Savannah Bananas vs. The Party Animals @ Yankee Stadium (Bronx, NY)

*This trip occurred on April 24, 2026.

Last year, I wrote over 8,000 words on the Savannah Bananas and Banana Ball - and that was just ONE GAME. This year, I may or may not approach that number again, but if I do, it’ll be a bit more spread out, as I intend to see more than one Banana Ball game this year - starting with this trip.

I don’t really think I NEED to get into the Savannah Bananas/Banana Ball thanks to that post, but I realize that is a LOT of backstory to take in for anyone reading this. Personally, I’d love it if you read through it as it was a lot of work (again, 8,000 WORDS), but if you don’t want to/can’t and need some context, here’s a brief summary of what you need to know for this year:

Last time on "DRAGON BANANA BALL Z"

The Savannah Bananas were founded in 2016 as a collegiate summer league team¹, and were a runaway success out of the gate. In 2020, they developed a version of baseball known as Banana Ball in an effort to add more entertainment to the game, and in 2023, they left their summer league to focus on Banana Ball full time. To this end, they’ve created five new teams over the course of the past few years, and this year marks the debut of an "official Banana Ball league" known as the Banana Ball Championship League.

Demand for tickets has been sky high since the very beginning, and normally, there are multiple levels of luck involved in getting tickets as it’s lottery based: you have to be selected to have the opportunity to get tickets, and even then, you may still miss out if you get a later ticket purchasing window (see: me trying to see the Bananas at Fenway Park in 2024). However, there’s a "superfan group" known as the K Club, which cuts down on the "luck" involved by allowing you to buy tickets before the general public. I am a member of the K Club (partially due to what happened with the 2024 Fenway game), which is how I got my tickets last year AND this year.

2026

With that out of the way, I’d like to discuss getting tickets for this year, as it ended up being a little different from how it was last year. Again, I recommend reading the linked post to get a full view of how the process works, but in short: K Club members have an exclusive window during which they are allowed to buy tickets/VIP packages that, more often than not, don’t reach the general public (and, for some things like the VIP packages, don’t even reach some in the K Club).

This year, instead of the whole year being available on a single day, the team divided ticket purchasing into two distinct windows. In November 2025, I had the opportunity to buy tickets for the first half of the year (February through June), and then a few months later, I got the second half (July onward).

For the November Bananas window, only one stop was on my mind:

April 25th and 26th at Yankee Stadium.

Yes, I don’t exactly "like" the Yankees (and the Bronx is a whole other story), but it was the closest the Bananas themselves were going to be to northern NJ where me and most of my friends live. In addition, several friends had expressed interest in going as they saw me post on Instagram during the game last year, and another had tickets to another Banana Ball game (but ended up unable to go), so it made sense to try and share the experience with them.

There were three "tiers" of seating available when my chance to buy tickets came up, but I felt "best" seats available when I was purchasing cost too much for me to justify buying the six of them I was allotted (and the idea of buying twelve tickets spread across two games was far too rich for my blood), so I opted for what was, more or less, the "middle ground": six seats along the foul line for the game on April 25th (the least expensive seats available were in the outfield, which is often cited as a vastly inferior experience)².

I’ve already visited Yankee Stadium for soccer, so I won’t be getting TOO deep into it, but I will mention this: this is somehow the SECOND time Yankee Stadium is hosting Banana Ball (which I can only assume would make George Steinbrenner’s head actually explode - and maybe Hank’s as well). Truth be told, I actually thought about visiting the merchandise stands when the Bananas visited in 2025 (they were playing the Firefighters that time and I was looking for a specific Firefighters hat), but ended up not going (largely because it wasn't really worth it).

Gameday

This game featured the Bananas taking on the Party Animals - the original "foil" for the Bananas. Despite that identity, however, they’ve pretty much been the best team in terms of wins and losses - including a win in a Banana Ball "championship playoff" last year.

Like I said earlier, I bought my max allotment of tickets for this game KNOWING that I wanted to bring friends (and their families). Of course, when you have more than five friends who are interested...let's just say things can get complicated (especially when you inadvertently meet up at a concert a week before the game).

Another thing that made things complicated: rain. Due to the threat of rain ALL DAY on Saturday, there were (obvious) concerns about whether or not this game would happen (slight pun there), and literally 50 hours before the game, it was announced that it had been moved UP to the 24th. Despite the move causing a lot of fans to have to miss out, there was still a pretty good turnout IMO.

On a personal note, with the scramble of a literal last minute rescheduling, I had to figure out if my friends were still going to be able to make it to this game - a scramble that lasted right up until the moment I had to leave home for this. In the end, however, two of the friends I invited (and their kids) ended up being able to make it.

