Going, Going, Gone Bananas!
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Credit: The Savannah Bananas
The Savannah Bananas are bunched up and having a blast during one of their games.
The Savannah Bananas are not your average baseball team. They do something other teams don't. They dance during games. The team's TikTok videos get millions of hits. Baseball fans everywhere are going bananas.
The Savannah Bananas were founded in 2016. They belonged to a minor league in the Southeastern United States. The team's co-owner, Jesse Cole, added the dancing. The idea caught on. Soon, fans packed the stadium like bananas in a crate!
Some of the team's dances are solos. One batter boogeys into the batter's box to a rap song. The first-base coach spins around. Other dances are group numbers. Some players do the latest TikTok dances together. Other times, the whole team suddenly breaks into dance.
But there's more than just dancing. Players walk on tall poles. They swing flaming bats. They perform backflips and splits. It's a lot like a circus. But the Bananas aren't just monkeying around. The team has won three championships.
The fun certainly paid off. All 4,000 seats usually sold out at Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Georgia. And over a million people attended Bananas games.
The Bananas' appeal just keeps ripening. In the summer of 2022, ESPN aired Bananaland, a TV show about the team. And in 2023, the Bananas become a pro travel team. They'll take their fun and games to 20 cities and play other pro teams. But they won't exactly be playing baseball. They call it "Banana Ball." It has a two-hour time limit. There's a sudden-death playoff in case of a tie. And there's plenty of dancing. (Think of the Harlem Globetrotters but with baseballs instead of basketballs.)
Why mess with baseball? A traditional game can last over three hours. And there might not be much action from game to game. The Bananas want to make sure their games are always fun and entertaining. Will Banana Ball be the wave of the future? About 80,000 fans are on the waiting list for tickets. So the Savannah Bananas may be on to something. One might even say they are hitting it out of the park.
Think about and discuss these questions:
What facts would you choose to show that the Savannah Bananas are a success?
Is there a sport, activity, or event you'd like to add more fun to? What would you add?
Credit: The Savannah Bananas
TO-DONOTESVOCABULARY
QUESTION 2
QUESTION 2 OF 8
2 / 8
The article says:
One batter boogeys into the batter's box to a rap song. The first-base coach spins around…. Some players do the latest TikTok dances together. Other times, the whole team suddenly breaks into dance.
The author uses this passage mostly to __________.
A.
show the reader that dancers are good baseball players
B.
prove how much the dancing gets in the way of the game
C.
show how everyone on the team is part of the fun
D.
help the reader understand what a coach does in baseball