Granville's Tyler Johnston going Bananas for baseball excitement in Savannah

SAVANNAH, Ga. — It's an afternoon in late July, and Tyler Johnston has a day off.

So what's he doing? Chilling at the swimming pool or on the beach? Playing golf? Hanging with friends?

Actually, the Granville graduate and Marietta College student spends his off day sitting in the stands at Savannah's historic Grayson Stadium, built in 1926 and re-built in 1941 after a hurricane destroyed it. He's soaking it all in at his place of employment, where the summer collegiate wood bat league team the Savannah Bananas is taking the country, and even the world, by storm with its unique brand of entertaining baseball.

"Entertaining" probably isn't doing it justice. With its hilarious moments on the field, in the stands and out in the parking lot, before and after games, the Bananas have nearly 3 million TikTok followers, 600,000 on Instagram and nearly 105,000 on Twitter. They sell merchandise in all 50 states and six countries, and have been featured on ESPN and in national newspapers and magazines. Out of 2,000 applicants, Johnston was one of eight to be picked for a summer internship with the team.

"It's been amazing," said Johnston, who played baseball and basketball at Granville and is majoring in sports management at Marietta. "I saw the Bananas on TikTok, and thought, 'that looks like a fun team to work for.' Little did he know what he was getting into.

"It was quite a process to get hired," he said. "I had to submit a future resume, submit a video, and it took four months to receive a job offer. But it was fun. I'm what's called a group experience and hospitality intern, in the stadium club and member area for premium-priced ticket holders. I basically run the show. It's a lot of the same people, and I love to hear their stories."

Johnston originally was going to play baseball at Marietta, but he and the program parted ways. "But it opened up an opportunity for me," he said, "to help me decide what I want to do outside of sports." Instead, he became immersed in his favorite one, with a team that could be showcasing the future of baseball. "Our office can't even hold everyone, we're growing so rapidly," Johnston said. "I work with another girl from Marietta. We keep expanding, and new positions open up. There are some people who know nothing about baseball, but it doesn't matter. It's marketing, it's entertainment and creativity."

When yellow-tuxedoed owner Jesse Cole, 38, and his wife Emily bought the team in 2016, it hardly had any money, but it is now worth millions because of a simple premise: taking the boring parts of baseball and making them fun. The team plays in the Coastal Plain League with other clubs from the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia. Home games are a show in themselves, with a lot going on, but are still played with conventional rules. But "Banana Ball" is an entirely different animal. A separate team of Bananas went on a tour to Daytona Beach, Montgomery, Birmingham, Columbus, Ga., West Palm Beach and even Kansas City, Kansas, performing with their unique rules.

"They're a little like the Harlem Globetrotters and they're semi-professionals," Johnston explained. "There's no bunting, and a two-hour time limit. You can steal first base anytime you want. If the batter walks, they take off running and every fielder has to handle the ball, so you have people reaching second and even third base. It doesn't matter how many runs you score in an inning. Every inning is a points system, one per inning, and whoever has the most points after two hours wins. If the game is tied at the end, there is a showdown, a pitcher, catcher and one fielder against a batter." There are also no mound visits and no stepping out of the box. A foul ball caught in the stands, is an out.

There's a whole lot else going on to keep fans entertained. Sometimes, players play on stilts, or in kilts. There is a breakdancing first base coach. Flaming bats are sometimes used, players caught stealing are taken away in police cars, and some ride horses. There is a whole lot of dancing between innings, with the entire team doing a kickline. Players are introduced using a boxing "weigh-in" and "let's get ready to rumble." A "banana baby" is introduced at the start, with the "Lion King" playing. Players go into the stands to celebrate. Former major leaguer Eric Byrnes manages the team. Former major league all-star Bill "Spaceman" Lee, 75, pitches in relief.

During the home league games, which count in the standings, a princess performs a song. There are toddler races, pies in the face, grandma beauty pageants and first base coaches leaping over picnic tables and chairs. The Banana-Nanas, a group of women over 65, and Man-Nans with "dad bods" perform and lead cheers. There have been stuff the porta potty contests and "banana in the pants," where fans try to toss bananas into players' expanded waist bands. Pep bands, which perform in the parking lot before games, play walk-up songs for players. The seventh-inning stretch song is Coldplay's "Yellow." And manager Tyler Gillum wears cowboy boots with his uniform for every home game.

Tickets for home games cost $20, and includes all you can eat and drink (except for alcohol). "People are tailgating at games," Johnston said. "You have lines two football fields long waiting to get in at 5, for 7 o'clock games." Not surprisingly, all games are sold out in the 4,000-seat stadium. "There's a waiting list just shy of 70,000, just trying to get tickets," he added.

ESPN camera crews have been following the team around, and on Aug. 19, the series "Bananaland" will debut on ESPN-plus.

There's also some excellent baseball being played around all the antics by the Bananas. Last year, they won the league with a 40-10 record and just repeated as champions, going 34-14. This year, seven players were drafted and four more signed with minor league teams. The previous five seasons, 32 Bananas were drafted and two reached the big leagues.

"Banana Ball" rules most likely won't be implemented by Major League Baseball, at least not all of them. But baseball executives are paying attention. As attendance and interest dwindles, due to length of games and competition for entertainment, they're trying to find something to speed up the game and get more fans involved.

"This is changing the game of baseball," Johnston said. "It takes you back to your childhood. It's not for baseball purists, but let's see where it's going to be in 10 years."

The "Banana Ball" tour wants to expand from seven to at least 20 cities across the country in 2023. "Hopefully, it will come up to Ohio next year," Johnston said. "It's taking the whole country by storm. It was an experiment that wound up so big, that everyone wants to see it."

Johnston's goal is to use his sports management degree to become a sports lawyer. "But who knows what's going to happen?" he said. "Maybe the best place to be is back with the Bananas."

dweidig@gannett.com

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Twitter: @noz75

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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Granville Tyler Johnston interns for the Savannah Bananas baseball team