No. 9 — Showdown tie breaker. No. 10 — The Banana Ball challenge rule. No. 11 — The Golden batter rule. For a detailed explanation of each rule visit bananaball.com/rules/.

As previously mentioned, this is NOT your standard version of the game. As the age-old adage states, “Baseball is a game and games are supposed to be fun.” In Banana Land, that quote speaks volumes.

The Texas Tailgaters provided the opposition for the boys from Savannah both nights, offering just as much showmanship, whimsical play and zany attire as their counterparts. In Banana Land the final score of each contest is an afterthought. The memories of all the fun and jocularity on a given night will forever be etched in the minds of attending fans.

This particular weekend was a homecoming for two players on the Bananas roster – Alex Ziegler and Ryan Cox, both of whom hail from Western Pennsylvania. Ziegler, from Butler, is the first baseman who balances a bat on his face before stepping to the plate, and Cox is a slick-fielding trickster shortstop from Raccoon Township. Both players had hundreds of family members and friends in attendance over the weekend.

For as long as Cox can remember he had one goal. “I wanted to be the Pirates shortstop my whole life,” the Beaver County native said. “The Yankees could have called me and I’d have been like, I want to stay here in Pittsburgh.”

Dreams sometimes do come to fruition. Last weekend was certainly a dream come true for Cox;  on consecutive nights he ran out of the home team’s first base dugout to take up his position in the hole between second and third base as a starting shortstop in his hometown major league ballpark. Just so happens PNC Park is a scant 16 miles down the road from where he grew up. Lifelong dream fulfilled — too bad it wasn’t actually for the Pirates, for as we know they are in dire need of quality players.

In the event you have seen the Bananas on television, you know exactly what their games entail. For those fortunate enough to have been chosen in the ticket lottery, there was nothing better than viewing all the crazy happenings that two hours of “Banana Ball” offered. 

Practically every fan, young or old, had their head on a proverbial swivel not wanting to miss a second of action both on and off the field. Trust me, there was plenty of it all night long and everyone wanted to be a part of the show.

Two of the more relevant events in the game were the home plate umpire and the constant music blaring through the ballparks PA system. Never in MLB will you see any umpire, especially the plate pitch caller, constantly dancing to balls and strikes. Not to mention when he pulled out his cell phone in between innings and did a Facetime call to someone. 

I could ramble on about all the wild off the beaten path things that occurred in two hours of not normal baseball at PNC Park, but I won’t. If you were in attendance or viewed the game locally on TruTV, you know what I’m talking about.

Hopefully the Bananas will make their way back to the North Shore next year as Banana Mania continues to run wild across the United States. 

Allow me to leave you with this. In the immortal words of iconic Pittsburgh Penguins Hall of Fame announcer Mike Lange, “You gotta be here to believe it.” Last weekend in Banana Land, you definitely had to be at PNC Park to believe it.

Photos by Mike Longo Jr.