I saw a clip online the other day where the ball was still in play if hit foul, so the fans had to get it and throw it back on to the field to complete the play. Looked fun!
Not sure if that’s an every-inning rule or if they have different rules in every inning.
I got my family tickets to a Bananna-league game in Cleveland this September. I’m excited!
Comedy may be part of the act, but pro wrestling just isn’t a sport to begin with.
Yeah, it was the Sideman match at which Max Fosh pulled off his “magic trick” with his yellow card. Are there other pranks, jokes, and tomfoolery at this annual match? Or is Max ever the jokester, and matches that don’t include him are played straight?
I suppose it depends on how you define “sport.” I’m inclinded to agree with you, but this is a discussion for another thread.
What prevents the defensive team from just standing around holding the ball and running the clock out (if they’re winning as the clock is winding down). Is there a pitch clock?
*Today at lunch I wondered what would have happened if MLB had instituted the pitch clock when Mark Prior played. For those who don’t know, Prior was notorious for lengthy intervals between pitches. As if his strategy was to bore the batter to sleep and throw the ball past him while he snoozed. He wouldn’t have lasted an inning with a pitch clock.
26 posts in, and no mention of the Cleveland Browns. You folks are asleep!
I actually wondered that myself. So I looked it up. (If they mentioned this at the game on Saturday, I missed it.)
No new inning starts after 1 hour and 50 minutes, or a hard stop at 2 hours.
I don’t think that they have a pitch clock per se, but they do have a very fast pace of play in general. The amount of “standing around” and dicking around in Banana Ball, compared to MLB games, is truly minimal. Bear in mind that, even though the games are competitive, it is a game that is, first and foremost, intended to be action-filled and engaging to fans, and “standing around holding the ball” to try to run out the clock is antithetical to that.
Also remember that all of the teams in Banana Ball are owned by the same organization, and a manager or player who tried that sort of strategy would very quickly no longer be in Banana Ball.
My first thought was to say, there’s always the Mets. 
But sarcasm aside, in 1962 when the Mets were the newest expansion team managed by Casey Stengal, they were incompetent to the point of comedy. Watch the Ken Burns documentary on baseball sometime, that section is hilarious. They describe fielders habitually crashing into each other due to language differences, the catcher being sent back to his original team to satisfy the “player to be named later” requirement of a trade, and the ever hapless Marv Throneberry called out after hitting a triple for failing to touch first base.
Supposedly when Stengal went out to argue the umpire said, “I hate to tell you this Casey, but he missed second base too.”
Never mind: should’ve read the thread.
I heard it as the first base coach, the original call was that Marvelous Marv had missed second, and the first base coach said, “Don’t argue too long, Casey, he missed first too.”
But that’s the way stories change over time. Who knows the truth of it?
Then neither is a Globetrotters game. They are both scripted play based on legit sports.
Are you aware that when the Globetrotters was first formed, there were no non-white players in the NBA? It was formed to give some way for Black players to play basketball professionally. It was only in 1947 that the first player of Asian ancestry was allowed into the NBA. The first Black player allowed into the NBA was in 1950. The original idea of the Globetrotters was partly that Blacks could only do anything as a joke.
Nice one. I was scrolling down to see how long until someone nominated my New York Jets and then you stepped in front of the bullet
This thread is about comedy, not tragedy.
(Jets though, yes, that’s comedy gold at times. Thank you Mark Sanchez!)
The famous story ends with “What the hell is a yellow tango?”
Before the Bananas, baseball had its clown prince. Not a team, just a goofy guy.
The Savannah Bananas came to Tallahassee to open the season. They had all the teams there. We had tickets to see the Bananas play the Texas Tailgaters. It’s actually fun as hell. The game is NOT baseball, but they play music all the time and the players do set dance pieces during the game. They had the Banana Nanas (older lady cheerleaders) and the Man-Nanas (dad bod guys dancing around and being silly). The guys not playing from the other teams were in the crowd all night, posing for pictures and just sitting with the fans whipping up enthusiasm.
It was a solidly fun family-friendly night. T-town filled Doak Campbell stadium (capacity 70k+) and you had to win a ticket lottery to even go! We sat in a section with a ton of younger kids and watching their engagement and joy was incredible.
On the downside, their charity (Bananas Foster - supporting foster families) has faced scrutiny about the use of funds.
Overall, it’s marketing genius though.
Also these goofy guys:
Schacht’s the only one I had heard of before.
You know, I remember Steve Trachsel being referred to as “The Human Rain Delay” because of how long he would take between pitches.
They call it “banana ball”, to differentiate from a real game of baseball. As you say, it is its own thing.