Savannah Bananas prospects show dance moves, creativity, flair along with baseball skills

Bill Lee is 75 and says he has been playing baseball for 75 years. Born into a baseball-playing family, Lee said his mother went to a game four days before he was born, and had the infant in tow four days after he was born to watch a game.

"I came out of the womb, I had a baseball in my hand," said Lee, a famous left-hander.

Lee pitched 14 seasons in the majors from 1969-82, was selected to the 1973 All-Star Game and started two games for the Boston Red Sox in the 1975 World Series.

He has continued to play hardball in the decades that followed, including 30-plus years for an adult men's league team where he lives in Burlington, Vermont. He has played in ballparks all over the country.

Yet his first time inside Grayson Stadium, to attend a tryout Saturday with the Savannah Bananas' professional travel ball teams, ranks up there.

"It was probably one of the best events I've ever participated in, and I've been in some great games and stuff," Lee said.

The new head coach of the Savannah Bananas Premier Team also is a former big leaguer. Eric Byrnes, 46, played outfield for five teams over 11 seasons (2000-10).

Like Lee, Byrnes was impressed by what he saw as close to 100 prospects tried out for what became 44 spots, and like Lee, he had never seen anything like it in baseball, or maybe anywhere.

"I have no idea what I just witnessed, but it was glorious," Byrnes told the prospects after the all-day audition.

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Later, in his office, he noted some of the highlights and more unique aspects as his foray into Banana Ball continued.

"There was a guy (Dakota Albritton) on stilts pitching and hitting," Byrnes said. "You had Mat Wolf, who I've never seen a guy do what he does out on a baseball field. The way he was pitching, throwing in between his legs, he had the 18 (trick) pitches (listed) on his armband. This guy's not just a novelty act. He can play. That was amazing to watch.

"We had guys out on the field doing bat flips. Guys robbing homers. I think overall, it seemed like everyone had a good time and that's the most important thing right now for those guys."

The organization had one day to put the job candidates through their paces, with the home schedule for the Premier Team and its foil, the Party Animals, slated to begin March 11-12 with two games at Grayson Stadium, and two more on April 8-9.

The teams, who had one road trip in March 2021 for a two-game set in Mobile, Alabama, have an expanded tour that currently consists of nine road games. The 2022 schedule features bus trips to Daytona Beach, Florida (March 18-19), Montgomery, Alabama (March 25-26), West Palm Beach, Florida (April 1), Columbus, Georgia (April 14) and Birmingham, Alabama (April 16). The teams will fly to Kansas City to square off on May 6-7. Most of the dates, including the pair in Missouri, are sold out.

What is Banana Ball?

The teams, a sort of spinoff from the success of the Savannah Bananas' amateur team in the Coastal Plain League, a collegiate summer league, don't play by conventional rules.

They play Banana Ball, a format with rules designed to speed up play and increase action and dramatic scenarios in a two-hour limit for regulation play. Rules include no bunting, no mound visits, no stepping out of the batters box, legal stealing of first base and no conventional walks.

It's still baseball fundamentals but with the Bananas' brand that emphasizes entertaining the fans before, during and after games. It does take some explanation, including to the new players.

"I tell people all time, default to baseball," said Berry Aldridge, the team's baseball operations coordinator. "You catch, you throw, you hit. But we just are taking out all the boring parts, the standing around, walking, mound visits. Moving away from that stuff and moving into the things that make people want to come back for the rest of their lives."

Toward that end, the tryout was geared toward bringing out the prospects' personalities.

Going around the outfield, there was a home run-robbing station in left field, a trick throw station in center and dance instruction in right field with Maceo Harrison, the breakdancing first base coach.

"I try to make it easy enough to make them feel comfortable but not too easy or too hard," said Harrison, who was looking for "positive vibes."

"This is Bananaland. They're weird. I'm a weird character," he said.

On the infield, batters sprinted all the way around the bases while the defense went around the horn — all fielders touching the ball before trying to make the tag at home plate.

"We don't like to do the normal running on a 60-yard dash, so we did the Banana Ball sprint for every guy," Aldridge said. "Everything about this tryout is designed for Banana Ball, not for baseball, per see. Hitting, the BP session, is probably the most baseball thing we will do all day today."

Off the field, players showed their creative side at making TikTok videos — the Bananas have nearly 958,000 followers. The players also literally dueled with broadcast entertainer Biko Skalla as part of the "ridiculous interviews" station in the vistors' clubhouse.

"It's been preached over and over again that you have to stand out with some uniqueness and flair and some entertainment value," Skalla said. "The guys did not disappoint."

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Skalla put headphones of some prospects so they couldn't hear his questions, then they responded. They also answered questions while he wrestled them, or they interviewed themselves, did impressions, or acted out their answers in a sort of interpretive dance. Or they were challenged to a duel, all in fun.

