San Diego Goes Bananas: Baseball Meets Broadway at Petco Park

Sep 9

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The Savannah Bananas and the Firefighters came to do battle at Petco Park last weekend, but it’s not the baseball you may be familiar with seeing there. Baseball is played, but there was also dancing, singing, and many entertaining shenanigans.

The pre-show, which happens hours before the game even begins, features personalities like The Young Professor (Matt Graifer, a former college professor who now works as the on-field host, Chief Potassium Enthusiast, and full-time Cast Director for the Savannah Bananas) and Princess Potassia (Emily Cole) who come out, sing, joke, and bring up the Banana Band, and different players from the teams. It’s like the most talented jocks put on a high school talent show in the very best way. Have you ever seen a crowd go crazy for a saxophone solo of Katy Perry’s “Firework” before? If so, you were probably at a Bananas game. This is peak golden retriever theatr kid energy.

With a Mantra of “Fans first. Entertain Always,” they don’t take their goal of creating a memorable fan experience lightly. Telling a story, each player having a character, and creating a full performance with unique touches for each game (and those famous 11 rules) make Bananaball a dynamic and immersive sports experience as carefully calibrated as any theatre experience.

For many players, while they were always athletic to make it to this level of baseball, the addition of the theatrics was something new for them.

Kyle Luigs, a pitcher on the Bananas and a team member for eight years, explains the evolution of his performance, from college ball to now, throwing pitches that are literally on fire.

“ I've played baseball my whole life, just like everybody else, pretty much out here. I had ambitions of playing Major League Baseball. I got a scholarship to play in college after my senior year of high school. I needed to play summer ball, and they mentioned a team in Savannah we could join. We ended up going back for four more summers.
When I started, we were playing in the Collegiate League, which had more restrictions on what we could do. As a result, we didn't do as much entertaining during the game, unless it was between innings or before or after the game.
Then we got into Banana Ball, and 2022 was my first year of it, and that's when the dance really picked up. I would say it probably started in 2018, my first summer. We did a couple of produced hype videos that had a lot of dance in them, and that was my introduction to dance and performing. I've lit a baseball on fire a couple of times and pitched it three or four times now, so that's pretty out there.”

Reese Alexiandes, who plays right field, had a similar timeline, saying he became a performer “The day I joined the Bananas.” But now, finds himself doing all kinds of wild things in the field.

“I was always still a little quiet, to myself, and now I find my own entertainment, and it’s no problem. Last year, I skied home plate and then hit a home run with my ski boots. That's probably the wildest thing I’ve done, but every day we do something that I probably overlook, but that's crazy to everybody else.”

Noah Bridges, a fielder for The Firefighters, had previous performance experience from his youth, playing Kenickie in GREASE, amongst other roles throughout the year, and finds that this mix is a good blend of both those worlds.

“My big brother plays on the team (The Firefighters), he's one year older than me, nd he was a phenom. He was really good at baseball and all other sports. I was one year younger and terrible at all sports. I could just run fast. I grew up in a sports family, but I tried to do my own thing. I would join the school play, be in the showcase of stars, and sing in musicals. I like art. I draw, and I like charcoal a lot.
I became athletic around 15 and really good at sports. I genuinely have a good time doing that. I'll be in the outfield, just grooving to every song that comes on.”

All that dancing is courtesy of the Savannah Bananas’ choreographer and first base coach, Maceo, who made it to the third round of auditions during season 11 of “So You Think You Can Dance,” and was also featured, auditioning in AGT “America’s Got Talent”. In 2016, he received a full scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City for their hip-hop program and was featured dancing for Sharaya in her music video, “Snatch Your Wig”.

Luigs says now he can pick up choreography pretty quickly, but that it all comes down to Maceo and his dedication to helping everyone on the team.

“I feel like we've learned a lot of the base moves, and a lot of the dances have those base moves. We have the best choreographer in the country, in Maceo. He really understands that we're athletes at heart, so we're really good at athletic movements.

He's really good at portraying the dance moves and putting them in the shoes of an athletic baseball player. Plus, he's a really good teacher; he'll do it with you a thousand times if you need to do it to get it right. He'll cram with you in the dugout right before you're about to do it on the field if you need it.”

Reese Alexiandes agrees, “Thankfully, we have Maceo, who's our first base coach, and he teaches us. He's an excellent teacher, so pretty quick when he's teaching, he makes it super easy.”

This is all the more impressive since, as Noah explains, most of the dances are taught and performed either the same day or with only a few days' notice.

“Usually, either the night before or the morning of; if it's more complicated and they really want us to nail it, they'll send it a couple of days before.
If they send you something, you'll either do it that day or the next. So we never do the same thing twice. Everything you see us learn during the show, we pretty much learn the day of.”

Along with the players, there is the crew that keeps all of these teams and moving parts coming together for each game. Joel Zimmerman is an entertainment coordinator, which means that he is a jack of all trades, helping lead rehearsals, prepping the pre-show, and handling any other tasks as needed. Zimmerman attended a performing arts school and a broadcasting school, gaining a background in theatre and performance. He is excited to leverage this background and skills at Banana Ball, as it all revolves around the fan experience.

“My experience is it's the most fun I've ever had in a job. This is about entertaining the fans, so it's not like we have a relationship where there’s a wall that blocks us. We try to break that wall, and it's so much fun. We're actually in the same space; we're all in this together. This is about a game and having fun.”

While the dance bits and side quests are scripted, the game itself is not. This means that Zimmerman and every player must be prepared to execute the song, dance, or other action the play calls for at the time.

“We never plan out anything. It's kind of like an if-then-when. So if something happens, then we'll run something. So if a guy scores, we'll do one of the dances we just practiced.”

It’s not just about playing the game; the overall experience is what matters. The Banana’s dedication to fan service is legend, and in San Diego that proved true over and over again from Southern California talent, from singer Brett Young featuring a song mid game, to a Dancing With the Stars moment with Derek Hough (10’s all around) or when Padre legend and MLB Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman took the mound again to close the game.

Hoffman's showing up is a key example of their fan-first philosophy. That meant a lot to this San Diego crowd, and when the "Hell’s Bells" began to ring out and the lights dimmed, an instant hush fell for a half second as the crowd recognized what used to happen from that cue. Then it erupted into a full-out roar as attendees realized the Bananas had brought Hoffman back to the field. The woman behind me said, “I have goosebumps.” I saw another person crying. The person in front of me knew of him but had never seen him on the field. Later, they said, “I can’t believe I got to see Trevor Hoffman throw a pitch, I never got to see him before.”

It was the ultimate closer for the closing pitch of Saturday night, and San Diego was left going bananas in the very best way.