It’s my personal opinion that baseball needs no additions to make it the best major American sport. Don’t worry though, I’m aware that this opinion puts me firmly in the minority, so for everyone else, the official debut of Banana Ball in 2020 marked the beginning of baseball, or at least a baseball-adjacent sport being entertaining.
For those who don’t know, the goal of Banana Ball is to fill absolutely every second of dead time in which the game on the field might lose the crowd’s attention. That means loud clips of popular music blaring every second of the game, bonus points for trick plays (for example, catching a pop-fly mid-backflip), and constant audience involvement.
I had heard of Banana Ball before this year, but this was the first year I tried to go to a game. The last few years have led to Banana Ball becoming so popular that tickets are now sold via a lottery system. Unfortunately, I did not win, but my friend luckily did. So last Saturday (Sept. 12), five of us piled into my car to drive to Syracuse and watch the Firefighters face off against the Texas Tailgaters. I had no stake in that matchup going in, but everyone knows that sports are 10 times more fun when you have someone to root for, so I quickly became a loyal Firefighters fan.
We arrived at the stadium — NBT Bank Stadium, home of the Syracuse Mets (go Mets!) — at 3:30 p.m., which was when the gates opened ahead of the game’s 7 p.m. start. We were some of many to show up as soon as we could, which meant that the crowds of people in line for merch and food from various food trucks were a little overwhelming. We quickly found a spot on the grass with our food though, and sat down to watch a concert that lasted until the gates opened at 5:30 p.m.
After entering the stadium, we quickly found our seats and settled in to watch the succession of pregame events. Some of the highlights included a father and son racing around the bases to complete a series of firefighting-related tasks, the hosts of both teams roaming through the stands to find fans to play mini-games, and Firefighters players dancing around sets of drums and playing them at home plate.
Before we knew it, it was time to start. And since Banana Ball has a mandatory two-hour time limit, I found myself preemptively sad about the experience ending before the actual game had even begun. Then the game began, and I forgot about all of that. I spent almost the full two hours on my feet (don’t worry, we were in the back), barely able to turn and talk with my friends without feeling like I was going to miss something. The celebrations and trick plays were incredibly fun; the constant music meant constant singing and dancing by us in the stands; and the anticipation of the next new exciting play or experience kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Well, if they weren’t already standing like us.
At the end of that exhilarating hour and fifty minutes, I’m happy to report that the Firefighters — I knew I picked them for a reason — pulled off a close win. But that wasn’t the end of the night. We spilled out of the stadium to find the band from the pregame show set back up on stage and ready to play some more. This time we found ourselves near the front of the crowd and spent the next hour jumping and screaming along with the songs. For the final act, the band and other members of the show — because Banana Ball really is a show — guided everyone to form a wide circle, sway back and forth, and sing along.
We ended up spending almost seven hours at the stadium, and were entertained for almost every moment of it. Nothing will ever beat baseball for me, but Banana Ball is an incredibly close second, and I think almost everyone else would put it first. I will definitely be putting myself up for the lottery next year, and for every year the tour continues. Go Firefighters!
