912-712-2482

912-712-2482

Top 13 Moments from Indianapolis and Akron

Written by Biko Skalla:

 

We just had one of the most legendary weekends in Bananas history thanks to Indianapolis, Indiana, and Akron, Ohio. Who had that on their 2023 bingo card?! On Thursday night we had the first power outage ever and thus the first ever game cancelled because we had no electricity. The following evening we had the largest crowd in franchise history, with over 15,000 fans turning Victory Field into an electric factory (not to be confused with the steam plant we were playing next to). Saturday saw Thursday night’s game turned into the first ever noon start time for a Banana Ball game, and once again Circle City showed out with Victory Field jam packed for the early start. Then on Sunday we were in Akron which had a rain delay for nearly two hours throughout which I don’t think a single fan left Canal Park. And Monday night saw more torrential rain that luckily did not delay our start as we celebrated the 4th of July a day early. Oh yeah and it also poured all three days in Indy. Absolutely bonkers!

Just to make matters more bizarre here, I flew to New York City for the 4th and have not been able to secure strong enough internet here to download the four games so I can cut highlights from them. That means it is a special social media dominant edition of our top moments from the weekend!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

What a scene!! Indianapolis you ROCKED. Let’s get into some of the madness that occurred in front of the largest crowds in Bananas history…

The Doctor is IN

DR Meadows was on another level in the Hoosier Capital…

https://www.tiktok.com/@thesavbananas/video/7250669435114212651?lang=en

He’s always a blast to watch but DR was all-time all over the place on Friday night. It would kickoff a weekend in which he went 5-12 at the dish with a double, 3 ball-four sprints, a hit-by-pitch, 3 runs scored, 2 RBI, a walk-off, and 6 stolen bases in as many tries. The pride of Vidalia, Georgia, continues to be just about as great a leadoff hitter as you could ever imagine.

Shoutout Overalls! 

Leave it to Mat Wolf to make the first ever overalls catch in Banana Ball history…

Boy is it fun to see our Trick-Pitching Extraordinaire showoff his skills in the infield.

6-2-2 and a Barrel

Not only do Jake Lialios and his backup dancers slay the house boots down here but then Danny Hosley smokes a triple to the vacated leftfield…

@thesavannahpartyanimals

Last move is called “ducklings shaking water off their tail feathers” 🦆💦 #fy #savbananas #thepartyanimals #partyanimals #savannahbananas #baseball #bananaball #ijustwannadance #fyp #baseballdances

♬ original sound – The Party Animals

That’s the whole kit and kaboodle right there.

Reece Lightning’s Getting Goofy in the Outfield

The only reason why you can’t say DR is as great a leadoff hitter as you can imagine is because the Party Animals have Reece Hampton. While DR is 5th in AVG and and 3rd in OBP, Reece is leading the tour in AVG and tied for the tour lead in OBP. Long story short, they’re both AMAZING, but Hampton has been a little more impressive offensively. The one part of Banana Ball where DR has dominated is in trick plays, with the majority of his 26 trick plays to lead all outfielders being his mind-melting backflip catches. Well it turns out Reece can backflip too. And he’s picked up his trick plays considerably as of late, with this between-the-legs snag being his 4th in his last 6 games played, making up nearly half of his 9 trick plays on the season…

Conclusion: Our centerfielders are superstars.

And just a few more pictures here to put a button on the two biggest games in Bananas history…

Chills city.

Let’s head to Akron!

The Bananas Pay Homage to the King

It’s well known that LeBron James was born and raised in Akron, so it was a no-brainer to tip our proverbial caps to the NBA’s all-time points leader…

Stilts getting the out that caused this to happen is the cherry on top.

Collin Balester was Born in the USA

After pitching against the Bananas in both MLBPAA challenger games, the California kid made his Nanners debut and took the mound in style…

Talk about a man who was born for Bananaland. Collin’s an entertainer at heart and boy are we happy his path has crossed with ours.

