{"id":683,"date":"2026-05-21T13:05:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=683"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:05:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:05:38","slug":"sports-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=683","title":{"rendered":"Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You\u2019ve seen the viral dance videos. You recognize the bright yellow jerseys. Maybe you know someone who\u2019s been to a game. But chances are you still have more questions about the Savannah Bananas than answers. That\u2019s understandable. Just four years ago, the Bananas were one of thousands of summer baseball teams around the country. Now, they\u2019re playing on ESPN, selling out Yankee Stadium and drawing 102,000 fans to college football stadiums.<\/p>\n

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If we\u2019re being honest, the question you\u2019re probably asking the most is: \u201cDo they even play baseball?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to have high-level guys to do what we do,\u201d head coach Tyler Gillum said. \u201cWe have 150 players in-house between six teams. Thirty-five of those guys played minor-league baseball. The majority of them played [Division I] baseball, or they played independent ball, so we\u2019ve got a highly competitive group.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Gillum began with the Bananas in 2018, he was coming off a season as an assistant coach in the prestigious Cape Cod League and had been a record-breaking coach in the Texas Collegiate League, where he had 35 players drafted in three summers. At the time, the Bananas were making headlines for their elaborate entertainment strategies, but they were just one of thousands of collegiate summer baseball teams.<\/p>\n

Over the next five summers, Gillum and Bananas owner Jesse Cole laid the foundation for what the Bananas would one day become. While the heart of that is built on the fan experience, the glue that holds everything together is the caliber of baseball played on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to make baseball fun, be fans first and entertain always,\u201d Gillum said. \u201cWhere people get confused is they think, because we\u2019re entertaining, we don\u2019t care about the performance on the baseball side of it, and that couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. … If there\u2019s a bunch of errors, it\u2019s sloppy and pitchers can\u2019t throw strikes, this doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those high-level guys is left-handed pitcher Austin Drury, who spent three seasons in college at North Florida before he was selected in the 34th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers. After four seasons in the minors, he played in independent ball and foreign leagues before he joined the Savannah Bananas this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone here understands they have two jobs in one,\u201d Drury said. \u201cThey have to entertain, and then, in the ballplayer sense, they\u2019ve got to take care of the business that they\u2019ve been doing their whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Gillum mentioned, most players in the Banana Ball Championship League (BBCL) have played at a high level their whole lives. Reese Alexiades, after he wasn\u2019t drafted out of Pepperdine, played two seasons in the Pioneer League, where he won MVP in 2023 \u2014 but he still didn\u2019t hear from any MLB teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just how it goes,\u201d Alexiades said. \u201cI love baseball to death, so I\u2019m going to play as long as I can. I believe this is where God meant me to be, making an impact greater than I could have ever had playing in the major leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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