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Top 14 Moments from the First Ever Game Played in Rompers and the Battle with the Blue Crabs

Written by Biko Skalla:

 

As sad as it was to bid au revoir to our new best friends the Aussie Drop Bears, we’re blessed to be able to rebound from such a heartache by watching the Bananas and Party Animals revive what has undeniably become best rivalry in all of sports. We had two thrilling games between the Nanners and the Animals and then the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League journeyed south for their Banana Ball debut. No better place to kick things off than with the third pitch we saw since the Drop Bears flew back to Oz…

Reece Hampton Makes Banana Ball History

It’s Reece’s world and we’re all just living in it…

(It was the third pitch of the game but still incredibly impressive). Talk about extending a Banana Ball record 25-game hitting streak in style! Reece Lightning is simply absurd.

This one turned into a pretty bizarre game to breakdown. It was incredible on the trick play front, with 11 made between both teams, four of them from Showman of the Night, Breland Almadova, but also errors and trick plays missed from the Bananas caused Jared Donalson to allow 5 runs, only 2 of them earned, in 4.2 innings pitched. The Hampton home run was the first earned run and the second came when he left with Reece Hampton on first and two down in the top of the 5th…

The Party Animals Knock Stilts Around

This allowed the Party Animals to grab their first lead in points on the night.

Jeremy Guthrie Returns to Bananaland!

Jeremy is as nice a guy as you can find and clearly fully bought in on Banana Ball. He tossed tw0 innings without allowing an earned run against the Bananas for the MLBPAA, then threw a scoreless frame for the Nanners against the Kansas City Monarchs, and he looked tremendous again last Thursday in his third career Banana Ball outing…

Two more innings without allowing an earned run for Guthrie! He’s on the hunt for the fastest inning in Banana Ball history, currently held by Christian Dearman who got three outs in one minute and thirteen seconds in Sugar Land, Texas. Guthrie currently is tied for the seventh fastest inning ever with his one minute and 27 second frame he threw against the Bananas on March 11th in Savannah.

The Party Animals did sneak two unearned runs across off Jeremy in the 7th but Ryan Cox, Bill LeRoy, Dalton Mauldin, and DR Meadows all singled in the bottom half and Eric Jones Jr. walked it off with an RBI grounder to make it a 2-2 game heading to the 8th.

Mat “The Monster” Malatesta got two outs nearly instantaneously and then the Nanners turned to their other one-out specialist, Bill “The Spaceman” Lee, who had gone seven straight outings without allowing a run. Unfortunately, similar to Stilts three innings earlier, the good times would not last…

The Party Animals Finally Get to Bill Lee

It’s easy to be a Monday Morning Quarterback, but in the time it took Bill to warmup, then allow two runs, Bret Helton to warmup for the bottom of the 8th, Michael Deeb to work a two-base sprint, and review the play at second after the Party Animals challenged the safe call, the two-hour time limit had less than a minute left. Once the clock showed six zeros those two runs turned into two points, giving the Party Animals a 4-2 lead as the 8th inning was now the final frame to be played. It most likely would have burned a lot less time if Malatesta was left out there to finish the 8th, but also the fans wouldn’t have gotten to see the Red Sox Hall of Famer pitch. Banana Ball is a delicate dance of competitiveness and entertainment.

Anyhow, then we had the most bizarre ending of a game in Banana Ball history…

The Batter’s Interference Double Play Heard Round the World

In the moment I had trouble understanding the call that was made, but after reading the umpire’s handbook over and over again it was clear Vincent made a completely defensible call. In fact, just a game later, we had the second throw from a catcher deflected by a bat in Banana Ball history (let me take this moment to exclaim how bizarre and beautiful baseball/Banana Ball is. I just love it so dearly). And this time Vincent did not call batter’s interference. The difference is D-Mac knocked the ball out of the air with his backswing whereas Danny Hosley was still as a statue when Dalton Cornett smoked his bat with his attempt to throw to third…

This happened less than three innings after the McFadden interference. You just cannot make this stuff up. Also, it’s impossible to not watch this clip and laugh. It brings me so much joy. You know what else brings me so much joy? The first ever Banana Ball game in rompers…

Banana Ball Gets Romperafied

Turns out guys on both sides absolutely LOVED pitching in rompers…

Party Animals Shutout for First Time on the Tour

“Cowboy” Kyle Luigs and Dylan “Pistol Squat” Porter were both dealing on Saturday. Both starters allowed their lone run of the night in the first inning, with Porter going 5 innings and Luigs going 7. Kyle, Connor Higgins, and Danny Hosley combined to retire the last 15 Party Animals who came to the plate (and it would have been 18 straight if not for a trick play missed)…

Nanners capitalized on a trick play missed from the Animals in the 7th to draw first blood on a Ryan Cox walk-off sprint. A double from Bill LeRoy and a walk-off sprint from Hosley an inning later would provide all the insurance they could ever need.

In between the two questionable calls that caused Reece Hampton to get a sprint in the first inning and then strikeout to end the ballgame, he flew out to center and grounded out to second which meant his 25-game hitting streak ended. It will be an insanely hard record to take down. Thankfully, that first inning sprint caused his on-base streak to reach a Banana Ball record of 26 straight games!

Danny Hosley’s Behind the Back Catch Deserves Another Look

Every day is Danny Hosley Day. What a magnificent talent he is!

Monday night saw the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, one of the best teams in the Atlantic League, venture into Grayson Stadium to take on the Bananas. The Nanners won every inning except for the fifth, which was scoreless for both sides, and demolished the Blue Crabs 7-0. Let’s sit back and enjoy the barrel party…

Bananas Bash the Blue Crabs

The numbers speak for themselves here…

To be diplomatic, it was not quite the showing we expected from a top tier independent professional baseball team…

The Songbird of Our Generation Makes Banana Ball History

All the more impressive that all five trick plays were completely unique! It takes a brilliant mind to write such amazing songs but it’s clear his creativity isn’t just limited to his music…

Blue Crabs in the Booth

I swear once Bill said it looked like there was a crab moving in the bag I could see it happening…

This is Banana Ball!

An honorable mention here at the end to cleanse the palate. This is what Banana Ball is all about from start to finish…

A the pitch from a shirtless exterminator to the tour leader in trick plays who flies into a beautiful trick play made by a former first round draft pick. We’ve got in all in Bananaland!

The Party Animals and Bananas will be back in action on Friday and Saturday night in Birmingham, Alabama! Friday’s game will be aired live on YouTube from Regions Field, home of the Birmingham Barons who are the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. But on Saturday due to playing in Rickwood Field, AKA the oldest professional baseball stadium still in operation in the United States, we will have no internet and therefore no way to confidently get the game online in real time. For those who watched the disaster that was our attempt at a broadcast from Rickwood on last year’s tour, we’re still sorry for what you experienced. Do not fret though, as we will be recording the game at Rickwood and will post the broadcast on the Bananas YouTube page as soon as we have enough internet to do so. I would expect to see it posted sometime on Sunday.

As always, I really appreciate you taking the time to relive another wonderful weekend (ish) of Banana Ball with me! Stay classy, Bananaland.

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