Do the Savannah Bananas always win? Explaining 'Harlem Globetrotters of baseball' comparisons originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Savannah Bananas are one of the hottest baseball teams in the country, and they don't even play in Major League Baseball.
Over the past five years, the Bananas have grown the popularity of "Banana Ball," an alternate version of baseball that includes a variety of different rules and features. Often, the Bananas have been compared to the Harlem Globetrotters, a barnstorming basketball team that plays exhibition games with their own comedic and entertaining style.
Still, the Bananas are different than the Globetrotters, and it starts with the competition level of their league. Here's a breakdown of the "Banana Ball" league.
While the Bananas are always the biggest draw in their games, the team does experience losses. The Bananas' main opponents all play to win themselves, sometimes hosting their own games and creating six relatively equal teams across the "Banana Ball World Tour."
While the Globetrotters play exhibition games in which they always win, the Bananas compete in their own league that includes three other teams that are competing against Savannah for the "World Tour" title.
MORE: What is 'Banana Ball' and how do rules differ from baseball?
The Bananas mainly play three opponents during their world tours: Party Animals, Firefighters, and Texas Tailgaters, and all three are more competitive than the Washington Generals.
The Savannah Party Animals were the first team created solely to compete with the Bananas in "Banana Ball." They played in the first official "Banana Ball" game against the Bananas on June 26, 2020, then joined the Bananas on the road for the first time in 2021.
As the popularity of "Banana Ball" grew, the Party animals were able to headline their own games, even being able to start their own "World Tour" in 2024.
In 2024, The Firefighters debuted as the third team to join "Banana Ball" full-time. They played five series against the Bananas last year and are in the middle of the 2025 season, which includes three series as the host team.
The Texas Tailgaters are the newest "Banana Ball" Team, officially joining the "World Tour" alongside the Bananas, Party Animals, and The Firefighters in 2025. They hosted their first series in September when they traveled to Texas to play the Party Animals in Frisco, San Antonio, and Round Rock.
The Loco Beach Coconuts joined Banana Ball in 2026. The franchise has a beach theme and is partly led by former Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino.
Joining Banana Ball alongside the Loco Beach Coconuts are the Indianapolis Clowns, who take on the name of a former Negro League franchise as part of a partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Former Phillies star Ryan Howard is featured as a "primetime coach and manager" while former Red Sox OF Jackie Bradley Jr. is a full-time player for the squad.
The Bananas used to play in the Coastal Plain League, which is a collegiate summer baseball league. However, after 2022, the Bananas left the CPL to tour the country, playing as an independent barnstorming team full-time playing only "Banana Ball."
The Savannah Bananas were created in 2016 as a baseball team to replace the Savannah Sand Gnats, a Mets minor league team that relocated to Columbia, South Carolina in 2015. The Bananas originally joined the Coastal Plain League, a summer baseball league for baseball players still in college.
In 2018, the Bananas began playing exhibition games with "banana-ball" rules, an alternate version of baseball. Those games gained popularity, to the point where they played an official game under those rules for the first time on June 26, 2020.
Initially, the Bananas played their home games in Savannah, Ga., as part of the CPL. However, now that they go on a tour every year, the Bananas play their games all across the country and only play a handful of series in Savannah.
The Banana Ball World Tour continues to expand, as it added the 2026 iteration to bring the total up to six. Expansion allows the tour to go to more cities on a more frequent basis over the course of the year.