For Avery's Winter Break she wanted to go see the Savannah Bananas play so the girls headed to Savannah for a full weekend of Banana Ball. Avery has been a fan of Banana Ball for a while but her interest has really grown over the past year so she was thrilled to get to go to the first games of the season.
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| First and most recent Banana Ball game |
We fit in some Savannah fun around the baseball games including a trolly tour, pirate museum, ghost tour, shopping and good food.
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| Waving Girl statue |
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| Avery's dinner choice.... Melting Pot |
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| Ghost Tour |
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| Pirate Museum |
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| Forsyth Park |
It was "pre-season" for the league (they called it Secret Peel weekend), so we were able to go to 3 games and see all 6 teams play. Up first were the Firefighters v. Loco Beach Coconuts. The Coconuts are one of two new teams this year and have a Hawaiian/Beach theme. We were able to score Banana Ball Backstage tickets to all three games which gave us access to pre-game player meet and greet, early access to pick seats and some fun extras along the way.
Game 2 was Party Animals versus Indianapolis Clowns. The Clowns are the other new team and they were created with the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame to review the former Clowns team. The original team started in the 40s as part of the Negro league and continued until 1989 playing a "Harlem Globetrotters" type of baseball which made them a perfect fit for Banana Ball. There was a lot of care taken with preserving the history of the team and their pre-game introductions and entertainment crew were incredibly moving to watch.
Our last game was Savannah Bananas vs. Texas Tailgaters. Avery was very excited to see her favorite players, all named Jackson. We finally had time to check out the Banana's dugout. And we moved seats across the aisle (to Avery's dismay) but it was a great end to a fun filled weekend! And thankfully for Avery she has several more Banana Ball games in her plans for the year.
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| Posters for the players to sign |
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| First Firefighter we met - Chief |
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| Avery's favorite Coconut - Dalton Mauldin |
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| Dancing Umpire |
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| Chief tried to photo-bomb the background |
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| Loco Beach coach |
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| Signing the fan wall in right field |
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| Avery picked front row seats right behind home plate |
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| Banana Ball founder - Jesse Cole |
Game 2 was Party Animals versus Indianapolis Clowns. The Clowns are the other new team and they were created with the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame to review the former Clowns team. The original team started in the 40s as part of the Negro league and continued until 1989 playing a "Harlem Globetrotters" type of baseball which made them a perfect fit for Banana Ball. There was a lot of care taken with preserving the history of the team and their pre-game introductions and entertainment crew were incredibly moving to watch.
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| Avery's favorite mascot - Pharty |
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| Hanging out in the dugout |
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| Avery insisted we sit in the same seats again |
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| Avery got to radio in a shoutout request to the in-game audio team |
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| She declined to try the unicycle |
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| Avery's boots were a huge hit with the Tailgaters cheer squad |
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| Princess Potassium |
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| Checking out the Banana's dugout |