They had one day to show "flash, flair, confidence and skill," said Sam Claycamp, a former Bananas college player who returned in 2021 on the Premier Team and made the squad again Saturday.

"You definitely have to be talented," Claycamp said. "It's a very talented group. You also have to have some flair and a lot of confidence. Try different things. Be willing to do crazy stuff. You have to have fun."

Dress the part

The prospects had nearly total freedom of expression, and it started for many with showing up at the tryout dressed for the occasion.

The Bananas theme was popular, while some stuck with food groups by dressing as a hot dog and a slice of pizza. Others wore Mardi Gras regalia. Dalton Mauldin dressed like Buddy the Elf, Dalton Cornett wore a tutu skirt with his baseball pants, while Lenny DeBenedetto kept red-velvet crown atop his head, which might have been a royal pain while running full speed on the bases. All made the squad for their baseball talent and personalities.

"Charisma is king for us. We're trying to create the greatest show in sports and we're looking for the greatest showmen," Bananas team owner Jesse Cole said. "These guys are the stars of the show. And that's why we want them to show out."

Cole asked them to "show up as showmen. And they certainly did."

Christian Dearman, a veteran of the Bananas, pitched topless except for a tie, and wore Fruit of the Loom tidy whities over neon green leggings. He made the squad, too.

"There are very some interesting looks," Cole said, who looked demur by comparison head to toe in yellow hat, tuxedo and shoes. "I'm the normal guy, which doesn't happen much around here."

Cole wasn't alone wearing a suit on a hot day. Jake Schwartz, the team's new cast member as a professional magician, was levitating a baseball cap and performing other tricks.

Will Kwasigroh wore a sombrero, while his friend Noah Spiker kept the sun out with a cowboy hat along with the whole get-up "pretty much down to the chaps," he said, though he swapped out the boots with spurs for baseball spikes.

Spiker is an actual cowboy as a saddle bronc rider in the Southeastern Professional Rodeo Association. Also a student at Auburn University, Spiker, 21, came to his first baseball tryout ever at the behest of Kwasigroh, who told him after an unsuccessful tryout in 2021, "You missed out. There's something special going on out there."

They came better prepared for Saturday, with Kwasigroh, a student at Alabama-Huntsville, picking up Spiker in Auburn and arriving in Savannah on Friday.

Spiker was in the field when he spontaneously cleanly fielded a hot smash with his cowboy hat.

"Everybody's so unique. They're bringing out this personality. I was struggling to find something original," he explained. "I just got out there. As soon as he hit it, I tossed my glove. I got to do something. I snagged it. ... It was luck."

Alas, Spiker was not fortunate enough to make the squad, while Kwasigroh, 21 on Saturday, was feeling pressure as the team was announced and he was one of the last names called.

He credited his full-out diving catch in left field for helping put him on the Banana coaches' radar.

Kwasigroh said the best part of Saturday was "so much personality out here, and being able to let loose and have fun during the game. Not being stressful, competitive. It's fun baseball, and that's all you can really ask for."

Some familiar names

The brain trust of coaches and the front office planned to pare the number initially to 40 players — 20 aside on the Premier Team and the Party Animals. The list includes newcomer Jake Skole, 30, a 2010 first-round pick of the Texas Rangers, as well as veteran Bananas Mauldin, Claycamp, Dakota McFadden, Andrew Don and, from the 2021 CPL champion college squad, Dan Oberst, Bill LeRoy and Kyle Luigs.

After an hour of deliberations as the prospects waited, they added four positions as player/entertainers, including "Stilts" Albritton, trick pitcher Wofe, Mike Vavasis and 75-year-old Lee, who when not pitching Saturday took some batting practice and provided advice and coaching tips to many of the young players on Saturday.

Lee praised the community that came together at the tryout, feeling though he didn't know anyone there personally, they shared a love of baseball. He likes what the Bananas are doing to make the game appealing to a new generation.

"This is the right thing about baseball," Lee said. "We've got to get kids playing the game. Kids, if they don't have fun and they don't learn to play correctly at a young age. There are a lot of Little League players, but there ain't much after that. It's a game failure and kids can't handle failure. That's the crux of it."

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Byrnes said it was inspiring to see Lee playing. He expects Lee, based in Vermont, to appear in a portion of the scheduled games. Whenever he's available, Byrnes will put him in.

"He's 75 years old and he's still playing this game. He's a ballplayer," Byrnes said. "I think all of us would be lucky to be that age and still charging the way he is.

"He adds in a whole element of being a coach and being able to share some of the knowledge that he obviously has accumulated over his years. He's a very big edition and we're lucky to have him."

Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Bananas baseball team holds tryouts with new head coach