Origins: the Coastal Plain League years (2016–2022)
The Savannah Bananas began life in 2016 as a summer-collegiate franchise in the Coastal Plain League, owned by Jesse and Emily Cole's Fans First Entertainment and playing at Historic Grayson Stadium. On the field they were good: CPL champions in their first year, 2016, and again in 2021 and 2022. Off the field, the Coles built the thing that would eventually outgrow the league — a fan-first production with dancing players, a pep band, choreographed entrances and a no-fees ticket policy — and started experimenting with the rules of the game itself.
Banana Ball was the result. The format was first tried in a 2018 exhibition against Lander University, and the first official Banana Ball game was played at Grayson Stadium in June 2020: a two-hour clock, one point per inning, no bunting, batters allowed to steal first, fans catching foul balls for outs, and a Showdown to settle ties. A month later, in July 2020, the club invented the Party Animals so the Bananas had a permanent opponent to play it against. Those two teams spent 2021 and 2022 alternating between CPL baseball and Banana Ball exhibitions; after the 2022 season the Bananas left the Coastal Plain League for good and Banana Ball became the whole business.
The tour era and the growing cast (2023–2025)
From 2023 the Bananas and Party Animals toured full time — from 2024 under a "World Tour" banner — moving from minor-league parks into major-league stadiums. The cast grew with them. The Firefighters were announced on October 5, 2023 and joined the tour in 2024; the Texas Tailgaters were announced on October 3, 2024 and debuted in 2025, a season in which the league played in 40 cities including 17 MLB stadiums and three NFL stadiums and signed Kelsie Whitmore, one of the most prominent women in professional baseball. Through 2024, none of this produced a champion: there were no standings and no playoff, just a touring show with results.
That changed in 2025 with the first Banana Ball Championship, a four-team tournament at Grayson Stadium from October 2 to 11. The teams were seeded from the season's results — Bananas first, Party Animals second, Tailgaters third, Firefighters fourth — and played semifinal series, with a Showdown game to settle a split, before a single final. The fourth-seeded Firefighters beat the Bananas 1-0 in the opening game on October 2 and went on to eliminate the top seed; the Party Animals swept the Tailgaters; and in the final the Party Animals shut out the Firefighters 4-0 behind seven innings and five strikeouts from starter Garett Delano. The Party Animals — the team that exists because the Bananas needed someone to play — are Banana Ball's first champions.
The Banana Ball Championship League (2026)
On October 9, 2025, during the 2026 tour announcement, the league unveiled two expansion clubs and, with them, a league. The Banana Ball Championship League — six teams, an April Banana Ball Open, a 50-game regular season, October playoffs and a championship game on October 10 — is, in the league's own words, the first professional Banana Ball league. The 2026 tour was billed at 75 stadiums in 45 states, including 14 MLB parks and 10 football stadiums, for a projected 3.2 million fans, and on May 2, 2026 the Bananas drew a record 102,000 at Kyle Field in College Station.
The two new teams could not be more different. The Loco Beach Coconuts are a beach-culture club with two-time World Series champion and Hawaii native Shane Victorino as prime-time coach. The Indianapolis Clowns are a revival of one of the most storied names in American baseball history.
The Indianapolis Clowns and the Negro Leagues
The original Clowns were founded by promoter Syd Pollock — sources date the club's origins to the late 1920s or mid-1930s — and barnstormed as baseball's answer to the Harlem Globetrotters: serious ballplayers wrapped in comedy routines and showmanship. They joined the Negro American League in 1943 and were genuinely good, winning pennants in the early 1950s (1951, 1952 and 1954 by most accounts) with a roster that at various points included Reece "Goose" Tatum and, in 1967, a 60-year-old Satchel Paige.
Their most famous alumnus was a teenager. In 1952 Henry Aaron signed his first professional contract with the Clowns for $200 a month and spent about three months as their shortstop and cleanup hitter before the Boston Braves organization bought his contract for $10,000. The Clowns also broke a barrier in 1953 when Toni Stone became the first woman signed to a long-term contract by a professional baseball team, followed by Mamie "Peanut" Johnson and Connie Morgan. After the Negro American League faded, the Clowns kept barnstorming for decades and finally folded in 1989.
The BBCL's Clowns launched with the endorsement of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, whose president Bob Kendrick called the revival a historically relevant tribute. Errick Foxx, on the Bananas' staff since 2018, is head coach; Ryan Howard, the 2006 NL MVP and 2008 World Series champion with the Phillies, is prime-time coach. The new Clowns played their first game on February 27, 2026 in Anaheim and made their Indianapolis debut at Victory Field on May 15–16, 2026. Their mid-August record (22-27) has them at the bottom of the first BBCL table, but the name alone makes them the most historically loaded club in the league.
Season by season
Only results we can source are listed. Through 2024 there was no championship to record.
| Season | Format | Champion / result |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Coastal Plain League (summer-collegiate) | Savannah Bananas win the CPL title in their first season |
| 2020 | First official Banana Ball game, June, Grayson Stadium | Exhibition; Party Animals created in July |
| 2021 | Coastal Plain League + Banana Ball exhibitions | Bananas win CPL title |
| 2022 | Coastal Plain League + Banana Ball exhibitions | Bananas win CPL title; leave the CPL after the season |
| 2023 | Banana Ball World Tour (Bananas, Party Animals) | No championship |
| 2024 | Banana Ball World Tour (+ Firefighters) | No championship |
| 2025 | World Tour (+ Texas Tailgaters) and first Banana Ball Championship, Grayson Stadium, Oct 2–11 | Party Animals def. Firefighters 4-0 in the final |
| 2026 | Banana Ball Championship League (6 teams); Banana Ball Open; Banana Bowl at Nationals Park, Oct 10 | Open: Texas Tailgaters def. Bananas. BBCL champion: to be decided |
The Banana Bowl: a first true championship game
Everything before 2026 was either a college title or a tournament in the Bananas' own park. The Banana Bowl is the first time the sport has a stand-alone championship game at a neutral site: Saturday, October 10, 2026 at 7 p.m. ET at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., announced on August 18 and tied by the league to America's 250th anniversary. It will crown the first BBCL champion, stream on Disney+ and YouTube, and close with a "Final Inning Show" featuring all six casts. The standings and playoff picture tell you who is on course to be there; the playoff format page explains how the field is set. When the game is played, this page will record the result.