Former MLB players find 'pure joy' in return to baseball in Savannah with 'Banana Ball'

Jonny Gomes played 13 years in Major League Baseball and appeared in 1,203 games for seven teams. He's a World Series champion.

But that experience developed only some of the skills he would need to play "Banana Ball" for the Savannah Bananas Premier Team this year. Does he have the dance moves?

"I've got five kids," said Gomes, 41, the father of two daughters and three sons ages 1-12. "I've got to be up to date to be a cool dad."

All in on Banana Ball: Savannah Bananas owners pledge 30-plus home games at Grayson Stadium in 2023

Game changer: Behind the decision to go all in on Banana Ball, eliminate collegiate team

Banana republic: How a 'cross between a Broadway show, WWE and the Globetrotters' has America going Bananas

Staying current with dance challenges on TikTok and other social media trends goes with the territory in Bananaland. The Premier Team, a professional traveling squad, and its precursor, the original Savannah Bananas collegiate summer league ballclub (2016-22), infuse traditional baseball with nonstop entertainment — dancing, singing and much more — for fans before, during and after games.

"I've never gone up in the stands to sign a bunch of autographs and take pictures during the (MLB) game or before the game, yet I do that here," Gomes said. "This is a good opportunity. As (owner Jesse Cole) said, it's fans first."

Gomes is one of several former big leaguers to have participated in the Banana Ball exhibitions that take the wacky antics further than the amateur squad could in regulated summer league games for college players.

While both versions of Banana games have been sellouts at Grayson Stadium, owners Jesse and Emily Cole announced Aug. 24 that the immense demand at home and on the road for Banana Ball — the subject of a docuseries currently streaming on ESPN+ — has led the organization to focus on the travel team's schedule in 2023 and fold the collegiate squad.

Jesse Cole said to expect more games at home and on the road against more teams in more cities. More former major leaguers appear to be part of the mix, and it hasn't been a tough sell.

Jake Peavy, the 2007 National League Cy Young winner, a two-time World Series champion and three-time All-Star during a 15-year career — was the first to come aboard. Peavy threw out the first pitch during the Premier Team's road debut in May 2021 at soldout Hank Aaron Stadium in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama.

This year, Peavy, 41, put on the glove to participate in Spring Series games (all were sold out) in Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama.

When Eric Byrnes took over as Premier Team head coach for 2022, it was a perfect match between the Bananas and an 11-season MLB veteran known for his energy, hustle and emotional investment in the game.

Just as perfect was the addition to the fold this spring of Bill Lee, an All-Star pitcher and member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame who is one of the game's all-time unique characters. The left-hander is 75 and hasn't stopped pitching except due to injury since his last big-league appearance in 1982.

As for incomparable big leaguers, and one who is enshrined in Cooperstown, Johnny Bench made an appearance as a first-base coach and spent time with the team during the Bananas' spring 2022 tour stop in West Palm Beach, Florida.

This past weekend, six-time All-Star and 2007 World Series champion Jonathan Papelbon, 41, pitched in a yellow kilt in two games for the Bananas. The right-handed reliever, who played in the majors from 2005-16, afterward tweeted in one of a few of his posts: "Had a hell of a weekend in Savannah with @TheSavBananas. Sore as hell today, but wouldn’t trade it for anything."

Making his pitch for the Bananas

Byrnes, 46, has told fellow MLB alumni that playing Banana Ball is going to be an amazing experience like nothing they've done before. Unless they can compare it to how they played the game as children.

"It brings the pure joy and love back into the game," said Byrnes, 46. "The atmosphere, the people, I'm just incredibly grateful to be a part of it."

He asked Gomes to be a part of Bananas baseball even before accepting the head coaching job, Gomes recalled, saying, "It's right up your alley; it's right up my alley."

He had Gomes at baseball. Well-traveled during his big-league career, Gomes hasn't stopped exploring the world of baseball. He noted he's played in Alaska, Mexico, Japan and this summer in a home-run derby in London, England, with South Korea and Mexico City coming up on the travel itinerary. He made his Banana Ball debut in May in Kansas City, Missouri.

"I'm just a baseball rat. Anything baseball, I'm there," Gomes said. "I'm fortunate that baseball's got me pretty close to all 50 states in the minor leagues and the big leagues."

