A Wave of Joy
The Savannah Bananas began with an empty ballpark, a risky idea, and a name most people thought was ridiculous.
When Savannah’s minor-league team left the city in 2015, Jesse and Emily Cole brought a new summer collegiate team to historic Grayson Stadium. The idea was financially precarious. Ticket sales were slow, debt was mounting, and the Coles were living frugally as they tried to keep the team afloat.
Then came the name.
During a community contest, someone suggested the Savannah Bananas. Many people disliked it. Jesse Cole loved it. In 2016, the team debuted in yellow and green with a banana-shaped logo and a mascot named Split.
The Coles built the organization around a single philosophy: Fans First.
That meant a baseball game should never feel slow, distant, or predictable. The Bananas introduced dancing players, a pep band, elaborate entrances, choreographed routines, unusual uniforms, and constant crowd participation. The cast eventually expanded to include the Banana Nanas senior dance team, a dancing baby, and an assortment of characters designed to make the ballpark feel more like a carnival than a conventional sporting event.
The baseball itself remained competitive. The Bananas won the Coastal Plain League championship in their inaugural 2016 season and eventually captured three league titles. But the entertainment surrounding the game kept growing.
In 2020, the organization began developing its own version of the sport: Banana Ball.
Games were limited to two hours. Batters could not step out of the box. Bunting was banned. A batter who received ball four could sprint around the bases while every defensive player tried to touch the ball. A foul ball caught by a fan counted as an out. Teams earned points by winning individual innings rather than simply accumulating the most runs.
Each rule was designed to speed up the game and bring the crowd into the action. And the experiment became a phenomenon.
After the 2022 season, the Bananas left collegiate baseball to play Banana Ball year-round. Their tours expanded from small ballparks to major-league and football stadiums, where dancing pitchers, trick plays, backflips, music, and genuine competition now draw enormous crowds.
On June 27, Karl and I joined Jake, Rachel, and Christopher Cochran for the Bananas’ first Oregon appearance at Autzen Stadium. Nearly 60,000 people filled the stadium, and at one point the crowd sustained a continuous wave for more than 10 minutes, setting a Banana Ball record. What fun it was to be one small part of it.
The Bananas have succeeded because they understand something too often forgotten: People want more than a polished performance. They want to participate. They want to laugh together. They want to feel like they belong inside the experience.
Consider the opening of Psalm 47: “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy,” the psalmist writes.
Biblical joy is rarely something we observe from a distance. Joy moves through our voices, hands, feet, feasts, music, and gathered communities -- driven by the Holy Spirit.
Not every day feels like Banana Ball. Some seasons are heavy, and faithful joy never asks us to pretend otherwise. But God continues to place moments of delight before us: an evening with friends, a silly mascot, a wave rumbling through a sold-out stadium. Sometimes our job is to notice when joy reaches our section -- and to stand up and join the communal wave.