How to Become a Savannah Bananas Player: Tryouts, Rosters & What It Takes

Every Banana Ball game has a moment where a player does something no baseball player should be able to do — a backflip before a pitch, a catch made while dancing, an at-bat on stilts. Then you realize that same person just turned on a 95-mph fastball. That combination is the whole job. Banana Ball doesn't hire ballplayers who can entertain, and it doesn't hire entertainers who can play. It hires people who do both, at once, in front of a sold-out stadium.

So how does someone actually get there? Here's how tryouts work, what the league screens for, and how the six Banana Ball Championship League rosters come together.

Banana Ball Players Are Athletes First

It's easy to watch the choreography and assume the baseball is a bit. It isn't. The player pool is stocked with people who spent years in affiliated pro ball, independent leagues, or high-level Division I programs. The pitching is real, the arms are real, and the defense is genuinely good — it has to be, because the rules punish sloppiness. In Banana Ball there are no walks, no bunting, no stepping out of the box, and a fan catching a foul ball records an out. A roster full of showmen who couldn't play would fall apart in an inning.

What separates Banana Ball is that athletic ability is the entry fee, not the qualification. Being good at baseball gets your video watched. It doesn't get you a jersey.

How Banana Ball Tryouts Actually Work

Tryouts are invite-only. There's no open cattle call you can drive to on a Saturday, which is the single most common misconception about the process.

Step 1: The prospective player form

Everything starts with the Prospective Banana Ball Player form on the league's official site. It collects your playing background and — the important part — lets you upload a video making your case for why you belong. That video is doing most of the work. The people reviewing it already assume you can play; they're watching for personality, creativity, and whether you're someone fans would want to watch for three hours.

Step 2: The invite

From that applicant pool, the league invites a shortlist to private workouts — reporting has put that number somewhere in the range of 100 to 250 players a year. Compared to the number of roster spots across the league, that's a brutal funnel.

Step 3: The workout

The workout itself looks only half like a baseball tryout. There's stretching, throwing, hitting, and a scrimmage — the parts you'd expect. There's also learning choreography on the spot, running trick plays, and being asked to perform in front of strangers with no warning. Prospects have described the dancing as the part that separates people fastest. Plenty of guys who can hit a slider freeze when they're handed eight counts of a routine and told to sell it.

What the League Actually Screens For

Across everything that's been said publicly about the process, four things come up consistently:

• A real baseball résumé. Professional experience, or at minimum success at a high-level college program.
• Entertainment ability. Dancing, acrobatics, singing, stage presence, comedic timing — some skill that plays to a live crowd.
• A social media presence. Players are a huge part of how Banana Ball markets itself, and the league is candid that this matters.
• Fans-first culture fit. This is the one people underrate. The organization is built around putting the fan experience ahead of the individual, and it screens hard for people who'll actually live that instead of chasing personal stats.

Notice what isn't on that list: a specific position, a specific age, or a specific gender. Kelsie Whitmore plays for the Savannah Bananas. The league has consistently valued being watchable over fitting a mold.

How the BBCL Rosters Come Together

The Banana Ball Championship League launched with six teams: the Savannah Bananas, the Party Animals, the Firefighters, the Texas Tailgaters, the Loco Beach Coconuts, and the Indianapolis Clowns. You can see each club and its identity on our Banana Ball teams page.

Rosters generally run in the mid-20s to mid-30s per club, which puts the leaguewide player pool in the neighborhood of 160-plus. Each team carries its own personality, and players are grouped to fit it — the Clowns and the Coconuts aren't just the Bananas in different uniforms.

A roster spot also isn't a season-long guarantee of stability. Because teams tour, players travel constantly, perform pregame and mid-game, and handle fan interaction on top of playing nine innings. Durability and attitude keep people employed as much as production does.

If you want to see who's actually producing, the Banana Ball player stats page tracks the numbers across the league, and every club's games are on the full Banana Ball schedule.

The Honest Odds

Hundreds of applications, 100–250 workout invites, and a leaguewide pool of roughly 160 players who mostly return year over year. The math is unforgiving, and it's more unforgiving than pro baseball in one specific way: in affiliated ball, you can be a quiet, boring, elite performer and have a long career. In Banana Ball, quiet and boring is disqualifying no matter how hard you throw.

The upside is that the door is genuinely open to people traditional baseball had no use for. If you're a fringe prospect who can also work a crowd, this is the one league where that second skill is worth as much as the first.

FAQ

Can anyone try out for the Savannah Bananas?

Anyone can submit the prospective player form, but the tryouts themselves are invite-only. There are no public open tryouts you can simply show up to.

Do you have to play professional baseball first?

Not strictly, but you need a serious résumé. The stated bar is professional experience or, at minimum, success at a high-level college program.

How many players are on a Banana Ball roster?

Rosters generally land in the mid-20s to mid-30s per team. Across the six Banana Ball Championship League clubs, that's a pool of roughly 160 players.

Do you have to be able to dance?

Effectively, yes. Some form of entertainment ability — dancing, acrobatics, singing, or strong stage presence — is one of the explicit things the tryout evaluates, and choreography is part of the workout itself.

Are there women playing Banana Ball?

Yes. Kelsie Whitmore is on the Savannah Bananas roster. The league evaluates on ability to play and ability to entertain rather than on a fixed profile.

How do I follow a specific Banana Ball player?

Start with the player stats hub, which breaks down performance across the league, then check the schedule to find when their team plays next.

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Photo: baseballmapper / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)