Add Savannah to his list after playing for the Bananas against the Party Animals in August.

"I'm such a huge fan of the game," he said. "I think what they're doing is pretty awesome and I want to be a part of it.

Veteran players like Gomes, Lee and the others have been generous in sharing their experiences with the younger generation of players, who pepper them with questions about what it's like to play in the Show. Gomes said he feels fortunate to have played so long at the elite level and it's his "duty" to share his knowledge.

"It's always storytime," said Tyler Gillum, who coached the Bananas collegiate team for five years, and won the Coastal Plain League championship in 2021 and this summer.

While Peavy and Gomes — teammates on the Red Sox' 2013 World Series title team — can do show-and-tell with their rings, they also get out there with players half their age.

Major aspirations: Savannah Bananas in Yankee Stadium? Owner wants to see games in MLB stadiums, billion fans

Timeline: Milestones in Savannah Bananas' collegiate squad and Banana Ball history

Coming back: Bill 'Spaceman' Lee, 75, pledges to keep pitching for Savannah Bananas after his recovery

"It's all about having fun," Gillum said. "All of us grew up in locker rooms and it's still baseball and team chemistry and having fun and competing. You're still trying to compete at a high level. It's hard to make an unbelievable, diving catch or a catch between your legs. We're still talking about how to get better at those things. It's really next-level of skill development, trying to do more trick plays and stuff like that, but it's still competing. They've been great."

They're "just one of the boys," Gillum said, playing the game and entertaining fans.

A game of skill, with twists

No, Banana Ball is not the big leagues. It's not the minor leagues, either. It's still baseball at its foundation.

"The way I describe it is it's Broadway meets baseball," Byrnes said. "It's a huge production, but it's also a baseball game which none of it is scripted. That's what some people have a hard time understanding that nothing is scripted.

"It's just a matter of these guys going out there and putting on a show where dancing and all of the other antics that transpire during the course of the game yet still being able to play baseball, still being able to make routine plays."

As Gillum said, it still a game of skill with "a lot of a crazy entertainment, so it's fun."

It's only going to keep evolving and get better, Byrnes said.

"I think what we've learned is that every single night you're going to see something you've never seen on a baseball field before," he said. "That's what's special about Banana Ball."

For example, Byrnes said he knows the MLB would never adopt some Banana Ball rules like a foul ball caught by a fan is an out, but it's still one of his favorites.

And it gives more meaning to every child (and adult) who ever brought a baseball glove to a ballgame.

"It actually matters," Byrnes said. "It's the epitome of fan engagement. Nowhere else does a fan have an impact on a game more than that."

Triumphant return/debut for Reddick

The possibility of making a play helps keep fans' heads in the game, said Josh Reddick, who grew up going to minor-league games at Grayson Stadium, where the Single-A Savannah Sand Gnats formerly called home.

Reddick, 35, was born in Savannah and raised in Effingham County, where he starred at South Effingham High School, then in college, and was drafted by the Red Sox in 2006.

Reddick, who played 13 seasons in the big leagues from 2009-21 and won a World Series in 2017 with the Houston Astros, has remained connected to his home area and followed the Bananas since their start in 2016. He has helped cover hotel bills for players trying out for the team.

On Aug. 27, Reddick became more than one of the Bananas' most famous supporters. He donned the yellow jersey and played in the game against the Party Animals.

"Growing up and coming here to Sand Gnats games, it's pretty cool to see the stadium actually full for once," Reddick told Bananas broadcast entertainer Biko Skalla on the team's broadcast, carried on ESPN+.

"To have them sell out every game every time they release tickets is pretty phenomenal. I know when Jesse (Cole) first got here, it was a big dream of his of where it was going to go. It was fun. Being able to watch it on social media, and being able to experience it in person is just a fantastic experience."

Playing was even better than watching video clips, Reddick said, and it was quite a debut. An American League Gold Glove right fielder in 2012, Reddick fully extended on a diving catch and later made ESPN SportsCenter's top plays list. In the seventh inning, Reddick hit a "walkoff" homer for a 3-2 lead, igniting his teammates and spectators to celebrate in the eventual 4-2 victory.

"I didn't know what to expect coming out here and being able to be on the field with these guys," he told Bananas field reporter Josh Talevski, "but they made it a lot of fun."

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 former MLB players include Gomes, Byrnes, Peavy, Lee