Major League Baseball’s annual All-Star Game will be played in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday, July 15.

A ticket to the July event is never cheap.  Fans paid an average of $350 to watch last year’s All-Star game in person due to the high demand for tickets.

Why does MLB play an All-Star game?

The All-Star game is primarily used to generate publicity for Major League Baseball during the one month of the year (July) where baseball has the men’s team sport spotlight all to itself.

Major League Baseball’s All-Star game has been played since 1933.

The “Midsummer Classic” game comes near the halfway point of each baseball season.  Top players in the American and National Leagues are brought together to play an exhibition game against each other. The other Major League Baseball players get the week off to rest.

For decades, the American League and National League did not play a single regular season game against one another unless it was in the All-Star game or World Series.

The annual All-Star game in July was considered a must-watch game.

Fans (like me) looked forward to seeing our favorite league’s best players going up against the other league’s top stars.

MLB decided to add a Home Run Derby beginning in 1985 to counteract fading interest the All-Star game itself. 

The unique event is held on the day before the All-Star game.  It was popular for a few years but, like the NBA’s Slam Dunk contest, it has become rather boring to watch in recent decades.

The 1976 All-Star game drew a record of 36 million television viewers.

Last year’s All-Star event drew a record low of less than 7 ½ million TV watchers.

The relevance of the All-Star game was further diminished in 1997.  MLB introduced the first inter league (American League vs. National League) regular season games in an attempt to boost fan interest.

Baseball fans generally disliked that idea, and the game hasn’t recovered since.

This year’s New York Yankees of the American League will play an incredible 42 of their 162 regular season games against teams from the National League.  The Yankees’ first nine games of this season came against the National League’s Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Is there any way for Major League Baseball to salvage its annual July All-Star game?

Introducing the Savannah Bananas!

The State of Georgia’s increasingly famous Savannah Bananas traveling professional baseball team is located 250 miles to the southeast of next week’s All-Star site in Atlanta.

A ticket to see this entertaining group of baseball players (assuming you are lucky enough to get any seats via the team’s online ticket lottery) will cost from $35 to $125 apiece.

Banana Ball tickets have become so popular that resellers are charging double the face value for tickets to their games this season.

The Savannah Bananas have become baseball’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters of basketball fame.

The concept for this team was cooked-up by the team’s owner and “Top Banana” Jesse Cole.  A series of “what if” questions between Jesse Cole and his father led to this national phenomenon.

“What if…”

Pro baseball was designed to be more fun for fans to watch?

The games would end in two hours or less?

Each inning was scored as one point to the winner – just like a tennis match?

The players on both teams would provide some hilarious family-friendly antics between innings to keep the fans engaged?

A foul ball caught in midair by any fan in the grandstands also means that the batter is out?

You get the idea.

Banana Ball catches fire in America!

Savannah, Georgia was the longtime home for pro baseball’s South Atlantic League Class “A” Savannah Sand Gnats. 

The team’s ancient baseball facility was built in 1927 and holds 4.700 fans.

The Sand Gnats were offered a brand new 9,000 seat baseball stadium if they would move to Columbia, South Carolina in 2016. The Sand Gnats flew away.

The city of Savannah was given another chance. The region was awarded a lower tier Class D summer-only collegiate baseball team starting in 2016.

A contest was held by the new team owner to determine a new team name.

The Savannah Bananas was the overwhelming choice.

The Class D Savannah Bananas quickly became quite successful on the field and at the gate.

Savannah Bananas team owner Jesse Cole came up with some innovative and creative ideas that he wanted to try beginning in 2018 to make the team’s home games more fun.

The Bananas continued to play in their traditional games as scheduled but added a few exhibition contests featuring some new “Banana Ball” rules.

Players rush out of the dugout to celebrate every run scored while they also entertain the fans.  The players (on both teams + the umpires) often dance in sync with music being played between innings.

The concept has been to develop as many unique ideas as possible to keep fans focused on the fun factors while they remain engaged in a two-hour (maximum) baseball game.

The team’s incredibly entertaining exhibitions quickly became more popular with Savannah’s baseball fans than those coming to see games involving the traditional Class D baseball team.

Team owner Jesse Cole decided to abandon the traditional baseball concept entirely in 2022.  His new Savannah Bananas took a big risk and morphed into a full-time traveling “barnstorming” baseball team.

The team brings along their own traveling baseball opponents and umpires for these road games. Everyone involved is encouraged to get into the act.

You’ll find the Savannah Bananas competing against The Party Animals, The Texas Tailgaters, and The Firefighters.  Those teams are also filled with talented former college and pro baseball players.  The opponents win a significant percentage of these baseball games.

Contrast that to basketball’s hapless Washington Generals. 

The Generals famously ended a 2,495 game losing streak to the Harlem Globetrotters 100-99 in January, 1971.

The 2023 Savannah Bananas “World Tour” drew more than 500,000 fans in 80 playing dates.  The team has wisely promoted itself to younger demographics via social media outlets while continuing to receive positive word-of-mouth advertising.

The momentum has continued to build

Sell-out crowds greeted the Savannah Bananas as they played games in larger venues in 2024. 

Major league baseball stadiums in Houston, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, and Washington DC all sold out well in advance of their announced games.

The 2025 season has grown even bigger.  The Savannah Bananas filled Clemson University’s 81,000 seat football stadium to set another record baseball crowd this spring.

Every game in the 2025 season appears to be sold-out with hundreds of thousands of fans now on a waiting list hoping to hear about any available tickets.

The Savannah Bananas have played a few games on ESPN and ESPN2 this season.

Your next chance to watch the Bananas comes on Saturday evening July 26 at 6PM CDT on ESPN2 with a game being played in Philadelphia.

Learn the 11 rules of Banana Ball!

On a more serious note, the Savannah Bananas started a special 501(c) 3 tax-deductible corporation which raises funds to provide financial aid to foster families across the United States.

The charity is (of course) named “Bananas Foster” !

Wouldn’t it be fun to see the Savannah Bananas play the MLB All-Stars?

It is too late for next Monday and Tuesday’s All-Star event in Atlanta, but there’s always 2026.

Perhaps the Savannah Bananas could face a team of recently retired (but fun-loving) MLB stars? 

I could picture former players like shortstop Derek Jeter or pitcher Roger Clemens playing in a game like this – especially to benefit a charity such as “Bananas Foster”.

What if the American League All-Stars faced the National League All-Stars next year – using Banana Ball rules! The Savannah Bananas could furnish the entertainment between innings to keep things moving.

That would be a TV ratings knock-out!

Major League Baseball needs to grow a new generation of younger fans.  The Savannah Bananas have shown that there is an untapped market of younger fans desiring a more entertaining and shorter version of America’s pastime.

C’mon, MLB! 

It’s past time for you to schedule an exhibition game involving the Savannah Bananas during next year’s All-Star week in Philadelphia!

The post Dream Match-up – MLB All-Stars vs. the Savannah Bananas! appeared first on SwampSwamiSports.com.