The pre game plaza here was "open to the public" (unlike most Banana Ball events), so I was able to go there early and catch the festivities there without having to worry about letting people in (as I had all the tickets). The plaza was at a public park which was the field of the "original" Yankee Stadium and was MUCH BIGGER than what Fenway had, so was nice to have the space to move around (unlike on the streets of Boston), but to be fully honest...I'm not sure I'm into the pre game show, as it was largely a "pep rally".

Also, while on my way to the game/plaza, I ran into a family from Savannah (more specifically Tybee Island) who were personal friends of the owners (Jesse and Emily Cole) and were in New York for the very first time; it was honestly great hearing from them about their experiences living in the heart of "Bananaland" (including an appearance on ESPN).

That sweet sweet merch

I usually like doing this section at the END of these posts, but today I'm going to move it up.

I mentioned this somewhere in that original post, but K Club members have been able to buy an exclusive jersey for a few years now; I didn't get last year's as I wasn't all that interested in it at the time (it's a "half and half" jersey that only featured two teams of a four team competition). This year, however, I decided to get one, and despite some delays, it managed to arrive just in time for this game.

At the game itself, the plaza had a VERY different merchandise setup from my trip to Fenway: both teams were in one centralized area, and you made your selections (for BOTH teams) and then went to a check out area to pay (like a regular store). Inside the stadium, the stands were more similar to how they were in Boston - though oddly, I was only able to find ONE Party Animals merch tent (which, as you may expect, ended up being quite busy the entire night).

One item I saw that caught my interest: a dad hat featuring a logo the Bananas do not typically wear on any of their uniforms. Unfortunately, as it was on a dad hat, I didn't think I ever really choose to wear it over other Bananas hats (which sucks because I like the logo).

The "plaza store" also featured something I hadn't seen before: player jerseys! I only saw them selling one Party Animals player (though it didn't look like they had any adult sizes for him) and three Bananas; two of those Bananas were their most popular players (RobertAnthony "RAC" Cruz and Kyle "KJ" Jackson), and the third one was someone you may or may not have heard of: Derek Klena.

The Bananas give their regards to Broadway

As I understand it, Klena is a pitcher who joined the Bananas just this year, but is better known for his work on Broadway in various musicals. He showcased those talents twice during this game:

1. When he first entered the game, he was dressed as (and sang) the title character/song of The Phantom of the Opera.
2. Before the final inning, he and the cast of Aladdin did a very elaborate number with the Bananas (complete with PYROTECHNICS). While it was super cool to watch, bad EQ kinda ruined the whole thing...

Speaking of the final inning, the Bananas went into it down 2 to 1, but then got a home run in the bottom of the inning to tie the game. Since the inning ended tied, it went to Banana Ball's version of "extra innings": Showdowns.

Goin' downtown, you're gonna mess around

I didn't even begin to discuss showdowns last time as they didn't come up, but showdowns are how ties are broken in Banana Ball.

The long and short of it is that each team has a chance to score in each showdown - if the team that bats first scores, the other team has a chance to respond. The only exception is if a home run clears the fence (i.e. NOT an inside the park home run); should that happen, it's a walk-off and the batting team wins immediately. To make things interesting, there are VASTLY different rules on the defensive team from regular baseball.

First, it's the pitcher, catcher, and one fielder versus the batter. If the game is tied after that, then the fielder is gone in the next showdown, so it's just pitcher, catcher, and batter. If the game is STILL not done, then subsequent showdowns (plural IIRC) return the fielder, but also load the bases for the batter. I don't remember what the rules for ball four are exactly, but this did come up during this game's showdowns, and it involved a pinch runner being placed on second.

Neither team scored until the third showdown, where a base hit secured a walk off win for the Bananas.

Final thoughts

I mentioned in my final thoughts after the Fenway game that one thing I really appreciate the Savannah Bananas doing: trying to make sure the fans are HIGHLY entertained. Tonight's game kinda highlighted that, but also reminded me of one important aspect of sports that I think has been dying: engagement.

One of the biggest gripes a lot of people have about professional sports is that they're inaccessible to true fans, and those who have the means to go are largely there to keep up appearances rather than to watch the game. For example, the last time I saw something at Yankee Stadium, the people in front of me were wholly uninterested in the game - talking about other inane topics while play was going on.

Here, while things do get SUPER loud (a common complaint amongst notably Yankee fans HEYO), the team and its hosts are trying to keep fans engaged with what's going on (one of the biggest examples of this being fan caught outs). Sure, it's not perfect, but I do find that it generates a much more lively atmosphere than your average American sporting event, and those are always fun (I am eagerly awaiting the day the Bananas do a Japanese-style oendan).

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As I mentioned earlier, this is NOT the last time you will be seeing Banana Ball on this blog in 2026 (like it or not). In fact, the Savannah Bananas and Party Animals may be back here much sooner than you may expect...