The unconventional baseball team Savannah Bananas will visit Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago in 2025

CHICAGO— The Savannah Bananas, the unconventional independent baseball team that has become a national phenomenon, will bring its signature “Banana Ball” brand to 18 Major League Baseball stadiums and three football stadiums in 2025, it was announced Thursday.

Owner Jesse Cole said sellouts are expected at each of those venues, including Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.

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“We played in front of a million fans last year,” Cole told ESPN. “We’re playing in front of 2 million fans next year. This may sound arrogant, but our waiting list is currently at 3 million.”

The Bananas will be joined by the Party Animals, the Firefighters and a new team, the Texas Tailgaters, during a 39-game tour that runs from March through September.

The team will be in Chicago on August 15 and 16, according to social media posts announcing the schedule.

The football stadiums the tour will stop at are Memorial Stadium (Clemson), Nissan Stadium (Tennessee Titans) and Bank of America Stadium (Carolina Panthers).

The Bananas will also play two games each at the home stadiums of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins.

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The visits were announced on YouTube Thursday night during the organization's annual World Tour City Draft, after which fans could enter a ticket lottery through the team's website.

Banana Ball made its way to six MLB stadiums this year – Miami, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston, Cleveland and Washington – and drew huge crowds at each venue, with tens of thousands of fans showing up hours early to take part in the pre-game festivities. These games featured prominent former major league players such as Ryan Howard, Roger Clemens, Jamie Moyer, Shane Victorino, Corey Kluber, Jonny Gomes and Josh Reddick.

“Now that we're going to these big league stadiums, we're getting a lot more former stars — All-Stars, World Series champions, MVPs — coming through who want to be a part of it,” Cole told ESPN. “It’s just wild.”

Born out of a desire to speed up the pace of baseball games and captivate fans throughout their duration, Banana Ball's experimental phase began a little over five years ago. It is now played year-round by the Savannah Bananas and their affiliated teams.

The concept consists of 11 rules. Leaving the batter's box results in a strike, and bunt attempts warrant an ejection. Hill visits are not permitted. Each innings exists as a separate unit and games are limited to two hours. Fans are allowed to challenge calls and can record an out by catching foul balls.

Instead of a traditional walk, batters sprint around the bases with a fourth ball, advancing until the defensive team throws the baseball to each fielder. In the event of a passed ball or wild pitch, batters may “steal first” regardless of the count. Instead of extra innings, there is a one-on-one showdown where the field is empty except for a fielder, the pitcher and his catcher, and the batter attempts an inside-the-park home run as soon as he puts the ball in play.

Recently, an 11th rule – “Golden Batter” – was introduced, giving each team the opportunity to use any batter at any point in the lineup.

Cole's idea book for Banana Ball is now part of an exhibit unveiled in September 2023 at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Thursday's announcements included the creation of the Banana Ball Championship League, which will begin in 2026 and consist of six teams, with Cole's goal of “eventually taking Banana Ball around the world.”

“At first people thought, 'Well, they're just the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball,'” Cole said. “I take that as a compliment because the Globetrotters have fundamentally changed the game of basketball and they have been around for 100 years.”

“But we see ourselves as building a sport. We are building something that future generations can enjoy and create something truly special. This dream becomes even bigger.”

In the fall of 2015, Cole and his wife Emily purchased the former Class A Georgia-based affiliate of the New York Mets to serve as a new collegiate summer league team. Their debts quickly grew to $1 million. They sold their North Carolina home, emptied their savings accounts, moved to Savannah, Georgia, and plunged into the arduous task of selling eccentric baseball to staunch traditionalists.

The momentum began to turn when their team mascot, the Bananas, was announced. The team's circus-like entertainment ultimately made the Bananas a huge crowd puller. The team made games affordable and treated them like big events, with players wearing kilts, performing choreographed dances and participating in fancy fan events. The Bananas soon regularly sold out Grayson Stadium, the century-old stadium that once hosted Babe Ruth, and Banana Ball eventually became their year-round style of play.

Her brand has grown exponentially since then.

“This is something I never could have imagined,” said Cole, a former college pitcher. “Walt Disney has always been my greatest mentor. He said, 'It's kind of fun to do the impossible.' I just feel like we’re doing the impossible in a lot of ways.”

ABC7 Chicago contributed to this report.