8 O'Clock Buzz

Savannah Bananas Play New Kind of Baseball for Sellout Crowds

Listen Later

In recent years, Major League Baseball has adopted rule changes to try to make baseball games shorter and with more action.

  • Pitchers now must deliver to the plate within 20 seconds – the first clock ever seen on a ballfield in the game’s 178-year history.
  • Batter and pitcher timeouts are now limited.
  • The bases are bigger, making the basepaths shorter, and the pitcher now has a limited number of pickoff attempts, both to encourage the stolen base.
  • If a game goes into extra innings, a “ghost runner” automatically takes second base, to try to avoid long, draw-out contests.

    • But all that has nothing on the barnstorming exhibition baseball team, the Savannah Bananas, who since 2016, have completely rewritten the baseball rule book. To learn more about this new approach to the game of baseball, Monday Buzz host turned to a pair of experts to explain it all.

    Biko Skalla is an Emmy-award winning broadcaster, who has worked as an announcer and producer for the MLB and NHL networks.  He now works as the Savannah Bananas’ Broadcast Entertainer.  Filmmaker and television producer Michael Galinsky co-directed the ESPN television series “Bananaland” about the Bananas.

    Photo courtesy Savannah Bananas

    Web posting by Nicholas Wootton

     

    Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

    The post Savannah Bananas Play New Kind of Baseball for Sellout Crowds appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    8 O'Clock BuzzBy Brian Standing, Haywood Simmons & Michelle Naff, Jan Miyasaki, Tony Castaneda, & Jonathan Zarov
    • 4
    • 4
    • 4
    • 4
    • 4

    4

    2 ratings

    More shows like 8 O'Clock Buzz

    View all
    Mel & Floyd by Mel & Floyd

    Mel & Floyd

    48 Listeners

    A Public Affair by Douglas Haynes, Ali Muldrow, Carousel Bayrd, Allen Ruff, & Esty Dinur

    A Public Affair

    12 Listeners

    Perpetual Notion Machine by Perpetual Notion Machine

    Perpetual Notion Machine

    3 Listeners