Startseite
Podcasts
The Daily Podcast
Think Baseball Is Boring? The Savannah Bananas Are Here to Fix That.

Think Baseball Is Boring? The Savannah Bananas Are Here to Fix That.

The Daily vor 1 Monat

0:00

36:52

Jesse and Emily Cole created the Savannah Bananas with a simple
mission in mind: to make baseball as entertaining as possible.
They introduced some innovations to America’s pastime, including
twerking umpires, stilt-walking pitchers and TikTok-ready
choreographed dance numbers. They tinkered with the rules of
baseball, making a game that was shorter and faster, with plenty
of opportunities for fan engagement. The result? A sports
sensation. In the 10 years since its founding, the team has
become one of the most popular sports organizations in the world,
reaching tens of millions of fans online, with a waiting list of
millions of others hoping to see a game in person.

For many, the Bananas are the ultimate sports success story, one
that shows a path forward for teams and leagues concerned about
fan retention in an era of shortened attention spans and endless
entertainment options. But others take a less rosy view of the
Bananas and their hyper-energetic brand of baseball, seeing them
as an existential threat to a game that fans have loved for more
than a hundred years.

On today’s show, our host Natalie Kitroeff talks with Jonathan
Abrams, a Times reporter who covers culture news, about the
Bananas phenomenon, and then heads to a Banana Ball game to see
things for herself.

On Today's Episode

Jonathan Abrams is a reporter for The New York
Times covering national culture news.

Background Reading

A Broadway Star Is the Savannah Bananas’ Phantom of the Bullpen

As Savannah Bananas pursue ‘a billion fans,’ are they real
competition for MLB?

Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images

For more information on today’s episode, visit
nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each
episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your
favorite podcast app here
https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.
For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York
Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for
information about our collection and use of personal data for
advertising.