Bryson Bloomer’s Walkups to the Plate are Must See TV

These just keep getting better and better from The Boomer…

@thesavannahpartyanimals

This walk-up got us in a trance 😵‍💫 #fy #nohands #thepartyanimals #fy #savbananas #baseball #savannahbananas #bananaball #fyp #nohandswakaflockaflame

♬ original sound – The Party Animals

If you’re not familiar with his work, you really should do yourself a favor and delve into the Party Animals Tik Tok archive to watch his Jonas Brothers and Stone Cold walkups.

Jackson Olson Munches on Some Swenson’s in the Box

Because of course he does…

High praise right there!

Noah Bridges Pulls Off Ceilings 4.0 with Mrs. Yellow Dress Herself

This is the magic of social media right here. Hayley realized that we could improve our Ceilings Tik Tok by throwing Noah in a yellow dress. For those who may have somehow missed these, here’s the original, and now here’s Hayley’s version, here’s the behind-the-scenes look at Hayley’s version, here’s Noah doing it in a kilt and a cowboy hat in Texas, and then last but certainly not least, the duet with our creative genius herself…

@thesavbananas

Replying to @Halestorm93 From a TikTok comment to dancing together in a yellow dress on the field. We love you Haley! 💛💛💛 #savannahbananas #noahbridges #noahbridges9 #ceilingslizzymcalpine #ceilingstrend #fypシ

♬ original sound – thesavbananas

It was super special to get to meet Hayley in Akron and see how life changing a comment on a Tik Tok can really be.

Picture time!

Let’s do some real quick sports talk here at the end.

The Party Animals clobbered the Bananas 7-3 on Friday behind 6.1 brilliant innings from Bret Helton who only allowed one unearned run while securing 5 points for his team when he was on the mound.

The Bananas evened up the series in Indianapolis on Saturday, doubling up the Party Animals 4-2 thanks to 5 innings with just 1 earned run from Cowboy Kyle Luigs.

Akron was all Party Animals as they won both games 3-2. The final out on Sunday night didn’t occur until nearly 11:00 pm thanks to the hour and 48 minute rain delay. And the game would have gone even further into the night if not for the rain picking up again so furiously that the grounds crew told the Bananas brass they had to tarp after the 8th inning and did not see a way to play the 9th if they also wanted to play Monday’s game. So it was declared that even though there were over 3 minutes on the clock, the 8th would be the final inning of the night, meaning every run scored would be a point. Both teams had already put a run across in the 8th so the score jumped from 2-1 to 3-2, and then four pitches later this happened…

Tanner Thomas Calls Game

 

A couple other highlights of note from Akron:

We had the second-fastest inning in Banana Ball history on Sunday and then we had it again on Monday…

Drew Gillespie Throws the Second-Fastest Inning in Banana Ball History

Sean Fluke Throws the Second-Fastest Inning in Banana Ball History

Banana Ball continues to befuddle me every time I see it in action. You just can’t make this stuff up! This also kickstarted 5 innings of work for Flukey in which he only allowed one unearned run, earning two points while yielding none.

And lastly, Reece Hampton blasted a home run in each city to tie Eric Jones atop the long ball leaderboard and he also fouled out to a fan in each city. He’s hit 5 of the 14 foul outs to fans on the tour!

With the sweep of the Buckeye State, the Party Animals now have Ohio, Texas, and Oklahoma while the Nanners have Florida, Tennessee, and Alabama.

The Bananas return to Historic Grayson Stadium for a two-game Challenger Series against the Florida Collegiate Summer League All-Stars on Friday and Saturday night. This is basically the Futures Games of the Banana Ball World Tour. It’s going to be a thrill to see some incredibly talented collegiate players taking on the pros and giving us a peak at what the next wave of talented Banana Ballers may look like.

As always, thank you for reliving another wacky weekend of the tour with me! Now we get to see what the youngsters can do against the Nanners this weekend. See you at 6:30 pm ET for the pregame show on YouTube Friday night!

Get Up To Date Game Info

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Categories