After the umpire calls ball four at Equity Bank Park, batter Dalton Cornett scrambles to first base and then gets halfway to second before outfielders rush in to touch the ball and halt his advance.
While that’s happening, a clock in centerfield counts down from two hours. Teams gather in front of the dugouts to dance to a disco beat. And the faint smell of sulphur from the intro pyrotechnics is in the air.
Welcome to Banana Ball — where there’s no walks, no bunts and frequent dance breaks.
The exhibition league that has become a worldwide phenomenon brought its fast-paced, chaotic brand of baseball to Wichita on Thursday, where the Firefighters and the Loco Beach Coconuts faced off for the first of a three-game series.
Eleven rules set Banana Ball apart from traditional baseball.
They include games only lasting two hours, as opposed to nine innings. The team that scores the most runs in an inning gets one point — except in the final inning, when every run counts as one point.
Walks are turned into a ball-four sprint, where the batter takes off and can't be tagged out until every fielder has touched the ball.
Matt Hamilton, general manager of the Wichita Wind Surge, said Banana Ball teams entertain the crowd in a way that the guidelines of traditional baseball aren't allowed to do.
“We obviously can't set bats on fire,” Hamilton said. “We can't have guys go to the plate on stilts. You won't likely see an umpire break dancing mid game, or see players doing a coordinated TikTok dance. But more than anything, I think it's a great way to get non baseball fans engaged with the game in a different way.”
Matt Meyerhoff brought his family from Marion for the game. He said his daughters started watching Banana Ball games online, and the games soon became a nightly family event.
“We were pretty excited about it, being able to come out here and have fun,” Meyerhoff said. “So we pulled the kids out of school a little early, and came down for the festivities.
As a volunteer firefighter, Meyerhoff had an obvious favorite team playing Thursday. With his firefighter helmet and mustache, he even resembled the Firefighters’ logo.
Meyerhoff said Banana Ball’s appeal to younger generations is the non-stop action.
“There's always something going on between the music, like the dancing,” Meyerhoff said. “There's something that all my kids are always going to enjoy, even beyond just the baseball.”
Banana Ball was launched in 2018 by Jesse Cole, owner of the college-league Savannah Bananas. Cole wanted a “fan-first” approach to baseball, without the long mound visits and walks. In founding Banana Ball, Cole has said he wanted to take baseball and “turn it up a bit.”
The unique brand of baseball quickly drew a crowd. The Bananas have had more than 200 consecutive sellouts and recently played to 102,000 fans in College Station, Texas.
With a waitlist in the millions, the Bananas created five other teams that tour the country each summer in a barnstorming tour. They also started the Banana Ball Championship League to play in stadiums around the United States .
In Wichita, the Banana Ball teams sold out three games at Equity Bank Park, with a capacity of 11,460, in about two hours.
Sal Jacobo, an infielder for the Loco Beach Coconuts, played ball at Allen County Community College in Iola. He said he likes the Banana Ball style of fan-first baseball.
“It reminds me of the old backyard wiffle ball games that I used to play in high school with my friends, and it just lets me be a kid,” Jacobo said.
“I always didn't like the part of baseball where I couldn't talk to the stands, I couldn't look in the stands. Now, I’m encouraged to go out there and go sit down next to a kid, and have a conversation with him.”
Jacobo’s favorite part of the game is the trick plays. In the beginning, he thought his least favorite part would be the dances.
“Before this, I didn't like dancing, and then I started to learn,” Jacobo said. “At first I was a little slow with it, but I've gotten a lot better at it. I honestly find just as much joy out of getting a dance down as I do like hitting a home run or something.”
As the Banana Ball style becomes popular with kids, some hope it will lead to more interest in the traditional game. April Nicholson brought her two children to the park with her to watch the fun and hopes fans stick around for more games.
“The game of baseball is such a fun environment for families to get together to share time at the ballpark,” Nicholson said. “We love the Wind Surge here, and have supported that for years as well. And we love that this will be a great opportunity for people who may not go to the Wind Surge game to get to experience this wonderful ballpark that we have here in Wichita.”
