'The biggest we've ever gone': Savannah Bananas partner with ESPN for 10-game broadcast schedule

Caption

The Savannah Bananas huddle on the field at Grayson Stadium in Savannah before playing a team of retired Major League Baseball players on March 11, 2023.

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

ESPN announced Monday that it will team up with the Savannah Bananas to broadcast 10 games later this year, bringing the barnstorming baseball team and its on-field antics to a national television audience.

The games will air on either ESPN or ESPN2, with simultaneous streams available on Disney+ and ESPN+, according to a press release from the network.

Savannah Bananas founder and owner Jesse Cole revealed the new broadcast partnership in a video posted to X, appearing alongside SportsCenter hosts Randy Scott and Gary Striewski at ESPN's studios.

"We are going big — the biggest we've ever gone, with ESPN," Cole shouted in the video, adding that these would be "the biggest games of the year" for the Bananas. "Let's do it, boys!"

The matchups will take place at prominent venues, including MLB ballparks such as Fenway Park in Boston and Camden Yards in Baltimore, as well as the home NFL stadiums of the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers.

The first broadcast will air on Saturday, April 26, at 7 p.m., when the Bananas take the field before a sold-out crowd of more than 80,000 fans at the football stadium of Clemson University in South Carolina.

ESPN vice president of programming Brent Colborne said in a statement that the Bananas "have mastered the art of blending baseball with entertainment, creating an experience that resonates with fans of all ages, regardless of their baseball knowledge."

Credit: ESPN

The "Nanners," as the Bananas are nicknamed, have gained global appeal for their no-holds-barred brand of baseball, known as Banana Ball, which features trick plays and unorthodox rules — arguably the most notable one being that if a fan catches a foul ball, the batter is out.

The Bananas will face three opposing teams fielded by their parent organization throughout the 10-game broadcast schedule: their main rival in the Party Animals, as well as the Firefighters and the Texas Tailgaters, two new expansion teams.

This isn't the first collaboration between ESPN and the Bananas: the team previously appeared on ESPN as part of "ESPN8: The Ocho" — the network's annual showcase of bizarre sports — and was featured in Bananaland, a five-part ESPN+ documentary series.

The team's rising prominence has attracted coverage from major media outlets across the country, most recently featured in a segment of CBS's 60 Minutes last Sunday.